This series of excerpts introduces advanced features within Microsoft Visio, guiding users through the creation of cross-functional flowcharts with swimlanes for process and team organization. It then demonstrates how to construct network diagrams, illustrating insecure and secured network routes with various components. Furthermore, the material covers customizing Visio by creating and saving personal stencils for frequently used shapes. Finally, it explains how to enhance diagrams with hyperlinks to external documents and internal page linking, as well as generating organizational charts and pivot diagrams directly from Excel data, concluding with methods for sharing Visio drawings.

Vizio Advanced Study Guide

Quiz

1. What is the primary purpose of a cross-functional flowchart?
2. How do you access the swim lanes and separators in Vizio for creating a cross-functional flowchart?
3. Explain the difference between a vertical swim lane and a vertical separator in a cross-functional flowchart.
4. What is the benefit of grouping objects together in a network diagram? How do you perform this action?
5. Describe the steps to create a dashed line connector in a network diagram and why you might use one.
6. How do you save a custom shape to a personal stencil in Vizio? Why might this be useful?
7. What are the steps to create a hyperlink from a shape in a Vizio diagram to an external document? How do you know if a shape has a hyperlink?
8. Explain how the “Create New Page” feature in the Process tab works in Vizio and its advantage.
9. What are the three essential columns required in an Excel file to create an organizational chart using Vizio’s wizard? Which column is most crucial for establishing the hierarchy?
10. Briefly describe how to create a pivot diagram in Vizio from an Excel file and what type of information it can display.

Quiz Answer Key

1. The primary purpose of a cross-functional flowchart is to visualize processes across different departments, teams, or phases, showing who is responsible for each step and how different parts of an organization interact within a workflow.
2. To access swim lanes and separators in Vizio, you first open a basic flowchart template. Then, in the “Shapes” pane, you click on the “Cross-Functional Flowchart Shapes” stencil, where you will find the various lane and separator options.
3. A vertical swim lane defines a distinct functional area or phase within the flowchart, spanning the entire length. A vertical separator is used within a swim lane to further divide it, often to represent different teams or sub-phases within that broader function.
4. Grouping objects in a network diagram allows you to treat multiple shapes as a single unit, making it easier to move, resize, or manipulate them together without altering their relative positions. To group objects, select the desired shapes while holding the Ctrl key, then go to the “Home” tab, find the “Arrange” group, and click “Group.”
5. To create a dashed line connector, first draw a standard connector between two shapes using the “Connector” tool. Then, select the connector line, go to the “Shape Format” tab (or right-click and choose “Format Shape”), navigate to the “Line” options, and choose a dashed style from the “Dashes” dropdown menu. Dashed lines are often used in network diagrams to represent wireless connections.
6. To save a custom shape, first select the shape you want to save. Then, go to “More Shapes” in the “Shapes” pane and click “New Stencil.” Drag the selected shape into the new stencil. Right-click the shape in the stencil to rename it. This is useful for quickly reusing frequently used or custom-formatted shapes in different diagrams without recreating them.
7. To create a hyperlink, select the shape, go to the “Insert” tab, and click “Link.” In the dialog box, browse to the desired file under the “Address” section and click “OK.” A shape with a hyperlink will typically display a change in cursor to a hand with a link icon when hovered over, and a tooltip may appear indicating the linked file.
8. The “Create New Page” feature in the Process tab allows you to link a sub-process shape in your current diagram to a brand new, separate Vizio page. When you select a sub-process shape and use this feature, Vizio automatically creates a new page and establishes a link between the shape and the new page, allowing for more detailed workflows to be developed on separate pages while maintaining the overall flow.
9. The three essential columns are “Name” (of the employee), “Reports To” (the name of their manager), and “Position” (their job title). The “Reports To” column is the most crucial as it defines the hierarchical relationships and how the shapes in the organizational chart will be connected.
10. To create a pivot diagram, go to “File” > “New” and search for “Pivot Diagram.” Select the template and create it. The Data Selector will appear, prompting you to choose your Excel file and worksheet. After importing the data, you can drag and drop fields (columns from your Excel data) onto the diagram to visualize summaries and breakdowns of your data, such as total sales by region or units sold by product category.

Essay Format Questions

1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using cross-functional flowcharts in process analysis and improvement within an organization. Provide specific examples of scenarios where they would be particularly beneficial.
2. Compare and contrast the creation and utility of network diagrams versus organizational charts in Vizio. In what situations would you choose one over the other, and why?
3. Explore the ways in which Vizio facilitates collaboration and information sharing through features like hyperlinks, the Process tab’s new page creation, and sharing options. How can these features enhance project management and communication within a team?
4. Analyze the process of creating diagrams from external data sources in Vizio, such as organizational charts from Excel files and pivot diagrams. What are the key benefits and potential challenges of this data-driven approach to visualization?
5. Evaluate the importance of customization and stencils in enhancing efficiency and maintaining consistency in creating various types of diagrams in Vizio. Provide examples of how creating and utilizing custom stencils can improve workflow.

Glossary of Key Terms

• Cross-Functional Flowchart: A type of flowchart that visualizes the steps of a process across different functional areas (departments, teams, roles).
• Swim Lane: Horizontal or vertical sections in a cross-functional flowchart that represent different departments, teams, or responsibilities.
• Separator: A line or boundary used within a swim lane to further divide it, often representing different phases or sub-teams.
• Stencil: A collection of related shapes that can be used in a Vizio diagram.
• Network Diagram: A visual representation of a computer or telecommunications network, showing the components and their connections.
• Wireless LAN (WLAN): A local area network that uses wireless radio signals to connect devices.
• Hyperlink: A clickable link in a document that directs the user to another location, such as a webpage, another document, or a different place within the same file.
• Sub-process: A self-contained part of a larger process, often represented by a separate flowchart for greater detail.
• Organizational Chart (Org Chart): A diagram that shows the structure of an organization and the relationships between different positions or departments.
• Pivot Diagram: A dynamic diagram created from data, allowing users to analyze and summarize information from sources like Excel by arranging and displaying different data fields.
• Hierarchy: A system in which members of an organization or society are ranked according to relative status or authority.
• Data Graphics: Visual representations of data associated with shapes in a Vizio diagram, such as icons, color coding, or text labels that change based on the underlying data.

Visio Advanced Course Briefing Document

Date: October 26, 2023 Prepared By: Gemini AI Subject: Review of Visio Advanced Course Content

This briefing document summarizes the main themes, important ideas, and facts presented in the provided excerpts from the Visio advanced course. The course covers a range of topics, including creating cross-functional flowcharts, network diagrams, personal stencils, using hyperlinks and the Process tab for sub-processes, generating organizational charts and pivot diagrams from Excel data, and sharing Visio drawings.

1. Cross-Functional Flowcharts

Main Theme: Creating visual representations of processes that involve multiple departments or phases.

Key Ideas & Facts:

• Purpose: To separate tasks and responsibilities by different phases or departments within a project.
• Template: Utilizes the “Basic Flowchart” template as a starting point, accessible via “More Templates” if not immediately visible.
• Swim Lanes: The “Cross-functional Flowchart Shapes” stencil provides “Vertical Lane” (vertical swim lanes) and “Separators” to delineate different functional areas or phases.
• Instructor Joe demonstrates dragging and resizing swim lanes onto the canvas.
• Swim lanes include a title that can be edited (e.g., “Phase One,” “Team A”).
• Separators: Vertical separators are used within vertical swim lanes to further divide them into specific teams or responsibilities within a phase.
• The text in the separator can be changed by double-clicking (e.g., from “Phase” to “Team A”).
• Basic Flowchart Shapes: Standard flowchart shapes (Start/End, Process, Sub-process, Decision, Document) are used within the swim lanes to map out the process flow.
• Shapes can be named by clicking into them and typing.
• Basic editing tools (resizing, font changes) are applicable.
• The “Ctrl D” shortcut can be used to duplicate shapes.
• Connectors: The “Connector” tool is used to link the flowchart shapes, indicating the flow of the process. Static point-to-point connections are used in the example.
• Customization: Users can customize the appearance of the flowchart by changing the colors of shapes and connectors, as demonstrated by the instructor.

Quotes:

• “What I want to start off with today is creating what’s known as a cross-functional flowchart.”
• “This will allow us to separate things by different phases or even different departments that are going to be working on these different flow charts.”
• “For this I’m going to use the vertical Lane for the vertical swim Lane and I’m going to click and drag it right here…”
• “I’m going to use what’s known as a separator now if you’re using a vertical swim Lane you’re going to use a vertical separator…”

2. Network Diagrams

Main Theme: Visually representing the structure and components of a network, including both secure and insecure routes, WLANS, and internetworking.

