Importing from Microsoft Planner

Jotter includes a powerful, local-first Microsoft Planner Importer that allows you to easily migrate your existing boards and tasks from Microsoft Planner into Jotter. Your imported tasks are parsed on-the-fly and written as standard Markdown files.

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📥 How to Export your Plan from Microsoft Planner

Before importing, you must export your plan from the official Microsoft Planner interface:

1. Open Microsoft Planner in your web browser.
2. Select the plan you want to export.
3. In the header menu, click the "..." (More) icon next to "Schedule".
4. Select "Export plan to Excel".
5. Your browser will download a standard .xlsx spreadsheet file.

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🚀 Running the Import Wizard in Jotter

To import your tasks:

1. Open Jotter.
2. Open the project where you want to import your tasks (or create a new project).
3. Click "Import MS Planner" in the sidebar.
4. Drag and drop your .xlsx file into the upload zone, or click "Browse Files" to select it.

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⚙️ Configuration & Mappings

The wizard will guide you through mapping your Excel data to Jotter's native task model:

1. Sheet Selection (Multi-Sheet Workbooks)

Microsoft Planner exports can contain multiple sheets (such as localized data sheets).

• Smart Auto-Detection: Jotter automatically scans all sheet names and pre-selects the correct data sheet if it matches common names like "Konsolidierte Daten", "Consolidated Data", "Tasks", or "Aufgaben".
• Manual Override: If your sheet has a custom name, you can select it from the dropdown at the top of the mapping screen. Switching sheets instantly re-scans the headers and task rows.

2. Field Mappings

Jotter automatically maps your spreadsheet columns by searching for common English and German keywords. You can review or change these mappings:

• Task Title (matches Aufgabenname, Task title, Title, Name) — Required
• Notes & Description (matches Notizen, Description, Notes, Body)
• Bucket Name (matches Eimer, Bucket name, Bucket)
• Status (matches Status, Progress, State)
• Priority (matches Priorität, Priority)
• Labels (Tags) (matches Bezeichnungen, Labels, Tags)
• Due Date (matches Fälligkeitsdatum, Due date, Due, Deadline)
• Start Date (matches Startdatum, Start date, Start) — maps to Jotter's planned date
• Checklist Items (matches Checklistenpunkte, Checklist)

3. Destination Strategy

You can choose how tasks are distributed across your Jotter board columns:

• Use Excel's Bucket name: Create columns in Jotter named after your Planner buckets. Missing columns will be created automatically.
• Map by Progress Status: Place tasks in standard columns (To Do, In Progress, Done) based on the task's progress state.
• Place all in a single column: Disregard buckets and dump all imported tasks into a single column of your choice.

NOTE

Fallback Column: If a task does not have a bucket name, it will be placed in the selected fallback column.

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⚡ Completed Status Overrides (Eimer/Bucket Override)

In Microsoft Planner, completed tasks remain inside their original buckets but are marked as "Completed". In Jotter, completed tasks are moved to the unified "Done" column.

To maintain perfect compatibility, Jotter implements Status Overrides:

• Order of Operations: If you use the Excel Bucket strategy, Jotter first registers and creates the custom bucket (e.g. "Development") on your board to ensure your column structures match Planner.
• Override Redirection: It then checks the Status column. If the status indicates completion (such as "Abgeschlossen", "Completed", "Done", or "Erledigt"), Jotter overrides the column setting and routes the task directly to Jotter's native "Done" column.
• Preview and Logs: During Step 3 (Preview), these tasks are displayed with their original bucket struck through (e.g. Development → Done (Override)). The live import logs will also clearly record these redirections.

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📝 Markdown Conversions

During the import process, your spreadsheet cells are parsed and converted to fully compatible, Git-friendly Markdown format:

• Priorities: Planner priorities (Dringend, Wichtig, Normal, Niedrig / Urgent, High, Medium, Low) are translated into Jotter's internal tag metadata format.
• Dates: Excel serial or string date cells are converted cleanly to standard ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD).
• Tags: Labels are split on semicolons or commas and appended as native Jotter tags.
• Checklist Items: If checklist items exist, they are parsed and appended to your task's description body as interactive GFM checkbox items:

  ### Checklist
  - [ ] Research color palettes
  - [ ] Create CSS variables

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🔒 Security & Local Processing

All parsing, sheet reading, and task creation execute strictly client-side inside your Jotter application sandbox. Your files are never uploaded to any cloud server, preserving Jotter's local-first privacy commitment.