Can you convert an XER file to Excel?
Yes, but not by renaming it. An XER is a tab-delimited text file made of several linked tables, so opening it in Excel gives you a long, confusing sheet. What most people want is the activity table: activity ID, name, dates, durations, float and status in clean columns. There are two practical ways to get that.
Method 1: Export from Primavera P6
If you have P6 and the project open, the scheduler can export a layout of columns to a spreadsheet. The columns you see in the activity view are the columns you get, so set the layout first. Menu labels differ between P6 versions, so follow your version's help. Our guide to exporting a P6 schedule to Excel or PDF walks through the choices.
Choose this route if you need specific user-defined columns or P6 layouts.
Method 2: Use the free P6 viewer (no P6 licence)
When you have only the XER file and no P6, use the free Primavera P6 viewer.
- Open the viewer and drop in the .xer file (or a P6 .xml file). If the file contains several projects, choose one.
- Check the Activities, WBS and Gantt tabs to confirm it is the right project.
- Apply any filters you want, for example critical activities only, a WBS branch or a date range.
- Choose the CSV download. The file is named after the project and ends in activities.csv.
- Open the CSV in Excel.
The file is read in your browser, and the tool page states that nothing is uploaded. Check the page for its current wording before you load a sensitive programme.
What does the CSV contain?
One row per activity, with these columns: activity ID, activity name, WBS, activity type, status, percent complete, original duration, remaining duration, start, finish, actual start, actual finish, total float, free float and a critical Yes or No flag. If you filtered the activities before downloading, only the visible rows are exported.
What does it leave out?
- Relationships. Predecessors, successors, relationship types and lags are shown on screen in the viewer but are not part of the CSV.
- Resources, costs and calendars. The CSV is the activity table only.
- Anything P6 calculates later. The viewer is read-only. It does not reschedule or write XER files.
If you need the logic, keep the XER as your master copy; the Excel file is for reading and filtering. We explain the file in what is an XER file.
What can you do with the Excel file?
- Filter to critical or near-critical activities for a review meeting. Our guide to reading a P6 schedule explains float and critical path.
- Sort by start date to build a three-week look-ahead.
- Share the activity list with people who do not use P6.
Common problems
- Arabic or special characters look wrong. The viewer's CSV is written as UTF-8 so Excel should show them correctly. If a character looks wrong in the source XER itself, the file may use another code page; the tool page describes how it handles this.
- Dates read as text. Format the column as a date in Excel.
- Wrong project. XER files can hold more than one project or a baseline; confirm before exporting.
When should you move beyond Excel?
A static export goes out of date the day it is made. If you want the team to see and update progress against the same schedule, Arkan's Schedule module imports P6 files (XER or XML) and shows Grid and Gantt views. Book a demo to see it with your own file.