Key Ideas & Facts:

• Template: Starts with a new file and searching for “Network Diagram.” Users can choose from pre-built templates (e.g., “Basic Network Diagram,” “Small/Medium Business Network Diagram”) or start from scratch. The instructor chooses to start from scratch.
• Insecure Route: Depicted with a bounding box (using a basic rectangle with no fill), a “Cloud” symbol (from “Network Locations” stencil) labeled “Internet,” and a connection to a “Building” symbol (also from “Network Locations”).
• The cloud and internet label are grouped together as a single object.
• A text box labeled “Insecure Network space” is added.
• Secure Route: Involves a “Router” and “Firewall” (symbols found in network-related stencils). The firewall is placed behind the router using the “Send Backwards” command.
• Duplication: The instructor emphasizes the use of duplication (Ctrl D) to create multiple shapes (e.g., routers, secure network boxes) efficiently.
• Network Components: Includes representations of servers, computers (laptops are chosen in the example), and WLANs.
• WLAN Representation: Created using rectangles with no fill and gray lines, labeled with “WLAN” and numbers (e.g., WLAN 01, WLAN 02).
• Wireless Access Points: Symbols are placed within the WLAN boundaries.
• Connections: Solid connectors are used for wired connections between network devices.
• Dashed Lines: Used to represent wireless connections between routers and wireless access points. This is achieved by changing the line style of the connector to “dashed.”
• Labels: Text boxes are used to label different parts of the network (e.g., “Secure”).

Quotes:

• “Now this network diagram will show the hierarchical network design using wlans and also internet working.”
• “I’m actually going to just simply search for a network diagram…”
• “Now inside this box I do want to have the internet… we can use whatever we like whether we want to do wireless access point or maybe we want to create a cloud…”
• “The next thing we need to do is now create the secured route so in order to do that we’re going to actually create the router and the firewall right here…”
• “The last thing that I’m going to want to do is create some dotted lines to show that this is going to be a wireless connection…”

3. Creating and Using Personal Stencils

Main Theme: Saving frequently used or custom-formatted shapes into a personal stencil for easy access in future diagrams.

Key Ideas & Facts:

• Creating a New Stencil: Accessed via “More Shapes” -> “New Stencil” and choosing a unit of measurement (e.g., US units). The new stencil will initially be named something like “Stencil 3.”
• Adding Shapes to a Stencil: Shapes can be added by selecting them in an existing diagram, duplicating them, and then dragging the duplicate onto the new stencil.
• Renaming Master Shapes: Right-clicking on a shape in the stencil allows you to “Rename Master” to give it a descriptive name.
• Renaming a Stencil: The stencil’s name can be changed by clicking the “Save” icon (diskette), and in the dialog box, renaming the stencil file. The location of the file does not need to be changed.
• Accessing Personal Stencils: When opening a new Visio file, personal stencils are found in “More Shapes” -> “My Shapes” (or a similar category depending on the version).
• Benefits: Allows users to reuse custom shapes and formatting without having to recreate them each time, improving efficiency and consistency.

Quotes:

• “Sometimes what we want to do is create an actual shape and then save it to a personal stencil that way we can use them over and over and over again without having to worry about what kind of formatting we did to it.”
• “The first thing you’re going to do is go to more shape and you’re going to go to new stencil…”
• “Now it’s going to say stencil 3 and I can quickly start to drop shape right here…”
• “Now of course it calls it a master 0.2 so we can right click and we can actually edit this name…”
• “Once I click save it’s now in the system so if I do decide to open up a brand new file… it’s actually going to be in more shapes and then I could go to my shape and I could see ghost stencil…”

4. Using Hyperlinks and the Process Tab for Sub-Processes

Main Theme: Creating interactive diagrams by linking shapes to external documents or other Visio pages representing sub-processes.

Key Ideas & Facts:

• Hyperlinks:Selected shapes can be linked to external files (e.g., Word documents, Excel files, PowerPoint files) or web addresses.
• To create a hyperlink, select the shape, go to the “Insert” tab, and click “Link” in the “Links” command group.
• In the “Hyperlink” dialog box, users can browse for a “Local file” or enter an “Address” for a website.
• Important Note: When browsing for local files, the “Files of type” dropdown may default to Visio files; it needs to be changed to “All Files” to see other document types.
• Linked shapes display a different cursor icon (hand with a link) when hovered over.
• Following a hyperlink typically involves holding the “Ctrl” key and clicking the linked shape, which will open the associated document or website.
• Process Tab (Sub-Processes):The “Process” tab allows linking a shape to a new or existing Visio page representing a sub-process.
• To create a link to a new sub-process page, select the shape representing the sub-process, go to the “Process” tab, and click “Create New Page.”
• Visio will create a new page with a link back to the original flowchart.
• Using “Ctrl + Click” on the original shape will navigate to the linked sub-process page.
• The names of the pages can be edited by double-clicking on the page tabs at the bottom.

Quotes:

• “Wouldn’t it be really nice if we could just click on the shape and it opens up that document in Word? Well good news you can do that in Vizio…”
• “I’m going to click on the actual shape and I’m going to go over to the insert tab… inside of the insert tab this is where the link command group lives and that’s where the command link lid.”
• “Make sure good point right now I’m on Vizio file you’re going to want to click on all files so that you see all of them…”
• “The process Tab and this is very similar to hyperlinks except this goes into subprocess…”
• “To actually access the process tab you’re going to go over the process now once here you can either create a link from an existing subprocess or you can create a new page now I usually use the create new page…”

5. Creating Organizational Charts from Excel Data

Main Theme: Generating organizational charts automatically from structured data in an Excel spreadsheet.

Key Ideas & Facts:

• Excel Data Format: The Excel file needs specific columns, most importantly:
• Name: The name of the employee.
• Reports To: The name of the person the employee reports to (crucial for establishing the hierarchy). For the top-level employee (e.g., CEO), this field can be left blank.
• Position: The employee’s job title.
• Visio Template: Start by searching for “organizational chart” in File -> New.
• Organization Chart Wizard: Instead of using pre-built templates, the instructor uses the wizard to import data.
• Data Source: Select the option to create the chart from “information I’ve already stored in a file or database” and choose “Text, Org Chart data or Spreadsheet.”
• File Selection: Browse and select the Excel file containing the organizational chart data.
• Column Mapping: The wizard prompts to map the columns in the Excel file to the required fields in Visio (Name, Reports To). An optional “First name” field is also available.
• Displayed Information: Choose which data columns from the Excel file should be displayed in the org chart shapes (e.g., Name and Position). The “Reports To” field is used for connections, not typically displayed within the shapes.
• Shape Data: Similar to displayed information, configure which data fields will be associated with each shape’s data properties.
• Pictures (Optional): The wizard allows including employee pictures if they are available as .PNG files named according to a specific convention (e.g., “FirstName LastName.png”). This option is skipped in the example.
• Wizard Layout: The wizard can automatically handle fitting the chart onto the page.
• Post-Generation Editing: After the chart is generated, manual adjustments may be needed to reposition shapes, adjust connector lines, and improve the layout.

Quotes:

• “The first thing you’re going to want to do is build the Excel file in a nice format that will work with Vizio to do this you’re going to open up Excel file and you’re going to make sure it has three things the first thing has to be the name of the person who they report to and also what their position is. The biggest thing out of all of this is the reports too. This makes those connections between the different shapes.”
• “I’m actually going to use the wizard and when I use the wizard it will give me that option to actually pull it from a file or entered in the wizard now I’m going to pull it from an Excel file…”
• “The name is going to be the name column I created reports to will be the reports to and if you did have a first name column you could use that but that is optional so I’ll leave it at none.”
• “Now it’s going to ask me about the columns that our data wants to display and I want the data file column to be the reports to I actually don’t want to display who they report to that’s just going to be the connectors I want it to display the name and the position of the person.”
• “Once you do that it builds it out and it looks amazing now all we have to do is move some stuff over…”

6. Creating Pivot Diagrams from Excel Data

Main Theme: Generating interactive data visualizations from Excel data using the Pivot Diagram template.

