Inverted organization charts

[lcortese]

Hello.

I'm trying to create an inverted organization chart with Visio
Professional 2007. For inverted I mean that the manager is at the base
of the chart, and then the responsibles grow up like the branches of a
tree. It might looks weird, but this is what I'm asked at the moment.

Thanks everyone who will reply my post.

 

[John Goldsmith]

The Org Chart solution defaults to a top down layout, but you could flip the
shapes vertically.

This will confuse the layout functions as the solution will be expecting the
shapes to be the right way up, but as long as you flip the shapes after
you've set your correct top down layout and then flip them back before you
make other adjustments, this should work ok.

To flip the Org Chart:

1) Press the crtl+A keys to select all the shapes on the page

2) Click Shape/Rotate or Flip/Flip vertical (or ctrl+J)

One note is that although the text is designed to behave properly (ie it
stays the right way up when flipped) images don't. You could fix this by
making additional changes to the Masters, but this would require some
shapesheet work, so let me know if this is necessary for you.

Best regards

John


John Goldsmith
www.visualSignals.co.uk

 

[John Goldsmith]

Actually, I may as well just add the shapesheet part for anyone else who's
interested.

Basically, you need to change the behaviour in the document's masters, so:

1) If you can't see the 'Document Stencil' already click File/Shapes/Show
Document Stencil

2) Double click the Executive master shape in the stencil to open it in the
editing window.

3) Select the shape and click Window/Show ShapeSheet

4) In the shapesheet, scroll down to the User section ("User-defined cells")
and find the row named "User.PictureID"

5) This row contains a 'Value' column and a 'Prompt' column

6) Copy and paste the following formula into the Prompt cell:

=IF(FORMULAEXISTS(User.PictureID),SETF(User.PictureID&"!FlipY","Sheet."&ID()&"!FlipY"),0)

7) Note that the resulting formula should NOT be enclosed by double quotes
("")

8) Close the master editing window and click Yes to the "Update 'Executive'
and all of its instances?"

9) Repeat steps 2-8 for the Manager, Position, Consultant, Vacancy and
Assistant masters.

The above will work for a specific document. If you want to create the same
behaviour in all subsequent Org Charts then you can run through same process
by opening and editing the Organization Chart Shapes stencil directly. In
all cases, if you at all new to the shapesheet it would be a good idea to
try editting a copy of your document first!

Hope that helps.

Best regards

John


John Goldsmith
www.visualSignals.co.uk

 

[lcortese]

Actually, I may as well just add the shapesheet part for anyone else who's
interested.

Basically, you need to change the behaviour in the document's masters, so:

1) If you can't see the 'Document Stencil' already click File/Shapes/Show
Document Stencil

2) Double click the Executive master shape in the stencil to open it in the
editing window.

3) Select the shape and click Window/Show ShapeSheet

4) In the shapesheet, scroll down to the User section ("User-defined cells")
and find the row named "User.PictureID"

5) This row contains a 'Value' column and a 'Prompt' column

6) Copy and paste the following formula into the Prompt cell:

=IF(FORMULAEXISTS(User.PictureID),SETF(User.PictureID&"!FlipY","Sheet."&ID()&"!FlipY"),0)

7) Note that the resulting formula should NOT be enclosed by double quotes
("")

8) Close the master editing window and click Yes to the "Update 'Executive'
and all of its instances?"

9) Repeat steps 2-8 for the Manager, Position, Consultant, Vacancy and
Assistant masters.

The above will work for a specific document. If you want to create the same
behaviour in all subsequent Org Charts then you can run through same process
by opening and editing the Organization Chart Shapes stencil directly. In
all cases, if you at all new to the shapesheet it would be a good idea to
try editting a copy of your document first!

Hope that helps.

Best regards

John

John Goldsmithwww.visualSignals.co.uk

Thanks a lot John, very helpful.