Check Out a Project for Editing in Desktop

Miradi Share works together with Miradi Desktop. Miradi users are not required to use Desktop, but some prefer Desktop over Miradi Share, and to do detailed work planning you will need to work in Desktop (at least until we finish building those tools in Miradi Share!). Learn more about how to Check Out a project to work in Miradi Desktop:

• Checking out Miradi projects
• Checking in Miradi projects
• Cancel a check-out

Note that you only need to Check Out a project if you need to edit the project Desktop. If you only want to view a project in Desktop, consider Downloading the project instead.

Check out a Miradi project

In order to check a project out to work on it in Miradi Desktop you will need to be a project member and have Project Editor permissions or higher. Learn more about Project Member permissions.

Before you check out your project, keep in mind that it is important to check your project back in as soon as you are done editing it in Desktop. While your project is checked out it will be locked for editing online, i.e. no edits can be made by you or other project members online. Keeping a project checked-in also ensures that your project is up to date with any new Miradi features and bug fixes.

To check out your project, navigate to your Miradi project online and find the Check Out button in the upper left of the project window.

Note that if the project is already checked out, it is locked for editing and you will not be able to check it out (or in) yourself. 

Click on the Check-Out button and follow the steps to save a zipped version (.xmpz2 file) of your Miradi project to your hard drive. (If you are not prompted to designate a specific folder it is likely saved to your Downloads folder.)

Note that you will be prompted to enter a note to the rest of the project team. Everyone who is a member of the project team will receive an email letting them know that you have checked out the project file, and your note will be included in the email.

Your notes are also included in the Project Timeline. These notes can be very helpful to keep teams up to date on any edits to project content, especially if you some day need to restore an older version of your project from the timeline.

Open the checked-out project in Miradi Desktop to make edits

Your checked-out project is saved as a .xmpz2 file and can be directly imported to Miradi Desktop. Open Miradi Desktop and from the home screen, select "Import"

or go to File / Import Miradi Share Project File (.xmpz2). Navigate to the saved project file and follow the steps to import your project.

Any edits you make in Desktop will be saved as you work.

Check in a Miradi project

When you are done editing in Desktop, you will need to export the file from Desktop as an .xmpz2 file in order to check it back in to Miradi online. Open your edited project in Miradi Desktop and go to File / Export Miradi Share Project File (.xmpz2) in the upper left. Save the file somewhere you can find it again.

Back in Miradi Online, navigate to your project and note that you now have access to a Check In button in the upper left. Note that this Check In button is only available to the person who originally checked out the file. No one else will be able to check in a project file while you have it checked out.

Follow the instructions to check in the .xmpz2 file you exported from Desktop, including a note for your project team about any important changes you made to the project file.

Cancel a check-out

Sometimes you will need to cancel a check-out without checking any project back in. This might happen if you check out a project and get distracted before having the time to make edits, or if you realize you don't have the information you needed to make the edits to your project. It is often much easier to just cancel the check-out, rather than trying to hunt down the project file you checked out days ago.

While the project is checked out, the person who checked out the file and the Project Owner will have access to a Cancel Check-Out button. Simply click the button and Voila! The check-out never happened and full online editing access is restored.