View project information without Project 2010

You mean, you don't have one of the greatest project management programs in the world installed on your computer? No problem. You have other options to view Microsoft Project 2010 information without having Project 2010 installed on your computer. Let's look at some of these ways.

Note:  Keep in mind that Project 2010 doesn't have a viewer program that enables you to open a project file on a computer that doesn't have Project 2010 installed.

What do you want to do?

View a Project 2010 file by using Project 2007

View project information if you don't have any version of Project installed

View a Project 2010 file by using Project 2007

No one likes getting a document in e-mail, only to learn you can't open it. If someone sends you a project formatted in Project 2010 and you only have Project 2007 installed on your computer, have that person re-save the project in the Project 2007 format. Alternately, you can download the trial version of Project 2010 to open and view the document. You can then save the project file to the 2007 format.

Keep in mind that if someone saves a Project 2010 file to the Project 2007 file format, you may need to convert some of your data in those areas where Project 2010 contains enhanced functionality. Learn about Using Project 2010 with previous versions.

Note:  Converters are not available for opening Project 2010 files from within Project 2007.

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View project information if you don't have any version of Project installed

If you don't have Project installed, consider the following options for viewing a project plan.

• Project Web Access    If your organization is using Microsoft Project Web App, you can ask the project manager to publish the project and then give you permission to view the project. Then you can view the project in Project Web App.

• Trial version    If you don't have Project Web App, and you cannot contact the file's creator, you can obtain a trial version of Project 2010. You can then open the project using the trail version.

• Copy Picture    The person who created the project can use the Copy Picture feature to copy a .GIF image of the plan. The .GIF image can then be sent to you in e-mail, printed out, or added to a Web page.

• Copy to another Office application    Project 2010 contains enhanced functionality for basic copying and pasting project information while retaining formatting and column heading information. The person who created the project can copy the information from Project 2010 and paste it into applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. You can then view project information in those Office applications.

• Visual reports    The person who created the project can create a visual report that is designed for importing into and then viewing in either Excel or Visio.

• SharePoint    The person who created the report can save the report to a SharePoint site, without using Project Web App. You can then go to the SharePoint site to view and edit task and resource information associated with the Project. The project information that is edited on the SharePoint site will be copied back the original project automatically.

• Copy the Timeline view    The Timeline view in Project 2010 can be copied and pasted in an e-mail message or in any Office application for a quick view of Project progress along a graphic timeline.

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