Microsoft Visio desktop Plan 2 and Professional editions provides the ability to create and synchronize cross-functional flowcharts between the diagram and an Excel table. This is great, and widely used for many types of processes. The Excel table normally has a Function / Swimlane column that contains text that becomes labels on the swimlane containers, and a Phase / Timeline column that contains text that becomes the label of the phase or separator containers. The import provides the option to order the diagram by Function and/or Phase, but it is impossible to get them ordered by both! This article provides a solution using a free macro-enabled Visio stencil.
In the above example, the Excel table has been ordered by the values in the Phase column, and the option t order by this column is selected whilst importing using the Visio Data \ Create from Data \ Create button.
This usually leaves the swimlanes in a random order, but Visio does allow you to move the swimlnae containers manually. However, the Phase \ Separator containers cannot be moved, as shown below.
So, the recommendation is to order the imported table by the Phase column, and then re-order the Function swimlanes once the diagram has been created. However, this can be tedious, especially on larger pages where it is difficult to read the text whilst seeing the overall effect.
So, I wrote a macro to assist with the re-ordering of the swimlanes, and packaged them into a macro-enabled stencil which I have zipped up. The file at Reorder Swimlanes.zip file should be downloaded, unzipped, and the enclosed Reorder Swimlanes.vssm file placed into the My Shapes folder. It should then become available to open like a normal stencil, and if signed macros are allowed, dragging and dropping the Reorder Swimlanes shape onto a page that contains a cross-functional flowchart. The Reorder Swimlanes Lists dialog should open listing all of the swimlanes in their existing order.
The user can then reorder the swimlanes automatically using the label text on the swimlanes, either in ascending or descending order. Alterrnatively, each row can be selected and moved up or down individually.
QED
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