Key Ideas & Facts:

• Excel Data Requirements: The Excel data should be in a tabular format with headers for each column of data. The example includes columns for Month, Year, Ice Cream Type, Salesperson, Region, Sales Amount, and Units Sold.
• Pivot Diagram Template: Accessed via File -> New and searching for “pivot diagram template.”
• Data Selector: Upon creating a new pivot diagram, a “Data Selector” dialog box appears, prompting the user to choose the data source (Excel, Access, SharePoint, SQL Server).
• Workbook and Worksheet Selection: Browse to select the Excel workbook and then specify the worksheet or range containing the data. Indicate if the first row contains column headers.
• Column Inclusion: Choose which columns from the Excel data to include in the pivot diagram. By default, all columns are selected.
• Data Import: Once the data is successfully imported, the fields from the Excel headers appear in a “PivotDiagram Fields” pane.
• Building the Diagram: Drag and drop fields from the “PivotDiagram Fields” pane onto the diagram canvas to visualize the data.
• The initial view might show a summary of all data (e.g., total for a year).
• Adding fields like “Sales” will display the total sales amount.
• Adding “Salesperson” will break down the sales by each salesperson.
• Adding “Region” will further categorize the data by sales region for each salesperson.
• Adding “Type” (of ice cream) will provide the most granular breakdown.
• Changing Measures: The measure being displayed (e.g., total sales) can be changed (e.g., to “Unit” to show units sold).
• Deleting Fields: Fields can be removed from the diagram by selecting the corresponding shapes and pressing the “Delete” key or by deselecting them in a dropdown.
• Layout Adjustment: The “Arrange” group on the “Home” tab (including “Align” and “Position” options like “Auto Align” and “Auto Space”) can be used to automatically tidy up the layout of the diagram.
• Shape Customization: Individual shapes or groups of shapes (e.g., all regions) can be customized by changing their fill colors or by editing the “Data Graphics” associated with them.

Quotes:

• “The first thing we need to do is make sure that we have Excel information now what I always like to do is I like to make sure that I have my headers and then the information in here…”
• “Open up my Vizio again and I’m going to go to file new and which template we’re going to use is the pivot diagram template…”
• “Right away it’s going to pop up the data selector and it’s going to ask you where’s the data coming from and you can select it from either Excel or access or SharePoint or even SQL servers…”
• “Now by default right now what it’s doing if I zoom in here it’s just giving me the total for the year I don’t want that I want to see how much should I make in total sales so I’ll deselect this and yourself and it shows me we made about 1 million in sales 1.5.”
• “Let’s say that you want to delete something off of this pivot diagram for instance I don’t want the type of ice cream anymore I can always just go back over to type a little drop down select all and when I select all I can press delete on my keyboard and it gets rid of all those types.”

7. Sharing Visio Drawings

Main Theme: Methods for sharing Visio diagrams with others.

Key Ideas & Facts:

• In-App Sharing (Cloud): Using the “Share” button in the top right corner allows sharing via OneDrive (the cloud).
• Email Sharing: The “Share” button also provides options to share via email:
• As a PDF: Creates a static, non-editable version of the diagram.
• As a Visio drawing: Allows recipients who have Visio to open and edit the diagram.
• File Tab Sharing: Similar sharing options are available via File -> Share, with options for OneDrive and email (as attachment or PDF).

Quotes:

• “To share a drawing with someone there’s two ways to do it we can either come to the top right corner here and click on share and when I click on share it’s going to give me two options I can either share this on the cloud using my book drive or I can share this in an email as a PDF or as an actual video drawing…”
• “The same thing to do this is by going to file share and you’ll see once again we can either share with OneDrive or an email we could send as an attachment or as a PDF.”

This briefing document provides a comprehensive overview of the topics covered in the Visio advanced course excerpts. It highlights the key concepts, procedures, and functionalities demonstrated by the instructor, Joe. The inclusion of direct quotes helps to preserve the original context and emphasis.

Visio Fundamentals: Cross-Functional Flowcharts

• What is a cross-functional flowchart? A cross-functional flowchart is a type of diagram that visualizes a process while also showing which departments, teams, or phases are responsible for each step. It uses “swim lanes” to separate the activities based on these responsibilities, providing a clear overview of how different parts of an organization or project interact to complete a process.
• How do I create swim lanes in Visio? To create swim lanes in Visio, open a basic flowchart template and then access the “Cross-Functional Flowchart Shapes” stencil. From there, you can drag and drop vertical or horizontal swim lanes onto your canvas. You can resize them and add more lanes as needed. You can also use “separators” within the lanes to further divide them by different teams or sub-phases.
• How do I label the swim lanes and separators? To label a swim lane or separator, simply double-click on the title area (which often defaults to “Function” or similar) and type in the desired name, such as a department name (e.g., “Marketing Team”) or a project phase (e.g., “Phase One”). You can also adjust the font size and other formatting as needed.
• How do I connect shapes across different swim lanes? You can connect shapes across different swim lanes using the connector tool in Visio. Simply select the connector tool, click on a connection point of the first shape, and drag to a connection point of the second shape, regardless of which swim lane they are in. You can adjust the style and routing of the connectors as needed.

Visio Fundamentals: Network Diagrams

• What is a network diagram used for? A network diagram is a visual representation of a computer or telecommunications network. It shows the components of the network, such as routers, firewalls, servers, computers, and wireless access points, as well as their connections and how data flows between them. Network diagrams are used for planning, designing, documenting, and troubleshooting network infrastructures.
• How do I create a basic network diagram in Visio? To create a basic network diagram in Visio, you can start with a blank drawing or use a pre-designed “Basic Network Diagram” template. You can then drag and drop various network component shapes from the available stencils (such as “Computers and Monitors,” “Network and Peripherals,” and “Network Locations”) onto your canvas. Connect these shapes using the connector tool to represent the network connections. You can add text labels to identify each component.
• How can I represent wireless connections in a network diagram? To represent wireless connections in a Visio network diagram, you can use the standard connector tool to draw a line between the wirelessly connected devices (e.g., a router and a wireless access point, or a wireless access point and a laptop). Then, select the connector line, go to the “Line” options, and change the line style to a dashed or dotted line to visually indicate a wireless connection.
• How can I group objects in a Visio diagram? To group multiple objects in Visio so they can be moved or manipulated as a single unit, select all the objects you want to group (you can hold the Ctrl key while clicking to select multiple objects). Then, go to the “Home” tab, find the “Arrange” group, and click on “Group.” To ungroup them later, select the grouped object and click on “Ungroup” in the same menu.

Visio Fundamentals: Custom Stencils and Reusability

• How can I save custom shapes for future use in Visio? To save custom shapes in Visio, you can create a new stencil by going to “More Shapes” > “New Stencil” (and choosing your preferred units). Then, select the shapes you want to save, drag them onto your new stencil, and they will be added as master shapes. You can rename these master shapes by right-clicking on them and selecting “Edit Master” > “Edit Name.” To save the entire stencil, click the save icon on the stencil window and give it a name. This custom stencil will then be available in the “My Shapes” or a similarly named section under “More Shapes” in future Visio drawings.
• How do I access my custom stencils in new Visio drawings? Once you have saved a custom stencil, you can access it in any new Visio drawing by going to “More Shapes” in the “Shapes” pane. Look for a category like “My Shapes” or the name you gave your stencil. Clicking on this category will open your custom stencil, and you can then drag and drop your saved master shapes onto your drawing canvas.

Visio Fundamentals: Hyperlinks and Process Links

• How can I link a Visio shape to an external document or website? To link a Visio shape to an external document or website, select the shape and go to the “Insert” tab. In the “Links” group, click “Link.” In the dialog box, under “Address,” you can either type the web address or click “Browse” to locate a local file (remember to change the file type filter to “All Files” if you are linking to a non-Visio file). Click “OK” to create the hyperlink. When you hover over the linked shape (and press Ctrl), your cursor will change to a hand with a link icon, and clicking it will open the linked document or website.
• How can I link a Visio shape to another page within the same Visio document? To link a Visio shape to another page within the same document, select the shape and go to the “Insert” tab, then click “Link.” In the dialog box, under “Sub-address,” click “Browse.” This will typically show the available pages in your current Visio file. Select the desired page and click “OK.” Now, when you Ctrl+click the shape, it will navigate you to the specified page within the same Visio document.
• What is the purpose of the “Process” tab in Visio? The “Process” tab in Visio provides tools for managing and linking subprocesses within your flowcharts. It allows you to designate a shape as a subprocess and then either link it to an existing flowchart or create a new page for the detailed steps of that subprocess. This helps in organizing complex processes into more manageable and linked diagrams.
• How do I create a new page for a subprocess using the “Process” tab? To create a new page for a subprocess, select the shape that represents the subprocess in your main flowchart. Then, go to the “Process” tab and click on “Create New” in the “Subprocess” group. Visio will automatically create a new page in your document and establish a link between the original shape and this new page. You can then detail the subprocess on this new page. A link back to the main flowchart is also typically created.

