Data-linked diagrams: Multiple data graphics with a single shape

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Yana Terukhova is a Product Marketing Manager on the Microsoft Visio team.

Visio makes it easy to build visually compelling organization charts and enhance them to meet your specific business needs. You can create a data-linked diagram connected to your organization’s key business indicators and then make sure your information is always current by linking it from an external source. Then you can display the information with data graphics. You can bring even more business insight into your diagram by showing multiple data graphics with a single shape.

Shapes can be associated with a single data point—for example, the percent of budget spent by employee—but you can also create diagrams where each shape shows multiple data points, such as the number of employees in each department, sales attainment for employees in revenue-generating roles or other metrics that are important in your organization.

There are a few different ways to do this, but the most simple is to add multiple data elements to a single data graphic. For example, if we wanted to show the number of employees in each department on our organization chart, we could edit our existing data graphic and add a text call out under the main shape.

Visio allows you to specify where you’d like data graphics to show up on shapes--just uncheck the Use default position box and select a position that is better suited to what you are hoping to achieve.  In this case, we chose the Center, Below Shape position.

If you want to change the fill of the data graphic, select that element and change the fill as you would for any other shape.

With our organization chart we can create a diagram that represents multiple dimensions of data in an easy-to-follow format. The first thing to think about is whether the Coin diagram type is the best way of representing data. In situations where I’m showing multiple data graphics per person, I like to use shapes that are open. In this case, I’ll switch to the Bound style. (Go to the Org Chart tab to select the shape style that best fits your needs.)

You may need to use the height and width controls to make the shapes large enough hold the data graphics you’d like. Once you have the shapes looking the way you’d like, you can use the layout controls to adjust spacing between shapes.

Considering the amount and variety of information we want to display on this diagram, and that the data graphics are usually very visual and colorful, we can switch to Simple design for the diagram itself. (Go to the Design tab to select the design style that best fits your needs.) This way we can read our business-intelligent diagram most effectively.

Using Ashima as an example, you can see we added three additional shapes to the organization chart, grouped them, and applied data graphics to them:

Note that not every data graphic needs to be applied to every shape. In the organization chart example, only some employees produce revenue, so they have sales metrics attached to their names, while other employees do not.

Here is our final dynamic data-linked diagram:

Use Visio Services to share your diagram with others and make it available to everyone, from nearly any device.

–Yana Terukhova, Product Marketing Manager

View the original article here

Data-linked diagrams: Linking data from an external data source

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Yana Terukhova is a Product Marketing Manager on the Microsoft Visio team.

Visually displaying always up-to-date information on clearly laid out diagrams helps to communicate information effectively. In this post, we will see how to connect data from external sources to a diagram.

Linking data to Visio diagrams was first introduced in 2007 and has been overwhelmingly popular. We’ve improved the functionality since then and the capability has become increasingly more powerful. Associating data with shapes on a diagram does not require any code. There’s a simple wizard which guides you through linking your data source to your diagram. Once you’ve linked data to diagram shapes, apply data graphics to shapes--text, data bars, icons, or color by value conditional formatting--to visually display numerical data. The important point here is that data-linked diagrams are dynamic; the data graphics change when data is refreshed in the source (like Excel). 

To get started, we created a simple organization chart in Visio. We’ve chosen the coin layout for this example. Once we have added the data, we can change the layout to better match the data format. As you can see, we have name, title, and photos for each of the members in our organization.

You can imagine that all types of data that be visualized--from vacation status/training completion, to number of documents in a particular step in a process, and to percent budget attained. Options are vast.

Before you add any data to a diagram, it is a good idea to decide exactly what data you want to see, because this will define which data visualization format best fits your needs.

A common task in organizations of all sizes is to track budget and spending, either by department or at the budget owner level. Let’s see how we can use Visio to show how each person is doing against their budget.

In this example, we will display revenue attainment, budget, and number of employees reporting to certain people. Here is the current view of our data in Excel.

Using this file as the data source, you could also link it directly to real-time budget information in a back office system (such as Microsoft Dynamics and other data sources).

It is important to remember that your data needs to be consistently arranged in the source, so Visio can understand all the logic behind it. For example, keep rows filled with consistent data and name all the columns in a consistent manner. Very often, when data is not displaying appropriately in a Visio data-linked diagram, there is a problem with how this data was originally organized in the source.

