Table Plan (a.k.a. "Seating Chart") - struggling with the basics

[Alastair M]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to Visio (using 2003 vers) besides org charts so bear with me
please!

What I am trying to do is incredibly simple:

-> Draw a floor plan of ten round tables each with ten chairs (which I CAN do)
-> Associate / link the each table to its associated chair (which I cannot do)
-> Given each table a unique ID e.g. 'table_A'
-> Assign each chair around each table a number 1-10 (same for every table)
according to its position (e.g. chair#1 at 12oclock, chair#4 at 8oclock, etc)
-> Combine the table ID and chair ID to create a unique identifier for each
unique chair (100 in total)
-> Label these 100 chairs with Firstname / Surname from an Excel file
containing our guest list

It seems to me this should be trivial with such a powerful tool but I am
going around in circles:

- I've tried importing data but I get an error saying my Excel file does not
contain any data
- I have had no luck linking chairs to tables to create a unique id
- I have tried the "link to database" option but it seems complex, I don't
know what ODBC is or whether I need it (I doubt it)

There's no need for anything other than a one-way refresh; I just want to be
able to move the table IDs around in the Excel guest list, then refresh the
chart.

Simple, surely? What am I doing wrong? It's for a wedding and I am running
out of time!

Thank you,

Alastair

 

[AlEdlund]

The perceived 'trivial' linking of data between shapes and data sources is
one of the primary advantages in v2007 professional where it is part of the
product.
al