Visio Fundamentals: Organizational Charts from Excel Data

• What is the required format for an Excel file to create an organizational chart in Visio? To create an organizational chart from an Excel file in Visio, your Excel file should have at least three columns: a column for the employee’s name, a column for the employee’s reporting manager’s name (this is crucial for establishing the hierarchy), and a column for the employee’s position or title. The column headers should clearly identify these pieces of information (e.g., “Name,” “Reports To,” “Position”). For the top-level manager (e.g., CEO), the “Reports To” field can be left blank.
• How do I use the Organization Chart Wizard in Visio to import data from Excel? To use the Organization Chart Wizard, go to “File” > “New” and search for “Organizational Chart.” Choose the “Organization Chart Wizard” option and click “Create.” In the wizard, select “Information that I enter using the wizard” and click “Next.” On the subsequent screen, choose “Information in an existing text or organization chart file” and click “Next.” Select “Excel” as the data source and click “Next.” Then, browse to locate your Excel file, select it, and click “Open.” Click “Next” again, and you will be prompted to match the columns in your Excel file to the fields Visio uses (e.g., match your “Name” column to Visio’s “Name,” your “Reports To” column to Visio’s “Reports To,” and your “Position” column to Visio’s “Title”). Follow the remaining steps in the wizard to customize the chart’s appearance and then click “Finish” to generate your organizational chart.

Visio Fundamentals: Pivot Diagrams from Excel Data

• What kind of data is suitable for creating a pivot diagram in Visio? Data that is organized in a tabular format with clear categories and numerical values is suitable for creating a pivot diagram in Visio. This typically includes transactional data with columns representing dimensions (e.g., time periods, product categories, regions, salespersons) and measures (e.g., sales revenue, units sold, costs).
• How do I create a pivot diagram in Visio from an Excel file? To create a pivot diagram in Visio, go to “File” > “New” and search for “Pivot Diagram.” Select the template and click “Create.” In the “Data Selector” dialog box, choose “Microsoft Excel Workbook” and click “Next.” Browse to select your Excel file and click “Open,” then click “Next.” Choose the worksheet or named range that contains your data and indicate if the first row contains headers. Click “Next” to select the columns you want to include in your diagram (you can typically select all). Click “Next” again, and after the data is imported, click “Finish.” The “PivotDiagram Fields” pane will appear, allowing you to drag and drop fields onto the diagram to analyze and visualize your data by creating hierarchical breakdowns and aggregations.
• How can I modify the information displayed in a Visio pivot diagram? To modify the information displayed in a Visio pivot diagram, use the “PivotDiagram Fields” pane. The fields from your data source are listed here. You can drag these fields onto different areas of the diagram (like the “Category” or “Value” areas) to change what data is being displayed and how it is aggregated. For example, you can switch from showing total sales by year to showing total units sold by product category and region by simply dragging and dropping the relevant fields. You can also use the dropdown arrows on the shapes in the diagram to filter or further refine the displayed data.
• How can I customize the appearance of shapes in a Visio pivot diagram? You can customize the appearance of shapes in a Visio pivot diagram by selecting the shapes you want to modify. Then, you can use the formatting options available in the “Home” tab, such as fill color, line style, and text formatting, to change their appearance. For more advanced customization, you can also edit the data graphics associated with the shapes. Select a shape, and in the “Data” tab, look for options related to data graphics, where you can modify how data values are visually represented.

Visio Fundamentals: Sharing Diagrams

• What are the different ways to share a Visio diagram with others? You can share a Visio diagram in several ways:
• Via the cloud (OneDrive): You can save your Visio drawing to OneDrive and then share a link with others, allowing them to view or even edit the diagram depending on the permissions you grant.
• As an email attachment: You can send the Visio file (.vsdx) as an attachment to an email. Recipients who have Visio can open and edit the file.
• As a PDF: You can save your Visio diagram as a PDF file, which is a widely accessible format that recipients can view without needing Visio. This format is good for sharing a static view of your diagram.
• As a Visio drawing that opens in the Visio application: When sharing via email within the Visio application, you might have the option to send it in a format that directly opens in the recipient’s Visio if they have it installed.
• How do I save a Visio diagram as a PDF? To save a Visio diagram as a PDF, go to “File” > “Save As.” In the “Save As” dialog box, choose a location to save your file. Then, in the “Save as type” dropdown menu, select “PDF (*.pdf).” Click “Save” to create the PDF version of your diagram. You may have additional options to customize the PDF output, such as page range and image quality, depending on your Visio version.

Advanced Vizio Diagramming Techniques

The Vizio advanced course, as facilitated by Joe in the provided text, covers several topics building upon basic flowchart creation. Here’s a discussion of the key concepts and activities covered:

• Creating Cross-Functional Flowcharts: The course starts by extending basic flowcharts to cross-functional flowcharts using the basic flowchart template. This involves utilizing the “Cross-Functional Flowchart Shapes” stencil, which contains swim lanes and separators. These elements allow for the separation of flowchart steps by different phases or departments involved in a project. The example provided illustrates a project with three phases and three teams (Team A, Team B, Team C) working on various processes like “Project Alpha,” “Bourbon,” “Contact Developers,” “Contact Marketing Team,” and “Building a pricing plan”. Vertical swim lanes and vertical separators are used for this purpose. The course emphasizes naming swim lanes (e.g., “Phase One,” “Phase Two,” “Phase Three” or “Team A,” “Team B,” “Team C”) and placing relevant flowchart shapes within these lanes to visualize responsibilities and process flow across different functions.
• Creating Network Diagrams: The course then moves on to creating network diagrams to show hierarchical network designs using WLANs and internetworking. This section involves starting a new file and searching for a network diagram template, or even starting from a blank drawing. The example demonstrates creating an insecure route (representing the internet) and a secure route (representing a business building). The secure route includes elements like routers, firewalls, servers, computers (including laptops), and WLANs with wireless access points. The course covers connecting these elements using the connector tool and differentiating wireless connections using dashed lines.
• Saving Custom Shapes to a Personal Stencil: The course also teaches how to create and save custom shapes to a personal stencil for repeated use. This involves opening a new stencil, dragging existing or modified shapes into it, renaming the master shapes, and saving the stencil with a custom name (e.g., “codes stencil”). These custom stencils then become accessible in the “More Shapes” menu for use in future diagrams.
• Adding Hyperlinks to Shapes: The course explains how to add hyperlinks to shapes to link to external documents (like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files) or websites. This is done through the “Insert” tab, using the “Link” command. The dialog box allows browsing for a local file, and upon hovering over a linked shape, a cursor with a link icon appears, indicating that holding “Ctrl” and clicking will open the linked document.
• Using the Process Tab for Sub-Processes: The “Process” tab is introduced as a way to link to sub-processes by creating new Vizio pages. Selecting a shape representing a sub-process (like “building the pricing plan”) and using the “Create New Page” option in the “Process” tab automatically generates a new page for detailing that sub-process and creates a link between the original shape and the new page. Ctrl-clicking the original shape navigates to the linked sub-process page.
• Creating Organizational Charts from Excel Data: The course details how to generate organizational charts directly from an Excel file. This requires a specific Excel file format with columns for the employee’s name, who they report to, and their position. The “Reports to” column is crucial for establishing the hierarchical connections. In Vizio, a new organizational chart is created using the wizard, selecting the option to pull data from a file (Excel), specifying the file and worksheet, and then mapping the Excel columns to the appropriate fields in the org chart wizard (Name, Reports to, Position). The wizard then automatically builds the org chart, which may require some manual adjustments for layout and connector points.
• Creating Pivot Diagrams from Excel Data: The course covers creating pivot diagrams from Excel data to visualize data summaries. This involves having structured data in Excel with headers. In Vizio, the “Pivot Diagram” template is used, and the data selector allows importing data from Excel by specifying the file and worksheet. Once imported, fields (like “Year,” “Salesperson,” “Region,” “Type,” “Sales,” “Unit”) appear, which can be added as layers to the diagram to analyze and break down the data (e.g., total sales by salesperson, by region, and by type of ice cream sold). The diagram can be customized by deleting layers, auto-aligning shapes, and editing data graphics or individual shape colors.
• Sharing Vizio Drawings: Finally, the course briefly touches upon sharing Vizio drawings, which can be done by sharing on the cloud (OneDrive) or via email as a PDF or as an editable Vizio drawing. This can be accessed through the share button in the top right corner or through the “File” > “Share” menu.

In summary, the Vizio advanced course focuses on enhancing diagramming capabilities beyond basic flowcharts by introducing techniques for visualizing complex processes, network structures, organizational hierarchies, and data summaries, as well as methods for customization, linking, and sharing.

Vizio: Creating Cross-Functional Flowcharts

Based on the sources and our previous conversation, let’s delve deeper into cross-functional flowcharts as discussed in the Vizio advanced course.

