Microsoft Project Viewer

Need to view a MS Project (.MPP) file but don't have Project?

Microsoft doesn't make a free viewer for this app like they do for Word and PowerPoint.

Found a website that lets you view the files for free. Click here to get to the website.

Lets you print any of the views, but didn't look at the printed product so don't know how good it prints yet.

It's free and lets you view the files without having to spend $300 or whatever it now costs for a Project license.

Comments

[Kurt]

Tried the link and it's broken. do you have the new link

[Irwan]

Try this one :
http://www.projectviewercentral.com/

[Carl]

If you are interested in the look and feel of Microsoft Project, you should this link http://www.seavusprojectviewer.com

[ion]

Microsoft doesn't make a free viewer for this app like they do for Word and PowerPoint.

Found a website that lets you view the files for free. Click here to get to the website.

Lets you print any of the views, but didn't look at the printed product so don't know how good it prints yet.

It's free and lets you view the files without having to spend $300 or whatever it now costs for a Project license.

The site moved to: http://www.projectviewercentral.com

[steve]

the original link is wrong, but the viewer is still available at a slightly different address - works well as of 24/6/04

http://www.atozforfree.com/hpvdemoapril04/

[steve]

the original link is wrong, but the viewer is still available at a slightly different address - works well as of 24/6/04

http://www.atozforfree.com/hpvdemoapril04/

[Will]

Our company just finished a big evaluation and chose Steelray as the company standard Microsoft Project Viewer: http://www.steelray.com

I like it a lot . . .

[galessan]

Visit http://www.seavus.com/

The best project server software

[Scott]

Are there any free MS Project Viewers anymore? The link above that states free is $29.95.

[Richard]

Are there any viewers that support DDE or command line operation at the minimum i.e. open, print, print to etc...

[Sue]

I found a free software that's supposed to work. One program converts files to .csf file, then another is a very small program that's a "reader" for those files. Both are free. Haven't tried it yet...

www.net-it.com

[Gallus]

Have a look at http://www.highlydeveloped.net/
It's Free

[Mike]

Sue's URL works great. I've been looking for a free viewer for quite awhile. It's certainly not frilly, but it does the job.

Sue, you're a goddess. That number again, http://www.highlydeveloped.net/

[George]

Our company compared seavus(too expensive),steelray(not enough functionality) and Housatonic's solutions(www.projectviewercentral.com).
In the end we decided to go with Housatonic's SOLO PC viewer.

[Link]

The Steelray Project Viewer is nice, however the free 10 day trial just isn't long enough. I just downloaded Projette from highlydeveloped.com and I'll be using it in the future. Thanks for the nice link.

[Michael]

I tried the Projette software at http://www.highlydeveloped.net/ and it doesn't seem to work. It tells me that all of our MS Project (*.MPP) files are not in a recognised format. I know that these files were created in MS Project. I even tried viewing files created in 1999, hoping that it could view older versions of Project. No luck. Has anyone else had this issue and resolved it?

[Elaine]

Did you download & install DotNet at the same time? If so, then sorry - no other suggestions.

[Michael]

All: I've taken the following info from some offline emails between Elaine and myself. I thought it might benefit all of us.
----------------------------------
Elaine,

I did install DotNet. It wouldn't even let me install Projette until I had installed DotNet. Got any other ideas? Maybe you could send me a sample file that you can open up with Projette on your PC, and then I could try it here.

[Michael]

According to Elaine, this software was recommended to her by someone else. She never had the chance to use it herself. Apparantly another person who used it has reported the same problem (unrecognized format) to her. I'd like to thank Elaine for her help. So far the source http://www.highlydeveloped.net/ has been completely unresponsive to my questions. If anyone else out there has had any experiences with this software "Projette", please let me know.

[Nathan]

I too had tried to open a ".mpp" file and received the "unrecognised format" error.
However, it proceeded to open up only the program (no file) after I clicked "Ok".
From there I went to "File" -> "Open...", selected the file, and it opened up fine.

