Automatic Creation of Org Chart Using External Data in Visio 2010 – Part 1

Visio 2010 makes it easier for us to create organization charts. Depending on our individual needs and preferences, organization charts can be created manually or automatically thru this software. But when dealing with a large organization, building the structure can be difficult and time consuming if done manually. In this article, we will learn how to automatically create an organizational chart using the Organization Chart Wizard in Visio 2010.

Prepare the data for the Org Chart

Prepare the data to be used in your organization chart. The data can be stored in file formats like *.txt, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb, or *.xls. There are a number of ways to prepare the data, but in this particular example we will use the one in an Excel spreadsheet. A few of the important details to be included are names, job title/position, to whom the person reports to, etc.

Access Organization Chart Wizard

To automatically create an organization chart, we are going to use a the Organization Chart Wizard. This specific wizard could actually also be accessible from elsewhere. To bring up this wizard:
1. Go to File (Backstage View) > click on New > double click on Business > select Organization Chart Wizard > choose the units (U.S. unit or metric unit) > Create

How to use the Organization Chart Wizard

Once you have Organization Chart Wizard is open, you will be asked where you want to create the organization chart from. Here, we’ll choose the first option since we have the information ready in a spreadsheet. This option also applies for data stored in file types such as text, Org Plus, Microsoft Exchange Server or ODBC-compliant database file. Click on Next to continue.

On this screen of the wizard, we choose the source of the information according to the file type where we have stored our data. Click on Next to continue.

Then we locate the file that contains the organization information. Click on Browse and look for the spreadsheet containing the data for our organization chart. We can also specify the language that we are using here. Click on Next to continue.

Now, what Visio does is to inspect our spreadsheet and try to work out how to identify each of the columns of information in the spreadsheet. One thing to take note is that always looks for a Name since will need a person’s name for each box of the organization chart. There also needs to be a Reports to, except for the person at top, in order to draw the structure for each person who’s going to be in the organization chart. First name is also included but is optional. We may link it if available in our data. Click on Next to continue.

Here, we can select which fields we want to be displayed in the org chart. Data like names are displayed by default, but we have the option to Add  or Remove data as we like. Having decided what data to show in the org chart, click on Next.

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Simon Calder

Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!