shape sequencing with the Visio Organization Chart Wizard

[Ron Russell]

I am creating organization charts using the Visio Organization Chart Wizard
and data maintained in Excel. The wizard works well except that the
positioning of the shapes is random from one time to the next - if I run the
wizard repeatedly with no intervening chages to the Excel source file, the
position of the shapes is different each time. There is no apparent sequence
- i.e. alphabetical by any of the attributes. Is there anyway to control
the sequence and positions of the shapes using this wizard?

 

[Mike Mueller [MSFT]]

No, there is not a way to control the sequence. The wizard drops the shapes
randomly on the page then invokes the layout functionality. This is done for
performance reasons.

Once layout has been invoked, the Organization Chart solution *will* attempt
to preserve the order so that the shapes will stay ordered when you change
layout styles.

 

[Jim Spiller]

Ron,

You may want to try this: www.criticaltools.com/excelwbs It's a way to
create hierarchical charts from Excel. It's a new feature of our software
and we are looking for users to try it out at no charge.

Jim Spiller
Critical Tools, Inc.

 

[Natalia]

Hi Ron.
Could you solve this problem in any way? I am having the same trouble. Has
anyone developed a Macro that could order the shapes alphabetically?

Regards,
Natalia