Visio

Published on March 31, 2013 by David Parker

Using ODC Files with Visio

I use the Link Data to Shapes wizard in Visio Professional almost everyday, but I have not really bothered to use the Office Data Connections (ODC) files much, probably because there is no easy way of creating them in Visio. However, the Data Connection wizard does allow you to use previously created ODC files. So, I thought I’d document the easiest way I know of creating them … using Excel!

In fact, Excel and Reports can use ODC files too. See http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-excel/archive/2008/10/15/using-office-data-connection-files-odc-and-the-dataconnections-web-part-in-sharepoint-to-specify-external-data-connections-in-newly-created-excel-workbooks.aspx

In Excel, select Data \ From Other Sources \ From Data Connection Wizard …

Published on February 20, 2013 by David Parker

Visio MVPs in Redmond

We Visio MVPs have always been closer to the product team than most others … This week has been no exception!
An exciting future awaits….

Left to right:
Me (UK), Scott Helmers (USA), Michel Laplane (France), John Marshall (Canada), Chris Roth (Germany/US), Senaj Lelic (Germany), Al Edlund (US).

Disappointed to find that there are no Surface Pro 128 GB in stock 🙁

[Read more…]

Published on January 21, 2013 by David Parker

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 98,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Published on January 12, 2013 by David Parker

Clusters and Workstations Linked to Excel using Visio Professional

I was recently asked how to easily link an Excel worksheet that contains names of personnel sitting at workstations in clusters to a Visio floor layout. My own approach would probably have been to create an Access or SQL Server database, but I recognise that not everyone is confident about doing that, so I present a way that it can be done simply with just Excel.

The extra complication requested was the ability to easily control the visibility of specific data, so I have added an example of that into the mix.

Firstly, I mocked up a table in Excel. I decided to have separate Cluster and Workstation columns, and so I combined the two together in a column headed Location with a simple formula. I like doing this because I can then create a Pivot Table or Chart easily to give a count of workstations per cluster. I used the 1970 FA Cup winning Chelsea team for the Name and Department columns.

Published on December 6, 2012 by David Parker

Microsoft Visio Viewer 2013 Released

Microsoft have released a new version of the free Visio Viewer ( see http://blogs.office.com/b/visio/archive/2012/11/28/download-the-free-microsoft-visio-viewer.aspx ), so you can now view Visio 2013 files, in addition to earlier versions, without having Visio installed. Or, as in my case, on a PC that has Visio 2010 installed.

Published on December 4, 2012 by David Parker

Visio 2013 BPM Maturity Model

In my book, Microsoft Visio 2010 Business Process Diagramming and Validation (see http://www.visiorules.com/ ), I presented a table of the progressive maturity of BPM within Visio. I have now extended this diagram in the figure below to show how Visio 2013 increases this maturity level.

I have just been running 2 day Visio 2013 Services introductory courses to Microsoft partners in Oslo and Copenhagen, and I think there has been a very positive response to the new capabilities of Visio 2013 along with SharePoint 2013. The two products together provide some great capabilities that should lead to exciting value propositions to business. New features include co-authoring of Visio files; commenting with or without the Visio client application; deeper integration with SharePoint Designer for SharePoint Workflows; and rendering of Visio files in high quality images, making them usable from any browser on any device.

Microsoft have also merged Visio Premium into Visio Professional for the 2013 product, making all of these features available to the normal business user. The good news about my book mentioned above is that it is very current for Visio 2013 Professional, as there have been no significant changes in this area … Smile

Update : Just got my latest copy of Redmond Magazine ( see http://redmondmag.com/ ). Great article about SharePoint 2013 and Visio 2013!