There are two steps to link data in Visio:

Import the data source into Visio. This creates the link between your Visio file and the data source, but does not link any of the shapes to that data.

Now we can see that the Excel and Visio files are linked together.

Link shapes to data. Once the data is associated with your diagram, you can associate individual rows in the data with shapes on the page (a single row may be associated with multiple shapes, such as visualizing multiple dimensions of data). Data can be associated by dragging individual rows from the shape data window or by automatically linking (if you have columns that correspond to shape data elements).

We linked automatically in this example, and Visio quickly associated all the shapes by unique names of each person in the chart.

You may be surprised by the result--there are text links to the right of the shapes. This is the default data graphic as text. Now we can change and add data graphics to the diagram to make it look exactly as we want it.

--Yana Terukhova, Product Marketing Manager

View the original article here

Data-linked diagrams: Creating a diagram

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Yana Terukhova is a Product Marketing Manager on the Microsoft Visio team.

Visio offers over 60 types of professional templates to build compelling diagrams, and organization charts are among most the frequently created. Visio organization charts are simple and visual, but what if you want to connect them to key business indicators tracked by your organization, such as sales by region, budget by department, vacation status, or training progress? Sometimes this information is located in another source, like Excel or  a complex database. Data-linked diagrams let you add data to Visio diagrams--no code required--and anyone in an organization can quickly create such dashboards to get better insights into data using Visio Professional 2013 or Visio Pro for Office 365.

We’ll start with an organization chart diagram like this one.

The data you add to the organization diagram can be in an Excel file, populated from Exchange/Active Directory, or constructed manually by dragging shapes on a page.

Tip: if you pull data from Active Directory or Exchange, you must have Outlook installed and configured with an active profile--the requirement is a MAPI connection. Visio uses MAPI to get data, so if you don’t have one, the data import will fail.

In this example, the Excel file has three columns: Name, Title and Reports To. Visio uses this information to determine how to organize the reporting relationships in your organization chart.

From the Visio start screen, select or search for Organization Chart.

Once the wizard starts, select Information that’s already stored in a file or database. Then you can tell Visio what columns have your hierarchy information and where to import pictures from, if you have them.

 You can specify a folder with your pictures, and as long as there is a field that Visio can match to (such as Name). Visio will automatically associate them with the correct organization chart shape.

Once you’re finished, you’ll have an organization chart that looks like this:

Now you can click the Org Chart tab on the ribbon and make changes to reflect what you’re looking for, including spacing and other variants.

In this case, we used the Coin design to add a splash of color:

Although this example focuses on mapping departments of people, you can use the Organization Chart Wizard to map all sorts of hierarchical data--a website map, for example--as long as you can clearly format that data in Excel.

–Yana Terukhova, Product Marketing Manager

View the original article here

Exchange diagrams with Visio services

The new Visio offers a number of new features - the modern look of the app, new topics and forms for professional-looking charts, new ways of cooperation with several authors and lecturers. We have also much easier, these diagrams with colleagues and friends - share made even if they don't have Visio. Visio services comes in. Visio services can share stunning you diagrams by using SharePoint or Office 365 with up to the minute data.

Visio services is a part of Microsoft SharePoint and O365, which offers you a quick and easy way to consume Visio diagrams. You must have - saved no Visio client required only a Visio document in SharePoint and a browser. We present the diagram with the same fidelity of the Visio client, including your themes, and cool effects. Visio 2010 users will remember that charts in a special Web format had to be published (.)(VDW) for display. No more! Visio services works with the new native Visio file format (.)(VSDX) is so that each document in SharePoint stored displayed - no release required. (Support your existing Visio services).VDW-Dateien.)

A big reason for your diagrams with others is to share, to get you feedback. With Visio services, your reviewers can add comments to the chart - as well as all other comments. In fact you need to commented on the chart with the Visio client and the people who comment on at the same time in the browser. Collaboration blog article for more details on the new comment and find collaboration features in Visio and Visio services.

The information in Visio diagrams is not always static. You can see a chart with a variety of data sources, dynamic information in a Visual context connect. Visio services can update the data and update the shapes in the diagram that are associated with data.

