I have used the Microsoft Visio Organization Chart Wizard many, many times over the years, but I usually use it from text files, and I had been aware that I was not getting good results from the Microsoft Exchange Server directory option, now that I use Office 365. I was always getting just the first Personnel record (Admin). Well, I was prompted to find out why, and was amazed to find the answer by Winnie Liang in Creating Organizational Chart from AD Information.
[Read more…] about Using Visio Org Chart Wizard to work with Exchange OnlinebVisual Blog by David Parker
Visio Org Charts with Multiple Languages
I had an enquiry recently about displaying Organisation Charts with text in different languages. This set me thinking, and, if you have Visio Professional, then you can use Link Data to Shapes to add this capability to existing diagrams, but Visio Standard users can just the Org Chart Wizard.
I will use the OrgData.xls file that is provided in the <Program Files>\Microsoft Office\Office 15\Visio Content\<LCID>\ folder to demonstrate this. I have English US (1033) and Norwegian Bokmal (1044) available to me, as shown below:
In Englsih
Creating a Custom Org Chart Template with Extra Properties
A Visio user recently asked how to add a salary amount for an Org Chart person automatically, based on their selected Level. I thought it was a bit long to answer in the forum, so I have written my answer below. It demonstrates how you can have your own custom template that works with the Organization Chart add-on in Visio.
My approach to creating a custom template that still uses the Organization Chart Add-On is to create a new drawing from the built-in template, and then to add extra properties to it.
First, select Show Document Stencil to view all of the local copies of the built-in master shapes. If they are not there, then simply drag and drop them from the built-in stencil on to the first page, and then delete the shapes on the page. This will not delete the local copies of the masters.
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Creating an Org Chart without the Org Chart Wizard
Microsoft Office Visio has had an Org Chart Wizard for as long as I can remember (and I have been using Visio since 1996). It has gone through several iterations, but basically it provides a simple way to create personnel hierarchies from a variety of data sources. It even has a command line interface so that the charts can be created with a minimum of user interaction. This is great, but it is limited. Firstly, it does not take advantage of the new Link Data to Shapes and Data Graphics in Visio 207 Professional; secondly, it only does direct reports with just one type of layout; and thirdly, you cannot refresh the diagram easily. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to overcome some of these obstacles using the new features of Visio 2007 Professional and with a little code.
Visio installs a sample OrgData.xls Excel spreadsheet in the folder <Program Files>Microsoft OfficeOffice12SAMPLES1033 by default, so I have copied this file and slightly amended it.
Aliasing Data Columns for Visio Organization Chart Wizard
One of the most frequently used components of Visio is the Organization Chart Wizard (OrgChWiz), but it is also one of the most frustrating because of its apparent inflexibility. I was recently asked how to use different table column names with the wizard because the originating ODBC source could not be touched. Well, I have previously used Access to modify and enhance tables in this situation, but the OrgChWiz is quite old, and does not like using the newer Access queries as a data source unfortunately. If the basic table column names do not match the default column names in the organization chart shapes, then there may be superfluous Shape Data rows created on each shape and the ability to change the shape style is compromised, and the Shape Data rows get quite confused!
The Organization Chart template opens with the Belts – Organization Chart Shapes stencil open by default, although the Master shapes used can be replaced with those on one of the other nine using the Org Chart / Shapes gallery:
Visio Data Visualizer Tips
The Microsoft Visio product team have released a great video introduction to the Visio Data Visualizer, but even that does not reveal all of its power. So, here are some tips about using the Microsoft Visio Data Visualizer add-in in Excel. Firstly, the add-in currently offers three different types of diagram, and each have a number of alternative layout arrangements.
- Basic Flowchart – 4 layouts
- Cross-Functional Flowchart – 5 layouts
- Organization Chart – 5 layouts
Although these are the proposed diagram types, there is no reason why other types of data, such as network devices, cannot be used with any of them.
