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Automatically load tasks from Excel to Microsoft Planner

Lists of activities to do to complete a project are often easier to brainstorm on paper or a whiteboard and then quickly type into an Excel spreadsheet rather than into a card-based system like Planner.


However, there is a way to quickly import tasks from Excel into Planner using a flow in the Workflows app!


To begin, create a new spreadsheet containing the task list:


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Now select the cell Task Name and navigate Insert -> Table


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The Create Table dialog will open. The correct range of cells should automatically populate, but you will need to select the ‘My table has headers’ checkbox, then click ok.


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Change the table name to something memorable, for example "TaskList", by clicking in the Table Name field, typing the new name, and pressing enter:


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Lastly, save the Excel:


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Now to create the Flow:


Click the Add Apps button in Teams, search “workflows” and then click Open for the Workflows app by Microsoft:


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Click Open to continue:


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Navigate to the Create tab:


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Choose Create from blank:


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Choose the trigger Manually Trigger a Flow:


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Choose Add a new Step:


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Choose Excel then choose List Rows Present in a Table:


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Click the drop down next to Location and select the OneDrive option:


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Do the same for Document Library:


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Click the folder icon and navigate through the directories to the Excel file saved earlier:


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Click the drop-down for the Table parameter and choose the TaskList table created earlier:


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Click Add New Step:


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Search “planner” and choose ‘Create a Task’:


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Set the Group ID and Plan ID based on your Planner configuration (create a Plan in your Planner if not yet done), and then choose ‘Task Name’ from the Excel values:


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This is what the flow will look like:


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Now update the flow Title to indicate what it does. Also update each Action name by clicking the 3 dots in the action and selecting rename:


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Save the final flow and click Test to run it:


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Select Manually and then click Test:


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Click Continue:


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Click Run flow:


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Click Done:


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The flow has run:


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Check the Plan in Planner to see the tasks (you may need to navigate out of the plan and back in to refresh the list):


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