In the Vizio advanced course, after learning the basics of creating flowcharts, the next step is to create cross-functional flowcharts. This type of flowchart is designed to illustrate process flow across different functional areas or phases within an organization or project.

Here are the key aspects of creating cross-functional flowcharts as described in the course:

• Starting with the Basic Flowchart Template: To begin, you use the basic flowchart template in Vizio. If you don’t readily see it, you can search for it online through “more templates”. After selecting the basic flowchart, you choose a blank flowchart and click “create”.
• Utilizing the “Cross-Functional Flowchart Shapes” Stencil: A crucial element for creating cross-functional flowcharts is the “Cross-Functional Flowchart Shapes” stencil. You can access this by clicking on it, which will display the available shapes, most notably swim lanes and separators.
• Swim Lanes and Separators:
• Swim lanes are used to represent different phases or departments that are involved in the process being diagrammed. They act as horizontal or vertical containers to group related steps. In the example provided, vertical swim lanes are used to represent three different departments or teams: Team A, Team B, and Team C.
• Separators, specifically vertical separators when using vertical swim lanes, are used to further divide the swim lanes and can be labeled to indicate the different functions or teams responsible for the activities within those sections.
• Mapping Processes to Swim Lanes: Once the swim lanes and separators are in place, you can start adding basic flowchart shapes (like “Start,” “Process,” “Sub-process,” “Decision,” “Document,” and “End”) and positioning them within the appropriate swim lanes. This visually maps which department or phase is responsible for each step in the process.
• Naming Swim Lanes and Separators: It’s important to name the swim lanes and separators clearly to reflect the phases or departments they represent. In the example, the initial swim lanes are labeled “Phase one,” “Phase two,” and “Phase three”. These labels can be modified; for instance, they are later changed to represent “Team A,” “Team B,” and “Team C” using separators.
• Connecting the Flow Across Functions: The standard connector tool is used to show the sequence of steps in the flowchart, even as the flow moves across different swim lanes, indicating the handoffs or dependencies between different functions or phases.
• Benefits of Cross-Functional Flowcharts: This type of flowchart provides a clear visual representation of how a process flows across different parts of an organization, highlighting responsibilities, potential bottlenecks, and areas for collaboration.

In the example provided, a project lifecycle is mapped across three teams (A, B, and C) and potentially through different phases (although initially set as phases, the labels are changed to teams). You can see how “Project Alpha” is handled by Team A, obtaining permits and contacting developers is done by Team B, while contacting marketing falls under Team C. As the process progresses, different teams become responsible for subsequent steps like building a pricing plan, checking in with other teams, making decisions, and announcing the demo.

By using swim lanes and separators, cross-functional flowcharts offer a more detailed and contextual understanding of a process compared to a basic flowchart, especially when multiple teams or departments are involved.

Vizio Basic Flowchart Template: A Foundation

Based on the sources and our conversation history, let’s discuss the basic flowchart template in Vizio.

The basic flowchart template is presented in the sources as the foundation for creating various types of flowcharts, including the more advanced cross-functional flowcharts.

Here’s what the sources tell us about the basic flowchart template:

• Starting Point: The Vizio advanced course begins by using the basic flowchart template. This suggests it is a fundamental template that provides the necessary tools and shapes for illustrating sequential steps in a process.
• Accessing the Template: When you open Vizio and want to start a flowchart, you can look for the “basic flowchart” template. If it’s not immediately visible, you can find it by going into “more templates” and searching for it online. This indicates that Vizio has a library of templates, and the basic flowchart is a standard option.
• Creating a Blank Flowchart: Once you click on the “basic flowchart” template, you are then prompted to use a “blank flowchart” and click “create”. This implies that the basic flowchart template provides a canvas and access to relevant stencils, but you start with a blank drawing area to build your specific flowchart.
• Foundation for Advanced Flowcharts: As mentioned earlier, the basic flowchart template is used as the starting point for creating more complex diagrams like cross-functional flowcharts. This means it likely contains the fundamental flowchart shapes (like process, decision, start/end, etc.) that can then be organized within swim lanes and separated by functional areas when creating a cross-functional flowchart, as discussed in our previous turn.
• Access to Stencils: When you start with the basic flowchart template, you gain access to relevant shape stencils. For instance, when creating a basic flowchart and then moving to a cross-functional flowchart, the “Cross-Functional Flowchart Shape” stencil becomes available. This indicates that the initial template selection influences the stencils you can readily use for building your diagram.

In summary, the basic flowchart template in Vizio is the initial template you select to begin creating process flow diagrams. It provides a blank canvas and access to fundamental flowchart shapes and stencils, serving as the starting point for both simple and more advanced flowcharts like cross-functional ones. If you don’t see it immediately, you can easily find it by searching through Vizio’s extensive template library online.

Vizio Swim Lanes for Cross-Functional Flowcharts

Based on the sources and our previous discussion, let’s delve into swim lanes in Vizio.

Swim lanes are a fundamental component of cross-functional flowcharts in Vizio [1, previous turn]. They serve as visual containers to organize the steps of a process according to different phases or departments involved.

Here are the key aspects of swim lanes as described in the sources:

• Location in the Stencil: Swim lanes are found within the “Cross-Functional Flowchart Shapes” stencil in Vizio. This stencil becomes accessible when you start with a basic flowchart template and intend to create a cross-functional flowchart [1, previous turn].
• Purpose of Separation: The primary function of swim lanes is to separate the activities within a flowchart based on who is responsible for them (e.g., different departments or teams) or the stage in which they occur (e.g., different phases of a project).
• Vertical Orientation: In the example provided in the sources, vertical swim lanes are used. To add a vertical swim lane, you click and drag the “vertical Lane” shape from the “Cross-Functional Flowchart Shapes” stencil onto your drawing canvas.
• Resizing Capabilities: Once a swim lane is added, its size can be adjusted to accommodate the flowchart shapes that will be placed within it. You can click and drag the edges of the swim lane to increase or decrease its height.
• Inclusion of Titles: Each swim lane includes a title. This title is crucial for identifying the department, team, or phase that the swim lane represents.
• Adding Multiple Swim Lanes: You can add multiple swim lanes to your diagram, positioning them next to each other to represent all the relevant functions or phases involved in your process.
• Labeling Swim Lanes: The title of a swim lane can be easily changed by double-clicking on the existing title (which defaults to “Function”) and typing in the desired name, such as “Phase one,” “Phase two,” “Phase three,” “Team A,” “Team B,” or “Team C”.

In the context of creating a cross-functional flowchart, after adding and arranging the swim lanes to represent the different involved parties, you then place the standard flowchart shapes within the appropriate swim lane to visually depict who performs each step of the process [4, previous turn]. The connectors then show the flow of work, often crossing between swim lanes to indicate handoffs or dependencies between different functions.

In summary, swim lanes in Vizio are essential tools for creating cross-functional flowcharts. They provide a structured way to visualize process flow by organizing activities within clearly defined sections representing different responsibilities or stages. The ability to add, resize, and label swim lanes makes them highly adaptable for mapping various types of cross-functional processes.

Visualizing Project Phases in Vizio Flowcharts

Based on the sources and our conversation history, let’s discuss project phases in the context of creating flowcharts using Vizio.

The sources indicate that project phases can be effectively represented in a cross-functional flowchart using swim lanes. Swim lanes allow you to visually segregate the different stages or phases of a project, making it clear which activities belong to each phase.

Here’s how project phases are addressed in the sources:

• Swim Lanes as Representation of Phases: When introducing the concept of cross-functional flowcharts, the source explicitly states that swim lanes can be used to separate things by “different phases”. This establishes swim lanes as a primary tool for visualizing project phases within a flowchart.
• Initial Labeling of Swim Lanes: In the example provided, the initial setup of the cross-functional flowchart involves creating three vertical swim lanes that are labeled as “Phase one,” “Phase two,” and “Phase three”. This directly demonstrates how swim lanes can be named to represent distinct project phases.
• Flexibility in Representation: While the initial example uses “Phase” to label the swim lanes, the source goes on to change these labels to represent “Team A,” “Team B,” and “Team C”. This highlights the flexibility of swim lanes, indicating that they can be used to represent not only project phases but also different departments or teams involved in the project lifecycle. The key takeaway is that swim lanes provide a method for categorizing and organizing flowchart activities based on a chosen criterion, which can be project phases.
• Visual Organization of Activities: By placing specific flowchart shapes within the swim lane corresponding to a particular project phase, you can clearly visualize which activities occur during each phase. The connectors then illustrate the flow of work through the different phases, potentially moving from one swim lane (phase) to another.

