Microsoft Visio 2010 : Using the Organization Chart Wizard with Existing Data

Start Excel, open the Org Chart Data_start workbook, and save it as Org Chart Data. While the workbook is open, look at the data that will be used in this exercise. In particular, notice that there are columns for Name, Title, Reports To, Employee Number, and Extension.

Close Excel, and then start Visio.

In the Template Categories section, click Business, and then double-click the Organization Chart Wizard thumbnail.

Tip:

The only difference between the template called Organization Chart Wizard and the one called Organization Chart is that the former automatically starts a wizard when you open a new document. If you select Organization Chart by mistake for this exercise, just click the Import button in the Organization Data group on the Org Chart tab to launch the wizard.

The first page of the wizard appears.

Click Next. The data source type page appears.

Click A text, Org Plus (*.txt), or Excel file, and then click Next. The file selection page appears.

Click the Browse button on the file selection page, and then, in the resulting file open dialog box, navigate to the Org Chart Data workbook. After selecting the correct file, click the Open button.

The file name you selected appears in the Locate The File That Contains Your Organization Information box.

Click Next. There is a slight pause as Visio opens and reads the data in your spreadsheet.

The Organization Chart Wizard uses the column names, if any, in your spreadsheet to determine which columns hold the name and reporting structure information. It displays the column names that seem to be the best match in the next wizard page.

Because the Org Chart Data workbook contains columns called Name and Reports To, the assumptions made by Visio are correct as shown. If the assumptions are not correct, click the arrows to the right of Name and Reports To to select the correct columns.

Notice you can specify that a separate column contains employees’ first names, if that is the case.

Click Next.

The next Organization Chart Wizard page provides an opportunity for you to select which employee data will be displayed on each shape in the chart. The wizard assumes that you want to display the name and title fields, so those fields are preselected on the right side of the page.

Tip:

You can control the vertical positioning of the data fields you’ve chosen with the Up and Down buttons below the Displayed Fields section of the page. The pane on the left side of the page provides a live preview of the data as it will be displayed in the org chart.

In the Data file columns section of the page, click Extension, and then click the Add button to move it to the Displayed fields section. Finally, click Next.

On the wizard page that appears, you determine which spreadsheet data, if any, should be stored in each organization chart shape. This is a separate and unrelated decision from the one on the previous page. You can still display data on the org chart shapes even if you don’t store data in the shapes.

Tip:

The primary reason to store data in org chart shapes is to allow you to run reports or use the data in other ways without the need to revert to your original data source.

To add all fields to the shape, hold down the Shift key while clicking Extension, which selects everything in the Data file columns section, click Add, and then click Next.

Tip:

You can use the standard Windows conventions for selecting multiple items in the Data File Columns section:

• Hold down Shift and click to select everything from the current selection up to and including the item you click.

• Hold down Ctrl and click to select noncontiguous items.

On the final wizard page, you can choose among some of the Organization Chart Wizard’s powerful layout options.

Accepting the default selection of I Want The Wizard To Automatically Break My Organization Chart Across Pages lets the wizard figure out how much to fit on each Visio page. The <Top Executive> option tells Visio to select the person who doesn’t report to anyone else as the top shape on the first page of the org chart. If you prefer to select a specific person (like a department head), you can click the arrow to choose anyone in your list.

Clicking I Want To Specify How Much Of My Organization To Display On Each Page takes you to a wizard page not shown here, and allows you to control more directly how much to fit on each org chart page.

The Hyperlink Employee Shapes Across Pages check box specifies whether the wizard should add hyperlinks when org charts consist of multiple pages. For example, if a manager’s direct reports don’t fit on the page with the manager, the wizard will leave the manager shape on the original page and also place it on a subsequent page along with that manager’s direct reports. A check mark in this option tells Visio to add links in both manager shapes, making page-to-page navigation simpler.

The Synchronize Employee Shapes Across Pages check box also applies to the scenario described in the preceding paragraph. A check mark in this option tells Visio to update the second shape if you change the data in the first one.

Click Finish. The completed organization chart appears in the Visio drawing window.

Tip:

The org chart wizard correctly connects each group of people to its respective boss, but you cannot control where the wizard places people on the page. You can relocate people and groups after the wizard has created the diagram; you just can’t control how the wizard does the initial placement.

To finalize your organization chart, drag the Title/Date shape from the stencil into the upper-left portion of the drawing page.

Double-click the Company Name text box and replace Company Name with Trey Research. The resulting organization chart should look like the following graphic.

The wizard has chosen one particular style and layout for your organization chart. However, you can experiment with more than a dozen built-in layouts to change the look of your chart as described in the following sidebar.