Paste Activities from Excel

Updated October 26, 2026 · 1 min read

Many schedules start life as a spreadsheet. You can copy rows from Excel, Google Sheets, or any tab-separated source and paste them straight into the grid.

Quick paste

In Excel, lay out columns in this order: Name, Duration, Start, %, WBS, Predecessors. You can stop after any column, so name and duration alone is fine.
Copy the rows (without the header row).
In the schedule, click into the add row at the bottom of the grid and press Ctrl+V.

Start dates must be in YYYY-MM-DD format. In Excel, format the column as text or use a custom date format of yyyy-mm-dd before copying.

Map columns

If your columns are in a different order, the Map pasted columns dialog opens. For each column, choose Name, Duration, Start, %, WBS, Predecessors, or (skip). Then click Paste N rows.

Predecessors

Use the same format as the Preds column: activity IDs, WBS codes, or row numbers, with an optional relationship type and lag, separated by commas. For example A1010, A1020SS+2. See Link activities.

Pasting a whole schedule

For a full schedule with calendars, dependencies, and baselines, importing an Excel workbook is more reliable than pasting. See Import from Excel or CSV.

Add, Edit, and Delete Activities
Add activities, edit durations and dates in the grid or by dragging bars, make milestones, split, duplicate, reorder, and delete.

3 min read
Link Activities: FS, SS, FF, SF and Lag
Four ways to create dependencies - Draw link, bar connectors, the Link activities dialog, and the Preds column - plus relationship types, lag, and leads.

2 min read
Set Date Constraints
The eight constraint types - ASAP, ALAP, SNET, SNLT, FNET, FNLT, MSO, MFO - how to set them, and when they cause negative float.

2 min read
Work Calendars, Holidays, and Weather Days
Set workdays, hours, holidays, and make-up days; give activities their own calendar; and turn forecast rain and wind into weather days.

2 min read
WBS, Activity Codes, EPS, and Templates
Organize a schedule with a WBS hierarchy and activity codes, place projects in EPS and OBS trees, and save a schedule as a reusable template.

2 min read
Create Recurring Activities
Add a series of repeating activities - weekly inspections, monthly pay apps, daily crane checks - in one step, and regenerate or delete the series later.

1 min read
Subprojects, Master Schedules, and Programs
Break a big job into subprojects under a master schedule, link activities across projects, and roll multiple projects up into a program dashboard.

2 min read
Resources, Histograms, and Resource Leveling
Add crews and equipment, assign them to activities, see over-allocation on the histogram, and level resources with preview before you apply.

2 min read

Quick paste

Map columns

Predecessors

Pasting a whole schedule

More in Building schedules