In summary, project phases can be effectively visualized in Vizio by utilizing swim lanes in a cross-functional flowchart. You can label each swim lane to represent a specific phase of the project and then place the relevant process steps within that swim lane. While swim lanes can also represent other functional divisions like teams or departments, they provide a clear and organized way to map out the progression of a project through its various stages. The ability to label and resize swim lanes offers the flexibility to represent project phases in a way that best suits the specific project and its requirements.

The Original Text

hello everyone and welcome my name is Joe I’m going to be facilitating this course for you today and today we’re going to be talking about Vizio advanced in our Vizio introduction course what we ended up creating was a basic flowchart what I want to start off with today is creating what’s known as a cross-functional flowchart to do this we’re going to use our basic flowchart template right here and if you don’t see that you can always go into more templates and search for it online so once you click on basic flowchart we’re then going to use our blank flowchart and click create now you’ll see right away that we have the option for cross-functional flowchart shape stencil and if I click on it this is where we’ll find our swim lanes and our separators this will allow us to separate things by different phases or even different departments that are going to be working on these different flow charts so let’s say that we’re working on a project and we can use some basic flow chart shapes for this we’ll do a start and end and I’ll just put my start right here and let’s say that this is going to be I don’t know we’ll make up the process as we go along we’re going to have a process underneath it we’ll have some sort of process and we’ll reshape this and then we’ll have another process then we can always duplicate for another one then somewhere along the line we’ll have some sort of sub process and we’ll start to follow this out in a little bit we’ll have another process and once again I could just use Ctrl D to duplicate maybe we’ll have a decision somewhere I think that looks good right there just gonna space this out nicely and then we’ll have a document that we need to access or create and last but not least we will duplicate our end so for these different processes what we can do is we can start to map these out to different departments and different phases for instance maybe there’s going to be three phases that this project is going to be completed in and I’m going to have three different departments working on this I’m just going to move my shapes to wherever I’d like just so that they feel like they’re more aligned and we’ll do something like this I think this looks great and next what I’m going to do is start to name these so for this first process what we’ll call this is project Alpha there we go and of course we can always change the size of this and all the other editing tools that we’ve went over in our Vizio introduction video I’ll just add a size 14 on there I think that looks great so what we’re going to do now is fill out the rest of this I’m going to click into the next one and we’ll say for this one we’re going to Bourbon and once again I’ll just change everything I need to change here I’ll go with a 14 point font and then after that I’m thinking we’ll do contact Developers foreign we will contact our marketing team so we could start to get this project marketed after this we might have a sub-process where we’re building a pricing plan and once again I’ll just change that to a 14 point and then we may want to just check in on our developers and marketing team and I like to just do a double click like this so that I can get R if we go one two we get our nice little app box here but what we can also do is just go right up top and just change it here as well whatever works down here we do want a decision point on this and the decision point is how we want to announce this so do we want to announce this via teams or email foreign to do an email we are going to want to write up an email on this so once again I’ll just change this to 14 point there we go we may want to make this a little bigger just because of the text and then if we do decide to do email and I’ll just change that via if we decide to do email well then we’ll go up here and we will write out the document so this will be our demo announcement document and last but not least well we’ll have our demo now we just have to create our connections and I’m going to go to my connector tool and I’ll create a connection I want to make this a static connection so I will be going from point to point and once again point to point and there we go and then for our announcements we’ll either if we decide to do email go to demo announcements or we’re just going to go straight to the demo if we’re going to do a quick little teams announcement and I think that looks great now I’ll go back to my pointer tool I’m just going to switch up this line so it’s straight I might want to switch this line up so it’s straight as well there we go and I think this looks awesome but now what we’re going to want to do is set up our cross functional team because I have three teams working on this team a team B and team C but I also have this in different phases so the first thing I’m going to do is go over to my cross-functional flowchart shape now for this I’m going to use the vertical Lane for the vertical swim Lane and I’m going to click and drag it right here and I can make it as big as I want if I wanted to make it a little bigger you can come over here and click and drag whatever works for you and I’m just going to make that a little bigger there perfect and I want to include that line so perfect it also includes the title which is really nice and now that we have this I might just make this a little different here and there we go beautiful and I think that looks nice now I’m going to add another Swan Layman as well the second one is going to go right next to it and once again I want this to capture the rest of them so I will click away and then once I click away I could just click and drag and I include it like this and then last but not least one last swim Lane right over here and then I click away and then you can resize it now what I want to do is I want to start to add more phases you’ll see here that this is all just one face I want this to be all different types of faces so I want this to say instead of function I’ll double click and I’ll call this one phase one I’ll then click on the next function and I’ll call this one phase two and I’ll click on this third one nice double click phase three now for these phases I don’t really want it to say phase I want it to have theme A Team B Team D but I do need to split this up so I’m going to use what’s known as a separator now if you’re using a vertical swim Lane you’re going to use a vertical separator and if you’re using just a swim Lane horizontally you’re going to use the normal separator so I’ll click on vertical separator and click and drag this one right here and what I’m going to do is I’m going to change this to instead of it saying phase I’m going to call it team a now I know that team a is going to be dealing with the project Alpha discussion a building pricing plan and then that’s it we’ll then go into another separator and I’ll add it between these two right here and we’ll just say that let’s go all the way over here let’s add contact Developers and this is going to be my team so Team B is going to be working on all these different flows now I’ll do class separator if I needed to but since it’s already here all I have to do is double click and then put Dean see and now we have everything organized so for phase one I have Team a working on the idea of project Alpha I have Team B playing the permits and contacting developers while my team fee contact marketing degree then when we switch over to phase two team a will be building out a pricing plan and Team B will be checking in on the marketing and development and then team c will make that decision if they’re going to announce via teams or email once we get into phase three email is fully done with this project I think B is going to be announcing the demo and then of course if we decide to send out this document or if we don’t we can skip into that now I do want to add one more connector just from here demo and there we go I may also want to add the text here as well to decide what is the decision is this the teams or is this the team so I’m going to click on text and I’m going to enter the text here I’m just going to put via themes and you can make that a little bigger if you like I’ll do a 14 point and then once I’m done I can use my pointer tool to actually take this and drag it down here because this is where it’s going to live beautiful and then I’ll do another one I’m going to put it here and I’m going to say via email and once again you can double click make this a little bigger I’ll do 14 point and then I’ll click on my pointer tool and just click and drag it to the middle here and look at that this is looking great of course we could change the colors as I always like to do I could change one color or both at the same time and then I can just do a quick fill maybe I’ll make those ones let’s do a red for those for all the processes I’m gonna do a lighter blue something like that that looks great for the sub process let’s do a nice green for the announcement I’ll do a purple and then for the demo I’ll do chemo announcement in yellow you can also change these shapes as well if you like and fill them with different colors you can do a nice light gray just click on each one maybe I want to change this to a different color as well you’re more than welcome to in each of these as well and there we go and you might just want to change that text of course and change it to a different color and there we go so you can have really a lot of customization to this and make it look any way that you like so take a moment try this out on your own and when we come back we’re going to talk about building a network diagram what we’re going to be talking about next is creating a network diagram now this network diagram will show the hierarchical network design using wlans and also internet working so the first thing I’m going to do is create a new file I’m actually going to just simply search for a network diagram you’ll also see here in the suggested search that we have network if we give that a click it’s going to search thousands of our templates and we can go here and choose which one we want now I’m just going to Simply use a basic diagram so I’ll go to basic Network diagram give it a click use a basic Network diagram or we can use a small slash medium business at work diagram whichever one you’d like to use you’re more than welcome to they just have different icon designs now for me you can even just start from scratch which I’m gonna do and then I’ll click create now the first thing I’m going to do is the insecure route so I want to be able to create a box and then start to put different things in there you’ll see we have access to networks we have computer monitors and we have quick shapes or even more shapes that we can add so I do want to just add some basic shapes here so I will go to more shapes and then I’ll go to General and basic shape this is where I can start to create those borders and I’m going to click and drag the square over here I’ll make a little bigger here just like that I think that looks good I don’t want to fill so I am going to turn the fill off no fill but I do want to make sure I can see that line so I’m going to do that and there we go we have a nice little light box now inside this box I do want to have the internet I’m going to go to network and I’m going to search for anything that helps me to distinguish that this is the internet that we’re connecting to and we can use whatever we like whether we want to do wireless access point or maybe we want to create a cloud so I can search for cloud and there we go we see the cloud right here and you’ll also notice that it’s under Network location so you can just see through all these different things we have symbols we have calendar shapes but I’m going to use this one and put it right here and then