Understanding Organization Charts in Visio 2007

An organization chart is a unique form of flowchart that displays a hierarchy. You could create an organization chart with the flowchart shapes or by drawing rectangles and the lines between them, but with the Organization Chart template in Visio 2007, you can take advantage of several very efficient features:

• Use the drop-on-top feature To create a chart, you simply drag an employee shape on top of a manager shape to create a reporting relationship and a connector between the shapes.

• Let Visio 2007 arrange shapes for you You can rearrange branches of a chart and adjust spacing without dragging shapes. Just choose from a variety of themes, and then let Visio 2007 arrange the chart for you.

• Keep employee information in sync Visio 2007 keeps track of employees in your chart. You can move a department or section to a new page and keep the information in sync with other pages that include the same employees.

• Use the Organization Chart Wizard If your organizational information is stored in a database, you can use the Organization Chart Wizard to import the employee data and automatically generate a chart.

Although an up-to-date organization chart is useful in itself, Visio 2007 also stores information about an employee as shape data of a shape. For example, an employee shape can include shape data for name, department, telephone number, e-mail address, and other information, as Figure 10-1 shows. As with shape data (which can be viewed by right-clicking a shape and selecting Data, Shape Data) in other Visio 2007 drawings, you can use the data to generate reports, export spreadsheets or database files, or simply store the data with the chart.

Inside Out: PowerPoint’s organization chart tool Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 also includes an organization chart tool. If you want a quick, professional-looking chart for a presentation and don’t have many employees, use the tools in PowerPoint 2007. However, if you want a reusable organization chart and the ability to revise easily, the Visio 2007 Organization Chart template is more versatile.

Using the Organization Chart Tools

The Organization Chart template provides tools that aren’t available with any other Visio 2007 solution. When you start a drawing with the Organization Chart template, Visio 2007 adds the Organization Chart toolbar, as Figure 10-2 shows. This toolbar is your cue not to rearrange shapes manually—let Visio 2007 do it for you. To adjust the layout and position of a department, select the department’s top-level shape, such as a manager, and then click a button on the toolbar. Use the Auto-Arrange Shapes button to adjust the spacing and layout of the entire chart. If you close the Organization Chart toolbar, you can reopen it by choosing View, Toolbars, Organization Chart, or by right-clicking any toolbar and then selecting Organization Chart.

The Organization Chart menu repeats the layout options on the toolbar and includes additional options in the Arrange Subordinates command. Other commands help you use the chart to locate people as well as to import, export, and compare organizational data, as Figure 10-3 shows.

Converting Earlier Visio Organization Charts

If you created an organization chart in Microsoft Office Visio 2000, 2002, or 2003, you can open it in Visio 2007 to work with all of the organization chart tools. Just select the chart as you would any other. Visio 2007 will display a box stating it updated your dusty old Visio chart to current standards, but if you nevertheless still need to work with the original file you can save the updated chart in a new file. Charts constructed in versions of Visio earlier than 2000 cannot be converted into Visio 2007 unless they are first opened in either Visio 2000, 2002, or 2003 and saved in that format.