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PowerApps in PowerBI with Visio!!!

I am very excited to see that the preview for PowerApps in PowerBI has been released ( see Announcing availability of PowerApps custom visual for Power BI (preview) ). I saw this demonstrated months ago, and have been waiting impatiently ever since. Every time I have embedded a Visio diagram into PowerBI, I have wanted to display the selected shape data in a detail view … and now I can!
I cannot yet create a PowerBI report with the embedded PowerApps visual for consumption by the whole internet, but it should still solve many scenarios for organisations. I quickly added the new PowerApps visual to my example synchronised Org Chart and Desk Layout from my previous article ( #Visio in #PowerBI for viewing personnel hierarchies and locations ) , and recorded a simple selection in the following gif:

To do this, I simply created a default new PowerApps app from the queryOrg query in  Excel workbook I created previously, and modified the Item value for the DetailForm of the DetailScreen. I removed the BrowseScreen and EditScreen because they were not required. Then, hey presto, the correct record is displayed whenever a shape is selected.

Selecting a Person.gif
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Visio in PowerBI for viewing personnel hierarchies and locations

My last article, Aliasing Data Columns for #Visio Organization Chart Wizard , mentioned the slight anomalies in the default Shape Data rows for the Organization Chart shapes and the Resources / Person shape. This prompted me to create an alternative view of the same data that can be linked to the Person shapes on a floor plan, and then to use the preview Visio Custom Visual in Power BI to display both views of personnel synchronised by the same data. This demonstrates how easy it is to create an effective dashboard for locating personnel locations and their position within an organisational hierarchy at the same time!

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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:

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Free Visio training videos

This blog of mine is all about Visio, and is aimed at intermediate, power users and developers. For the less advanced Visio users, or too back fill some skills, then please check out the free Microsoft Visio training available from here : Visio video training
Happy holidays!
PS Packt’s $5 sale is now on! Grab my title Mastering Data Visualization with Microsoft Visio Professional 2016 for just $5 at Packt $5 deal

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Cyber Monday giveaway free Visio Chess

Earlier today, I gave away checkers for Visio (see Cyber Monday free #Visio Checkers! ) , and now this article completes my Cyber Monday freebies with a downloadable chess set for Visio!


This version of the chess/checker board requires connection points (Type = 2 – Inward/Outward) on each of the 64 squares, an, as before, I have styled the pieces with Bevel and Shadow. However, this time I have used my own tool for converting the XAML from Syncfusion’s Metro Studio library into true Visio shapes. This library is great ( see Metro Studio ) but it does not create true Visio shapes. In addition, I have enabled many different configuration options within Visio, such as background shape choice.

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Cyber Monday free Visio Checkers!

As it is Cyber Monday, I thought I would give away a compelling checkers board for Visio! In the UK, we call it Draughts, but the rules are the same… in my last post, I showed how to create a chess/checkers/draughts board, and in this one I add some checkers that can glue to the dark squares only!

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