XER to Excel
Open a P6 XER file in Excel, without Primavera
An .xer opened straight in Excel is a wall of database tables. Upload it here and download the programme as an .xlsx: one row per activity with its dates, durations, float and logic, plus a sheet listing every link.
Open your file freeFree account. No card, no install.
How to convert an XER file to Excel
- Create a free account with your email or Google. No card is asked for.
- Upload the .xer. The programme opens in the viewer, usually in under a minute; large files take a few minutes.
- Click Export to Excel, above the programme, and open the .xlsx it downloads.
Why an XER doesn't open cleanly in Excel
.xer is a plain text export of P6's database tables, so Excel can import it. What you get is every table stacked in one sheet: activities, WBS, relationships, calendars and more. The relationship rows point at P6's internal row numbers, not the Activity IDs you know, so the logic is unreadable without matching tables by hand.
ScheduleLens reads the .xer on our servers and writes a clean spreadsheet for you. Dates are the current ones: actual where work has started or finished, otherwise the forecast. Durations, float and lags are in whole working days. Float and critical flags are the values P6 recorded; where the file holds no float for an unfinished activity, we calculate it and say so in the Float source column.
What's in the spreadsheet
One row per activity
Activity ID, name, WBS, type, original and remaining duration, start, finish, % complete and status.
Predecessors and successors
Each activity's logic by Activity ID, in the notation P6 uses, such as A1040 SS+2. An ID on its own is finish-to-start with no lag.
Float and the critical flag
Total float and the critical flag as recorded in your file, with a column saying where each float value came from.
A sheet of every link
Predecessor, successor, type and lag on their own rows, with names, ready to filter or pivot.
Filters switched on
The header row is frozen and Excel's own filters are on, so you can sort and filter straight away.
The programme in the browser too
The same upload opens in the viewer: Gantt chart grouped by WBS, logic links and the critical path.
The viewer is view-only: nothing in your file is changed. Each upload also gets a free schedule-quality preview; the full report with every finding is paid.
Questions
- What if the XER holds more than one project?
- The export covers one project per file. Baseline copies saved in the same export are set aside; of the projects left, it takes the one whose name matches the file name, otherwise the one with the most activities. For a different project, export it from P6 on its own and upload that.
- Are resources, costs and activity codes included?
- No. The export holds activities, dates, durations, float, progress and logic. Resource, cost and activity code fields are not exported.
- Can I import the spreadsheet back into P6?
- No. The export is for reading, filtering and reporting. To change the programme, use P6.
- Is it really free?
- Yes. Create a free account with your email or Google; no card is asked for. A free account can run 2 analyses a day, with files up to 15 MB and schedules up to 15,000 activities. Each upload opens in the viewer and gets a free quality preview; you pay only if you want the full report.
- Can I edit the programme?
- No. The viewer is read-only, so nothing in your file changes. To change the programme, use the software that made it.
- Is the critical path the one in my file?
- Yes. Float and critical flags are the values recorded in your file. Where the file recorded no float for an unfinished activity, we calculate it and mark it as calculated.
- What happens to my file?
- The uploaded file is deleted once it has been processed. The programme view is kept for 30 days so you can come back to it, then deleted. Subscribers who track a project keep an encrypted copy of the schedule for that; the privacy page has the detail.
Open your file free
Upload it and the programme opens in your browser, usually within a few minutes.
Open your file free