what I can do is just enter a text box and the text box is going to say internet just so that I have some sort of labeling system here I’ll put internet and there we go now I can go back to home grab my pointer tool and click and drag it wherever I like and I’ll put it right there now the next thing that I want to do is group these together I think it’s important to do this so that I know this is one object I can do that by clicking on this one holding the control key clicking on internet and then we’ll go to group under the enrangement group give it a click and click group so now it’s all one so even when I move this I can move it around as one piece next up I do want to search for some sort of like business building so that I can represent the building and once again you can either look here add some of your network or you can just search for building and there we go building and it’s under once again Network locations and I’ll give that a click here now I’m going to make a connection from our Internet to our actual building and I may also want to just put in here that this is an insecure Network space so I’m going to add another insert text box and then I’ll add it right here and I’ll just put into here you can also make this a little bigger and I’ll just go with like a 30 point I think that looks good and now I can make my connection by going to the connector tool and connecting this straight to this and there we go looks perfect now if you did want to connect this tool maybe you want to move it over a little bit you’re more than welcome to just so that it looks a little nicer it’s not just coming straight from the middle and I think that looks great the way it is the next thing we need to do is now create the secured route so in order to do that we’re going to actually create the router and the firewall right here once again there’s different things you can use for the shapes and you’ll see I have a firewall here and I have a router designed so I’m going to use both of these I’ll just click my router put it here and I’ll take my firewall and I’ll put it here now I do want my firewall behind the router so I will click on bring front or send back and I’m going to actually send this backwards so that my router is on top of my firewall the next thing I’m going to do is create another shape I’m going to actually just duplicate this one so it saves us some time and I’ll put that right here I think that looks great and now I can start to add my secure network and I like to do a lot of duplication because it’s a lot easier than resizing everything and I’ll put secure it instead the next thing I’m going to do is add another router so I will just click on this router duplicate it and add it right here I’ll add a couple more routers as well three more so I’ll do Ctrl D Ctrl D Ctrl D and I’ll move those to wherever I like and I’m going to go here here and probably one here so I may want to make this a little bigger and there we go and I think that looks great the next thing I’m going to do is I’m going to create the server and then I’ll create the computers as well so I can take the server icon bring it over here and then I’m going to take the computers and I’ll just find the computers here or once again we can just go over to our shapes look at the different stencils we have like computers monitors and I can use these and I’ll just bring out a couple of them here and you know what I’m thinking let’s use laptop that looks better I’ll duplicate those because we’re going to have probably three laptops here and then I’ll make this once again a little bigger of a shape because I want to make sure that it fits all of our different icons and I might move this a little as well and there we go now the last thing I’m going to do is have a couple of wlans and I’m going to have one room filled with computers and then a second one so once again I will create that shape just by duplicating it bring it over here squeeze it up a little bit maybe make it a little and if you notice that it’s doing something like this the shape and it’s just not really listening to how you want it to be what you can always do is enter a different shape and I always like to just use if I’m going to use shapes that have some sort of text box I may just use a text box but if you wanted to once again you can always just go back to basic shapes and instead of choosing Square you can use rectangle whatever way works for you you’re more than welcome to do since I know I’m going to be adding a bunch of different icons in here I’m going to just create a rectangle foreign and then once again on that rectangle I’m going to make sure that there’s no fill and I’ll do the line to be Gray I’ll create a duplicate of that and then I will just grab these text box and that control D like I said it’s going to help out a lot so you don’t have to constantly resize things and I’m going to just call this a WLAN s and we’ll put 0 1. I’ll duplicate it and then I’ll do zero to them and maybe make this a little bit bigger next up I’m going to add let’s say probably four computers here and four computers here as well so I may want to make this a little bigger here and I’ll just add a couple of computers and for these computers I will make them a little smaller just so that we can put them in this box for us and then I’ll do Ctrl d c d control d just like this and all we’re doing is building out a scheme for this network design and I’ll create a couple more and now what I want to do is I want to make sure that there is some sort of access point so I will put a wireless access point here and I’ll put another wireless access point here as well now that we have everything that we need what I want to do is start to create these connections so for the secured what I want to do first is actually bold it and underline it same thing here bold underline bold underline and bold and underline now I’ll create those connectors so I’m going to connect this router to this one and I’m just going to change this over here just like that I’m going to connect this router with this one and then also this router with this one now for this connection I’m connecting this router with the computer this router with this computer and you can always just move those over if you don’t like where their placement is and then I’m just gonna grab one last one and move it over here and make sure once again you just grab by that box there we go now the next thing that I’m going to do is create a connection from here to the server box and once again you’re more than welcome to move these whatever you like I might want it on a more straight path there I think that looks good and I’ll just move this over here move this one a little bit over here as well there we go and the last thing that I’m going to want to do is create some dotted lines to show that this is going to be a wireless connection from this router to these two wireless access points and to do this what we can do is create the connection and I’m going to pull the connection from here to here and I’m going to do that one more time from here to here but when you click on the actual line when you click on this connection here I’m going to go to the line and instead of it being a wait line I’m actually going to make it a dashed fine just like this and I’ll do that for this one as well I go to line and I make it a dashed line and that just gives us a representation that this is actually a wireless access point and there we go we have an awesome now Network design and we can start to create these secured Networks take a moment try this out for yourselves and when we come back we’ll get into some more fun stuff so here I am back at one of the first diagrams that we created now over here we’ve seen that when we select certain templates like basic flows chart you’ll see that we get certain stencils like the basic flowchart shape stencil cross-functional flowchart shapes and that’s how we were able to build this but sometimes what we want to do is create an actual shape and then save it to a personal stencil that way we can use them over and over and over again without having to worry about what kind of formatting we did to it so the first thing you’re going to do is go to more shape and you’re going to go to new stencil and you’ll pick whatever metrics works for you I’m going to use US units now it’s going to say stencil 3 and I can quickly start to drop shape right here for instance I love the way that our star and shapes are they’re red with a blue lining and that’s something I’m going to want to use in the future so what I can do is I can click on this shape duplicate it and then take this shape it’s duplicated and drop it right here that will now add it to my stencil now of course it calls it a master 0.2 so we can right click and we can actually edit this name and I’m just going to say start flash end now we can do the same thing for the rest of them I could just duplicate click and drag and then we can call this one our process and you can add any types of shapes you want even if I go into let’s say more shapes and I decide to use I don’t know maybe food and drink I can take this shape put it here let’s do Apple let’s do cake slice let’s do candy because I know I’m going to use them go back to my stencil 3 and then I can just simply add these over here and there we go and then you can rename them once again by right-clicking rename master I’ll rename them what they are so while I’m doing that I’m then thinking well it does stencil three here I actually want to rename this one as well so if you want to do that you can click save the little save icon and you’re not going to actually move the location you’re just going to name this what you want and I’m going to call this codes stencil once I click save it’s now in the system so if I do decide to open up a brand new file I go to file new and I open up basic diagram it’s actually going to be in more shapes and then I could go to my shape and I could see ghost stencil so you can use this now forever this is a great way to easily access shapes that you use all the time so take a moment try that out on your own and when we come back we’re going to get into using hyperlinks and also the process tab so in our cross-functional flowchart we actually added a couple things here that can be used for linking for instance you’ll see here the building pricing plan and what we’re going to want to do is since it’s a subtask we’re going to want to create a whole nother basic flowchart around the building of the pricing plan we also added in the demo announcements document so wouldn’t it be really nice if we could just click on the shape and it opens up that document in Word well good news you can do that in Vizio you can connect Excel files Word files or even PowerPoint files as well so the first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to create that hyperlink for this document I’m going to click on the actual shape and I’m going to go over to the insert tab now inside of the insert tab this is where the link command group lives and that’s where the command link lid now all you have to do is give that a click and it’s going to populate this dialog box it’s going to say okay so we have the address here you want to browse an internet address where you can connect it to some sort of site maybe your home site or do you want to connect this to a local file on your computer the second option here sub address is linking it within the actual file so right now I have a page one and if I click on browse it will offer me page one but I already know what I want to do I want to browse a local file it’s going to pop up this dialog box and what we’re going to do is access some sort of file and I’ll just use a fake one for today I’m going to use some fake Word file here let’s do let’s do this one here now make sure good point right now I’m on Vizio file you’re going to want to click on all files so that you see all of them that’s when you can click and then click open and now it will link you to that document but if you’re on files and it automatically puts you in video files you’re not going to see anything so you’re going to want to click the drop down all files and then choose the file you want to connect to once you’re done you click ok and there we go it is now connected now I know it’s connected because if you hover over any of these you just simply get your