You can integrate even charts in rich dashboards or larger SharePoint solutions. Below is an example of a site for a residence hall of the University. Visio diagrams will give in this website details of upcoming residence hall events and up-to-date information on the residence facilities embedded. Diagrams are also in document libraries for easy access to view in the browser or edit in Visio.

Because Visio services through your browser, you can it with a variety of devices - desktops, notebooks, mobile phones or tablets. It works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, chrome and Safari, enter on the platform of your choice to access. We have added also improvements for touch and mobile devices with smaller screens.

Well, you know what Visio services everything turns, why you yourself not try it? Visio services is part of SharePoint and SharePoint online with Office 365. You can see 365 to get preview, fall a trial Office some Visio diagrams in a SharePoint document library, and then Visio services in action. For starters, we have added some Visio files to this article. Here is what you need to do:

Sign up for the Office 365 Enterprise previewin Office 365 preview Admin Center, you can navigate to the SharePoint sites by clicking on the button sites in the blue Header.Gehen the team Web site a Visio diagram on the Dokumentgruppe upload, by clicking "new document" > display a Visio diagram in the collection of documents in the Web browser click on "Existing file upload" (you can include the file in this zip download)

Check this Office preview getting started guidefor more information and resources about the Office 365 preview out.

Visio services is a way to share modern charts with the latest business information across the organization. It is a great addition to Visio and SharePoint.

View the original article here

Create professional diagrams quickly with the new Visio

AppId is over the quota
Translate Request has too much data
Parameter name: request

When we started our planning process for this version of Visio, we made it a central goal that it would be easier, faster and more pleasant to create beautiful, professional looking diagrams. To achieve that, we made a host of improvements to the application – far too many for us to cover here. So, for this post, I’ll aim to give you an overview of all the changes we made and cover a few of the most highly requested new features. Later posts will cover everything here in much more detail.

Making diagrams that can effectively communicate information is the heart and soul of Visio. Polished, professional looking diagrams grab attention, inspire more confidence, communicate more effectively and reflect well on the people who made them. It’s always been possible to make good looking diagrams in Visio. This version we not only wanted to make it possible to create amazing looking ones, we wanted to make it startlingly simple. In fact, I might go as far as to say we wanted to make it hard to create bad looking diagrams in Visio (yes, yes – I am sure you could still do it if you tried!)

The foundation for great looking diagrams in the new Visio is the integration of the same rendering engine that PowerPoint uses. So, all the cool effects and UIs you’re familiar with from PowerPoint are now in Visio too!

All that power is great, but it’s like having a jet fighter without a pilot. It’ll do amazing things, if only you could figure out which button to push! Fortunately, we weren’t just aiming for the fighter pilot demographic. To make it incredibly easy to use all that power to get the look you want, we dramatically overhauled our theming feature. You just need to pick from among over 25 brand new, amazing looking themes and Visio will go and update the formatting on all your shapes to match that style.

Here’s an image of the same diagram in three different themes. You can change between the following diagrams in a single click, easily moving from simple to vibrant to informal:

Of course, we’ve also made updates across huge swaths of our content to freshen up its look and to take advantage of all the power of our new effects and themes. I’ll call out a few of the templates we’ve updated down at the bottom of this post.

Using Visio has always been great. We love receiving feedback that starts with “I love this program” (and doesn’t follow that with ‘but’)! We wanted to keep pushing on making the program fantastic to use to ensure that people keep finding the experience of using Visio to be efficient, intuitive and even – perhaps – enjoyable!

To achieve this, we invested across the board in polishing the product. We streamlined the ribbon and made our contextual UIs much more complete and focused. More commands than ever are now available right at your fingertips, which helps keep you focused on building your diagram instead of searching through complex UI to find the command you want. Try collapsing your ribbon in the new version and see whether using the right click menus makes you more efficient!

Outside the command space, we fixed hundreds of little road bumps (bugs :) that folks told us about when using the product, and we built out several major features that customers have been craving for a while. We also dramatically simplified our application look, so that the diagrams you’re making will take center stage, instead of needing to compete with Visio’s UI. Lastly, we added a raft of smooth transitions, which make the program much easier to follow, as well as making it a lot more attractive to use.

All in all, we are tremendously excited about how great using the next version of Visio is and we’re thrilled that you all will finally get to give it a try.

