Automatically linking shapes

[TheFrog]

Hi all,

I have these column heading in a spreadsheet: Description, To, From.

The 'description' could be e.g. 'money', 'car' or other. The to/from fields
would typically contain names of people.

I'd like to have each name represented as a shape of a person (with their
names listed under the shape) and arrows containing the 'description'.

Can that be done automatically?

Rgs

Cai

 

[Al Edlund]

Sorry, it is not a standard function.
al

 

[Scott]

I think you can accomplish what you want with with data linking (Visio 2007
Pro) and a group shape saved as a master in a stencil.

1) Create a group shape that consists of:

person icon ----------> person icon

Add three shape data fields to the group that correspond to your spreadsheet
headings: Description, To, From. Insert a text field on each subshape in the
group and set it to the appropriate field: the person icon on the left =
group!From; the arrow = group!Description; the person icon on the right =
group!To. If you want to, you can set a shapesheet formula so that the person
icons only appear if the corresponding to/from field contains data (i.e., the
icon is visible if there is data, otherwise it's not visible).

2) Drag the group to a stencil and save it.

3) Open a new drawing with your custom stencil, and use data linking to
connect your drawing to the spreadsheet.

4) Drag data rows from the external data window onto the page and your
custom group shape will do the rest.

Hope this helps -- let me know if I've misinterpreted what you're trying to
do or if you need more information.