cursor with four arrows but if I hover over this one I get a different looking icon here I got my cursor with a little link and if you hover over it it will even display a little text saying if you hold Ctrl click you’ll follow the link so if I hold Ctrl and I click this it’s actually going to open up word boom there it is brings me straight here pretty amazing so the next thing we’re going to talk about is the process Tab and this is very similar to hyperlinks except this goes into subprocess for instance this sub process for building the pricing plan I’m going to create a whole nother basic flowchart for this so to actually access the process tab you’re going to go over the process now once here you can either create a link from an existing subprocess or you can create a new page now I usually use the create new page so when you click on this you’re going to select the building pricing plan make sure it’s selected with the sizing bullet click on create new and it is going to create a brand new page down here for the building a pricing plan which is nice because now I can start to put all this information on here now not only that but it also creates that link so if I use control click it will bring me to the building of the pricing plan workflow and there we go we’re on that second page now I can rename page one if I wanted to and I’ll just double click and I’ll just call it project also and now we have our two sheets project Alpha and the building pricing and this will link straight to that page and this will link straight to the document these can be really helpful especially if you have more than one flowchart for an entire project take a moment try it out for yourselves and when we come back we’re going to talk about making an organizational chart from an Excel file to make an organizational chart from an Excel file the first thing you’re going to want to do is build the Excel file in a nice format that will work with Vizio to do this you’re going to open up Excel file and you’re going to make sure it has three things the first thing has to be the name of the person who they report to and also what their position is the biggest thing out of all of this is the reports too this makes those connections between the different shapes so I see here that I am going to be the CEO if I actually don’t report to anyone here you can leave that blank but then we have Crystal Willie and Dana and they all report to me then we have Marco who reports the crystal Danny and April who report to Marco and then Lucas Elsa Sarah report to Willie Elizabeth reports to Dana and then Caroline and Andy report to Elizabeth so now that I have it like this all I have to do is in my actual Vizio open up Vizio go over to file new and I’m going to search for an org chart so I’ll click into the search I’ll type in organizational chart or if you see it right here you could give it a click now the thing I’m going to use is not one of these pre-built templates I’m actually going to use the wizard and when I use the wizard it will give me that option to actually pull it from a file or entered in the wizard now I’m going to pull it from an Excel file so I’ll use this first one and these are the different files you can choose from I’ll then click next and it’s going to ask you well where is it stored now I’m selecting Excel file and clicking next and then it’s going to ask me where the file is located if I can bounce for this file find it on my desktop and choose Excel org chart data or whatever you named it and click open I’ll click next and the next thing it’s going to do is ask me what columns are we going to fill in well the name is going to be the name column I created reports to will be the reports to and if you did have a first name column you could use that but that is optional so I’ll leave it at none I’ll then click next now it’s going to ask me about the columns that our data wants to display and I want the data file column to be the reports to I actually don’t want to display who they report to that’s just going to be the connectors I want it to display the name and the position of the person I’ll click next ask me for the data file that you want to add to the org chart once again same thing I want the shape data to be the name and position okay you actually want the connectors to be reports to so I’ll click next if you had any pictures of all of these employees you could include the pictures and it even tells you right here an example of that would be if you’re going to match it you want to make sure that it has their first name last name and it’s a DOT PNG but we’re going to say that we’re not going to include fake pictures in this org chart and I’m going to click next up is going to ask what happens if it’s 2 we want to fit this on the entire page so I’m actually going to have the wizard worry about that formed and I’ll click finish once you do that it builds it out and it looks amazing now all we have to do is move some stuff over you can even change the connection points and then I’ll move this one over a little bit we’ll move this over a little bit and then once again I’ll change the connection points and I’m just making it look a little neater here and then I’m going to do the same thing over here as well now you can make this as big as you want it so I’ll just come over here and move and you’ll notice when you move things and move some all at one that’s the best part about this hierarchy and I’m just going to do it so that it’s all leveled nicely I think that looks good and then next up we have the head of HR once again I’ll move those connectors that looks good I might want this in the same place as that and then once again we’re going to just move this way over here just so we have enough room for all of these other things as well so right there I’ll move that connector so you do have to put some work into this but at the same time it’s looking great once again I’m just going to move all of this over yeah so I have enough room here and I’ll change this just like that maybe bring it down a little bit bring it down a little bit so we have some straight line here and then last but not least we’re going to move these make sure that they’re all looking great and there we go I’m just going to move the connectors and then we have a beautiful org chart and there we go look at that now of course I do want to make a connection if the connection moved that’s okay you can always go back to home turn on your connector and then create a connection from here to this one and now we have a beautiful org chart and there we go and take a moment try this out on your own you can use some fake names just remember you have to have the name the reports to column and then also the position we’re going to be talking about making a pivot diagram from an Excel file to do this the first thing we need to do is make sure that we have Excel information now what I always like to do is I like to make sure that I have my headers and then the information in here so all of my months going down my years type of ice cream sold who the sales person was what region they sold in how much they made in sales and then how much they sold in unit now once you have this you’re going to want to make sure to remember what this tab says right here it says it’s the pivot table Basics worksheet tab so I’m going to exit out of here open up my Vizio again and I’m going to go to file new and which template we’re going to use is the pivot diagram template if you don’t see it here in this list you can always search for it in the search for online template connection once you search for it and pull it up you’re going to click and click create now right away it’s going to pop up the data selector and it’s going to ask you where’s the data coming from and you can select it from either Excel or access or SharePoint or even SQL servers I’m using Excel so I’ll choose Excel and click next it’ll then ask me to select the workbook and I’ll click browse and I’ll choose that file that we use we’re in and I’ll click open it’ll then ask me when I click next what worksheet or range do I want to use I’m going to select that pivot table Basics worksheet that I was creating and it’s going to ask you if the first row of the data contains column headers mine did so I’m going to make sure to make that check marked we’ll then click next I want to include everything but you could choose whatever columns and rows you want and then click next once it’s successfully imported I could click finished and now I have all my information here Now by default right now what it’s doing if I zoom in here it’s just giving me the total for the year I don’t want that I want to see how much should I make in total sales so I’ll deselect this and yourself and it shows me we made about 1 million in sales 1.5 the next thing I’m going to do is start to add some layers here so I see that we made 1.5 billion but how much should each sales rep contribute to this number so I can just click on sales and now I can see the sales person Bishop made 531 pull them made 450 and Watson 8575. if I want to know how much should they make per region they sold in I can click on region and then it’s going to add the region for Bishop Central Northwest for Poland Central Northwest and for Watson Central Northwest the last thing I may want to see here is a breakdown of what type of ice cream they sold in each region if I can click on type and there we go for the central region we sold frozen yogurt ice cream and tasty treats for the north we sold frozen yogurt ice cream only and for the West we sold frozen yogurt ice cream popsicles and tasty treats and if I zoom out of this you’ll see we now have this beautiful chart where it gives us a breakdown by the total sales Bishop’s total sales when he made per region and then what he sold in each region we can also change that from sales to unit and then it adds the units on here as well so if I zoom back in added that frozen yogurt we sold 29 000 units which gave us that forty four thousand dollars to take a moment create some sort of data set that has some Grid in there and then you can pull a pivot diagram let’s say that you want to delete something off of this pivot diagram for instance I don’t want the type of ice cream anymore I can always just go back over to type a little drop down select all and when I select all I can press delete on my keyboard and it gets rid of all those types after that I can realign everything by going over to a range in the Home tab going to a line and auto align everything then I can go to position in Auto space and also Auto align everything as well it all makes it look nice another thing that we can do here in our pivot diagram is make changes to our actual shapes here for instance for the region I could go over and change them all at one by clicking the drop down and editing the data graphics you can change to edit that item maybe I don’t want it to look like a heading 1 or maybe I want to choose a different color maybe I want it to be a time call out or a mobile column instead of having one you can do that or if you wanted to you can always just click on the central go over to the fill and then choose whatever color makes sense and there we go so take a moment have some fun with editing this and when we come back we’re going to talk about how we can actually share these diagrams to share a drawing with someone there’s two ways to do it we can either come to the top right corner here and click on share and when I click on share it’s going to give me two options I can either share this on the cloud using my book drive or I can share this in an email as a PDF or as an actual video drawing where they can open it up in their Vizio application the same thing to do this is by going to file share and you’ll see once again we can either share with OneDrive or an email we could send as an attachment or as a PDF I hope you got a lot out of this class thanks so much for being here and have a great day thanks for watching don’t forget we also offer live classes and office applications professional development and private training visit learnit.com for more details please remember to like And subscribe and let us know your thoughts in the comments thank you for choosing learn it [Music]

By Amjad Izhar
Contact: amjad.izhar@gmail.com
https://amjadizhar.blog

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