A little while ago I outlined a process for exporting a simple flat table of tasks from MindManager using the Gantt chart table. After describing this process I commented that there was one drawback, which was that the copying options were limited. It was best to maximise the Gantt chart so that if possible the total table or at least the portion to be copied was visible, because there seemed to be no way to scroll down while copying from the Gantt table so that a larger table could be copied easily in one go.

Obviously there will be times when the area you want to copy is bigger than the screen so I described various relatively complex approaches to deal with this. However after a tip from Nigel Goult from Olympic Limited I tried some keyboard combinations and I’m pleased to say that SHIFT plus the up and down arrow works. First you need to highlight the whole row then press shift and the arrow key you want (usually the down arrow) to highlight either the whole table or the section you want to copy.

So that’s pretty much it – the process is now much simpler. After setting up your tasks and the associated timeline, switch to the Gantt view. Click on the first row you want then use the SHIFT plus the down arrow key to highlight the rows you want, copy these and switch to Word or Excel and paste. Then you can format the resulting list as you wish.