Don't know if it will work for everyone, but it just happened to work for me.
Try it...

[David]

Have a look at http://www.projectreader.com/
For enterprise deploy is the best cheap solution.

[ogtharox]

Projette V1.0.02b works great for me! Excellent free solution, I love it.

[Jeroen]

Hello I've just read this blog. The only thing I can add is that you have to make a wishlist of the items which a viewer for MSProject must contain:

1- Adjust the timescale
2- Show/Hide columns
3- Capable to read merged projectfiles
4- Capable to print the files
5- Capable to sort and filter

These are some of the important items for a viewer.What now follows is the evaluation of all the different viewers mentioned above, if the number of the wishlist is there then it s capable of that item:
projette: none of the wishes, but its free!
seavus: 1,2,4, price: 99,- euro
steelray: 1,2,4,5(only filter), price: 34,95 euro
housatonic solo: 1,2,3,4,5, price: 29,95 euro

For me this makes clear that the most complete viewer is Housatonic Solo...

Let me know what you all think?

[Dr.Mabuse]

I just had the same problem: I needed a free viewer for MS Project. I found the Freeware version of ProjectViewer at www.afinion.de. Its a Java Programm that is supposed to run on almost every OS.

It works for me. It allows printing and adjustment of the time scale. A little slow on an old 500 MHz-machine. But free.

Direct Link to the download page: http://www.afinion.de/english/Products/PoW/PoW.php?navid=7

[Micheal Wood]

I tried Projette software at http://www.highlydeveloped.net/, and I got the "check that the file is in a recognized format" error. When I turned off the read/write permission for the file in Project (where you have to provide a password to edit, or choose read only), and opened through the File->Open menu, it worked great.

[Bruce]

With regard to the Unrecognised format error in the Projette application.

I found that I got this error when I tried to open a file directly off a network drive. Copying the file to my local PC resolved the problem.

[Cheski]

Projette is only a preview release. Soon, they will disable printing and I am sure it will cost money in the near future (as soon as v1.0 will be released)...

[Jacques]

Our company bought the Afinion Viewer and it has all what we need.
Especially no installation! So we from IT have no problems to solve :-)
You find it under
http://www.afinion.de/english/Products/PoW/PoW.php?navid=7

[DUH!]

Ok, I'm guessing that the last post was either by someone advertising or someone that really isn't in IT or even one of having much computer experience. IF YOU HAVE TO DOWNLOAD IT, EXECUTE IT, AND IT CREATES A DIRECTORY AND INSTALL FILES THAT MEANS THERE IS AN INSTALLATION!!I hate ID10Ts!!

[Jacques]

DUH!You are totally wrong and should look better into the files and descriptions and test before you call people idiots. The routine you used is written for automatic software distribution and not necessary to run the software itself. Ask them if you are not able to really test a software. Big mouth and then...

[Gerhard Krug]

Hi bloggers

I got a mail that there is a discussion about our software. See above
To make it clear:
The Afinion Project-Viewer software itself does not need an installation to run. Only copy and upack the files. The installation routine written for the windows software (MAC and Unix versions use the java runtime directly) is only to support software distributions in large companies like Daimler Chrysler or Siemens to pack and distribute icons and links to make it easier for people to start the software.
I hope this will clear the things.
Gerhard Krug, Afinion AG

[Philip]

Tried both Projette and Afinion Project-Viewer.
Both opened my .mpp file OK and I could view the text portion of the schedule fine. However, the Gantt chart portion had a lot of vertical lines in the wrong places - this was the same on both Projette and Project-Viewer.

I'll try the housatonic product next

[Philip]

I've tried the housatonic solo and it also shows the vertical lines in the Gantt chart. It turns out that these should be the dependency lines. However, there does not appear to be a way of turning them off in these three viewers I tried.

[Philip]

I've looked again at the Afinion Project Viewer and there is a button to disable links - this did the trick to hide the dependency lines.
Projette and HPV Solo did not have such an option.