Yeah – I’ve got examples. Now that you’ve got the summary, I’d like to dive into a few specifics here. We’ve got later blog posts planned that will cover theming, effects and the command improvements – so I’m going to hold off on them. However, I would like to talk a bit about some of the top requested customer features that we’ve built as well as walk through some examples of templates that we’ve updated.

Change shape is one of the most highly requested customer features we’ve ever had. It’s not hard to see why. How many times have you dropped a process shape and connected it up, realizing later it should have been a decision? Or, have you ever wanted to give your simple decision shape more impact by subbing in one of the cool Visio Workflow shapes?

Changing a shape is now as easy as clicking a button and picking the shape you want. You can change one shape at a time or change several multi-selected shapes at once. This makes it easy to rough in a diagram with temporary shapes and then change to better looking, more accurate, or more appropriate shapes when you are ready to finish the diagram. You don’t have to worry about losing connections, formatting or settings; Visio transfers all that over to the new shape automatically.

If you don’t see the shape you want in the Shapes pane, you can use Search to find it and the search results appear in the Change Shape choices. To make changing the shape even quicker, you can use Change Shape from our right-click menu (we call it The Floatee).

Another highly request feature has been the ability to quickly duplicate a page. Right-clicking on the page tab and selecting Duplicate now creates a new page with all of the shapes, formatting and properties of the original. You can use this to quickly create variations of a diagram or to use a particular page as a starting template for many others or to simply explore different layouts – all without risking the contents on your original page. Combining Duplicate Page with Change shape also allows you to quickly try out using different shapes as well.

It’s now much easier to find the shape you want. Search has been updated with new keywords to give better results and the results are organized more clearly and grouped by stencil. You’re shown up to the first four relevant shapes in each stencil and when you find the shape you want you can add it to your diagram or add in the whole stencil to the Shapes Pane with one click.

If you prefer to browse for shapes, we’ve also updated the More Shapes menu to make it easier to preview stencils and let you add or remove multiple stencils at once.

As I mentioned, we’ve also updated a huge portion of our content this release. There’ll be a whole article detailing what we’ve done later, so I just want to give you a taste here to illustrate a few of the changes that we’ve made.

Org Chart has been reworked with 10 completely new styles, each with its own unique look. We’ve made the use of pictures super easy as well. The net result is that in a few clicks you can make org charts with incredibly varied styles that range from minimal to professional to hip to playful – whichever is appropriate for the personality of your team or organization.

Containers were already a powerful tool for diagram creation and they’re even better now. Not only are there new containers for you to use, we’ve also added the ability to format containers with a variety of new looks. Whether you want something purely functional or more stylistic, it’s easy to customize a container. Once you’ve selected a container style you want, you can change the heading style and use themes or quick styles to make it look just like you want.

Like containers, new callouts give you options to give your diagrams a customized look. Callouts have been completely reworked to provide more choices and more formatting options. You can quickly integrate the look of your callouts to your diagram with Themes, or use Quick Styles to draw special attention to a specific callout.

New versions of these diagrams have updated shapes with a simple, modern look. In addition to making it easy to produce incredibly professional looking diagrams, these shapes are updated to include the newest hardware and concepts. We’ve also made the most important semantic details of the shapes more visually salient – making it easier to read large, complex diagrams.

There’s also a new version of the Workflow diagram that shares the modern look. Like the network shapes, you’ll find they can add flavor to other diagrams.

Don’t worry, though, the old 3D network and workflow shapes were so popular and iconic that we couldn’t take them out. So, you can still find them by searching or browsing through the template categories.

The Basic Diagram template is a great toolkit to start a generic diagram or to use in an existing one, and we’ve updated it to give you a wider variety of attractive and useful shapes. You’ll be able to use them to make quick drawings or add them to other diagrams to help illustrate your information. We’ve added lots of new shapes, including decorative shapes, arrow shapes, graph and math shapes.

And even with all that, we’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg on what the new Visio can offer. Check out our upcoming blog posts for deep dives on everything I touched on above.

We hope that you’ll find it easier, faster and more pleasant to create beautiful, professional looking diagrams in Visio than it has ever been before!

We would love to see your comments on this and other blog posts and if there are other topics you’d like to see us cover, let us know.

View the original article here