Drop an .mpp file and download the schedule as an .xlsx spreadsheet - tasks, dates, durations, resources and predecessors, one row per task. No install, no signup.

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An .mpp file converts to an .xlsx workbook in the browser: one sheet named Tasks, one row per task in the order the plan defines, and twelve columns covering WBS, dates, duration, progress, resources and predecessors. Dates arrive as real Excel dates, and a filter is already switched on across the header row.

What the spreadsheet contains

Column	What it holds
`WBS`	The outline number - `1`, `1.2`, `1.2.3` - which is what tells you where a row sits in the plan once it is out of the chart.
`Task`	The task name, indented one step per level of nesting.
`Start`, `Finish`	Real Excel dates with the time of day, not text, so sorting and date arithmetic work.
`Duration`, `Units`	The number and its unit kept apart - `5` and `days` - because `5 days` in one cell cannot be summed or compared.
`Complete`	Progress, formatted as a percentage.
`Critical`	Whether the task is on the critical path, as recorded in the file.
`Milestone`	Whether the row is a milestone - a marker with no duration.
`Resources`	The people or equipment assigned to the task.
`Predecessors`	The tasks this one waits for. Described below.
`Notes`	Whatever the planner typed into the task's notes field.

What happens to the hierarchy

A project plan is a tree and a spreadsheet is a list, so something has to give. The tree is preserved twice over, in two different ways, on purpose.

The Task column is indented one step per level, which is what makes the sheet readable at a glance - you can see the shape of the plan going down the column exactly as you would in Microsoft Project. Summary rows, the ones that contain other tasks, are set in bold. Alongside that, the WBS column carries the outline number, which is what makes the structure survive anything you do next: sort the sheet by finish date, filter it down to one team, paste a handful of rows into a report, and 2.4.1 still says precisely where that task came from, long after the indentation has stopped meaning anything.

What is deliberately not used is Excel's own grouping - the little collapse controls in the margin. They look like the obvious fit, and they are a trap in a file meant for reading and filtering: rows hidden inside a collapsed group are easy to miss, and grouping fights with sorting and filtering, which are the two things people actually do with an exported plan. Every row here is visible, and stays visible.

What happens to dependencies

Dependency arrows cannot be drawn in a spreadsheet, so they are written out instead. The Predecessors column lists the tasks a row waits for, by task number, in the same shorthand Microsoft Project uses:

12 - waits for task 12 to finish. A bare number is the ordinary finish-to-start link, which is the overwhelming majority of them.
12 SS - starts when task 12 starts. Other link types are marked the same way, and only when they are not the ordinary case, so the column stays scannable.
12 SS+2d - the same, with a two-day lag. Negative lag, where a task overlaps the one before it, appears as -2d.
8, 12, 15 - several predecessors, listed together.

The numbers refer to task numbers within the plan, so a predecessor can be found by searching the sheet. What you lose against the chart is the ability to see a chain at a glance: following four links deep means four lookups here, where the Gantt view shows it in one look. If that is the question you are trying to answer, read it as a chart and export afterward.

What does not come across

The drawing itself, for one - there are no bars and no timeline, which is the nature of a spreadsheet. Beyond that, the twelve columns above are the whole of it: the project calendar and its non-working days, baselines, costs and resource workloads stay behind in the original file. What is exported is the task list, which is what an exported plan is normally wanted for.

The conversion runs one way. Nothing can write a valid .mpp file except Microsoft Project itself, so a spreadsheet cannot be turned back into a plan - not here and not anywhere else. Treat the .xlsx as something to read, filter and quote from, and keep the original file as the source of truth.

A spreadsheet, not a picture of one

Most free tools in this corner of the web hand you a PDF. For a schedule that is a strange thing to be given: you can read it and you can print it, but every number in it is frozen. You cannot sort by finish date, filter to one team, total up the durations or paste twenty rows into a status report - which is, almost always, the entire reason someone wanted the plan out of Microsoft Project in the first place.

What you get here is a real .xlsx workbook: twelve columns, one row per task, dates stored as dates rather than text so sorting and arithmetic work, a filter already switched on across the header row, and the outline preserved twice over so structure survives whatever you do to the sheet afterwards. It is a working file, not a printout.

And because the chart and the spreadsheet come from the same read of the same file, you can do both without paying twice: read the plan interactively - zoom the time scale, fold phases away, click a task for its detail, follow the critical path - and then export the numbers once you know which ones matter. No daily quota is counting your attempts while you work that out.

Common questions

Do I need an account to get the spreadsheet?: No. Drop the file, download the .xlsx. An account only matters if you want the plan kept so you can come back to it or share a link.
Does the outline survive the conversion?: Yes, in two ways: task names are indented one level at a time, and a WBS column carries the outline number such as 1.2.3. Summary rows are bold. Excel's own grouping is not used, so nothing collapses - every row stays visible and sortable.
What happens to dependencies?: Each row lists the tasks it waits for in a Predecessors column, by task number. A plain number means finish-to-start; other link types are marked, and any lag is shown alongside, for example 12 SS+2d.
Can I convert the spreadsheet back into a .mpp file?: No, and neither can anything else: the .mpp format is readable but not writable outside Microsoft Project. The spreadsheet is for reading, filtering and pasting into a report.

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