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External Data

Published on March 26, 2014 by David Parker

Creating a Schema from Visio External Data record sets

Visio introduced External Data record sets in 2007, and I have made great use of them ever since. Visio 2013 has deprecated reverse engineering of databases to produce a schema, which was a function that I loved to use because it allowed me to provide clients with up to date, annotated, enhanced schema diagrams. Microsoft have, however, provided some nice database schema templates in Visio 2013 Professional, so I thought I would provide a way to use the External Data record sets to produce schema diagrams.

I have created a new custom stencil, based upon the IDEF1X Database Notation template in Visio 2013 Professional, and have added some macros to provide the guided diagramming. I say guided because page position of tables and relationships are left to you, but the macros will create table definitions from External Data record sets.

All of the three database notation templates contain an Entity and an Attribute master. In fact, they also have a Primary Key Attribute master too, but this is identical to the Attribute master, apart from a setting to say it is the primary key. This can be done from the Attribute shape anyway, so I will dispense with the Primary Key Attribute master.

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[Read more…] about Creating a Schema from Visio External Data record sets

Filed Under: Database, External Data, Lists, Visio, Visio 2013 Tagged With: ER Diagrams

Published on May 24, 2011 by David Parker

Data Import & Export Features in Visio 2010

I have been using (Microsoft) Visio for importing and exporting data since 1996, and was an early tester/adopter of the Database Wizard features in Visio 4.1 (I think). I think of Visio as a data visualization tool, yet I cannot recall seeing a comprehensive list of the areas in Visio, out-of-the-box, where you can import and export data easily. So I decided to draw a data-linked diagram of just this for Visio 2010.

image



I have made the files available for you at the following links:

[Read more…] about Data Import & Export Features in Visio 2010

Filed Under: External Data, Shape Data, Visio 2010 Tagged With: Data Export, Data Import

Published on February 24, 2009 by David Parker

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.

image
[Read more…] about Creating an Org Chart without the Org Chart Wizard

Filed Under: External Data, Org Charts, Shape Data, Visio

Published on July 24, 2008 by David Parker

Using SharePoint Calendars with Visio Timelines

I was recently asked if it is possible to use SharePoint calendars with Visio Timeline Shapes automatically. My first reaction was “not without code”, but a closer inspection reveals that you can use Visio 2007 Professional Link Data to Shapes quite easily….

Firstly, I found the WSS Demo site http://www.wssdemo.com/application/default.aspx to be useful. [This is no longer available]

In Visio 2007 Professional, you can use Data / Link Data to Shapes … to get data from Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services:

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[Read more…] about Using SharePoint Calendars with Visio Timelines

Filed Under: External Data, SharePoint, Visio

Published on April 4, 2008 by David Parker

UK Counties and Boroughs Map Shapes for Visio

My friend and colleague, Chris Roth, has made lots of maps available in Visio, his latest being Germany ( http://www.visguy.com/2008/03/01/map-of-germany/ ).  Well, we Brits hate being outdone by a German-American, so I have decided to make my UK Map shapes for Visio publicly available at UK Geography Structure.vsd .

I created the UK map several years ago by converting from PDF to SVG to Visio, and each of the counties and boroughs have a single rectangular Master, Admin Area.  I used code to replace the rectangle geometry with the actual shape geometry.  This means that, although they are all different, they have the same Master, thus making it easier to propagate any changes, such as Shape Data rows.

image
[Read more…] about UK Counties and Boroughs Map Shapes for Visio

Filed Under: External Data, Geographic, Shape Data, Visio

Published on November 15, 2007 by David Parker

Importing Hyperlinks into Visio Shapes

Visio shapes can have multiple hyperlinks, but it can be a chore to add them with the Insert / Hyperlinks … command.  Fortunately, Visio 2007 Professional has the Data / Link Data to Shapes … command.

If you were to have a data source, such as an Excel spreadsheet, that contains hyperlinks (see the example below)…

ExcelHyperlinks
[Read more…] about Importing Hyperlinks into Visio Shapes

Filed Under: External Data, Hyperlinks, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio

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