Importing a card list

You can import a list of new or modified cards directly into Mingle from Microsoft Excel format.

Mingle Excel import

Note: Mingle also has a feature that lets you import entire projects (that includes all project data). This section describes how to import card data only.

You may wish to import a list of cards if you've:

• previously been managing cards for your project in Microsoft Excel (or created your project's initial card list in Excel for bulk new card creation)
• exported a card list from another Mingle project and want to import them into this project
• exported project artifacts from another project management application and want to add these to a Mingle project
• backed up project data from the current project and you want to reinstate deleted card(s)
• previously exported a card list from the current project to work on project data offline.

Caution: If you're importing a list of cards that was previously exported from the same Mingle project, Mingle will overwrite the details of any matching cards with your imported changes. Depending on the length of time between exporting and importing, other users may have since made changes to the cards you're importing and these changes will be lost.

To import a list of cards, you must first copy the card data from Microsoft Excel. When you paste data into Mingle from Excel, Mingle takes an intelligent guess as to how your data was set up and lets you manipulate this data before importing.

When you re-import an updated card list (i.e. overwrite existing card data), Mingle creates a new version in that card's History component.

Note: There must be a header row in the Microsoft Excel file to enable a successful import to Mingle. Mingle uses the values in the header row to determine how it imports the data.

How to import card data from Excel

1. Open the Excel spreadsheet (or other export file) with the data you want to import.
2. Select and copy all cells of the Excel spreadsheet you want to import.
3. Sign in to Mingle and open the project for which to import card data (if it's not already open).
4. Click the All tab.
5. Click the Import / Export component on the right of the screen.
   
   
6. Click the Import from Excel link.
   
   Mingle displays the Import from Excel page.
7. Paste the Excel data into the blank field.
   
   
   
8. Click the Next to preview link.
   Mingle displays the Preview import page with its best guess as to how you'd like to set up card properties (using any existing card properties as a guideline).
   
   
9. Check the properties that Mingle has assigned and update them if you need to.
   By default, there are four system headers that Mingle automatically allocates: Number, Name, Description and Tags. All other header items should be designated as custom properties.
10. If you want to exclude any cards from the import, select the checkbox next to those cards.
    
    
11. If you are happy with the values that Mingle has assigned, click the Next to complete import link.
    Mingle displays the progress of the import.
    
    
    This may take several minutes depending on the amount of cards you are importing.
    Mingle imports all selected cards and displays the All tab with the imported cards.
    
    

Once you've imported cards, you may wish to update the card properties. See Updating card properties for details.

Also see...

• Importing card data from Microsoft Excel (initial installation)
• Exporting projects
• Importing an existing project

Back to Importing and exporting cards