I would like an export or print tool for exporting my project tasks and reports to a more useful WORD or PDF format. CSV is a very limited use format. It requires a lot of clean up to make it useful. Considering ASANA is created to help improve productivity, it seems quite counterintuitive.
I also notice that the export or print to PDF results in an nearly useless PDF format as well. Data is not organized as linear text but random blocks of information. If it was a truly editable PDF that would at least allow copy/paste features for using the data - or even a clean export to WORD from PDF.
What is preventing ASANA from making those export tools available to more useful formats, especially since it is apparent the data can be extracted to CSV files?
Why would exporting to Word or PDF be useful for increasing productivity?
Asana is meant to always be up to date. The moment you export something to a document you lose any confidence that you are looking at data that is up to date.
Although I can’t speak for Asana I would guess the reason is that CSV is a machine readable format. You could use it to transport projects into another instance, or another into another tool.
Having said that, here are related feedback threads that you can add your vote and voice to, should you still desire this functionality:
Exporting Data to WORD or PDF - allows us to use the information in documents we need to prepare and share information with people outside our organization, format it in a disgustable form for leadership, or get the data to people who do not use ASANA.
There is also a flaw in the “always up to date” thinking with online tools. It is not always a good thing that other users can alter data or information we need to rely on as being constant. So we often need to “publish” documents “as of” a certain point in time, especially in legal contexts.
CSV files as an intermediary file format strip away all formatting and visual cues that help make reporting digestible.
Thanks for the links to the other forum topics - I have been to them both already. The Asana2Go tool is useful and to anyone reading this, worth checking out. However it too is limited in it’s usefulness by how Asana provides information output.
