Obtaining the correct Task ID in MS Excel when connecting data from a Web Source

This tip comes as a fast follow :running_woman: to one earlier this week: MS Excel Integration for Portfolios

If you are connecting Asana Project data to MS Excel, as described in the link above, then you might uncover the the Task ID in column A doesn’t show the full 16 character string. This is unfortunate if you are interested to use that ID in order to 🔗 Create a hyperlink to an Asana Task through a MS Excel Integration

The good news is this can be fixed! :fireworks: Once you have successfully connected your Asana data in MS Excel, right click on the query from the Queries & Connections pane as shown below. Select the “edit” option which will open the Power Query Editor.

If this pane isn’t shown initially you can view it by selecting “Data” (from the MS Ribbon) then “Queries & Connections”

Once the Power Query Editor has launched, change the portion of the table formula highlighted in yellow below to read as show. This will convert the raw data from Asana for the Task ID so that it allows for all 16 characters to be shown.

Power Query Table

Simply, “Close & Load” from the Power Query Editor and save off your excel file. Happy integrating!!! :smiley:

Please Note: To my knowledge, because the data is not being intercepted when viewing a raw CSV export, you run into an issue where the Task ID isn’t properly shown as pointed out in this post: Task ID in CSV exports only shows 15 of the 16 Task ID characters. Fortunately, @Phil_Seeman uncovered a fix which he outlines in this reply: Duplicating Tasks also duplicates the Task ID - #4 by Phil_Seeman

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You are truly the Excel master!

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