Welcome to part two of using the Visio organisation chart template.  In part one, we looked at how to access the organisation chart template, drag and drop shapes and change the style of the chart.   In part two, we will take a look at design options, including altering the height and width, spacing and moving shapes.

Learn how to create and edit Visio organisation charts in this video backed up by the written steps below and in parts one, three, and four.

Design options – leg styles

To control the look of a leg style underneath a superior shape, use the Layout option in the Layout group.   Firstly, select the superior shape as shown in Figure 1, click on the Layout button and choose a style from Horizontal, Vertical or Side by Side groupings.

Figure 1 - Layout styles

The result of choosing the Left Offset style in Figure 1 changes the leg style layout in Figure 2.

Figure 2 - Left Offset style

Design options – spacing and moving shapes

Using the + or – spacing buttons, as shown in Figure 3, increases or decreases the amount of space between all shapes on the Visio drawing page.

Figure 3 – Arrange group and spacing choices

To customise the amount of space between shapes, use the dialog box launcher on the Arrange group, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 - Arrange dialog box launcher

There are three spacing options to choose from, as shown in Figure 5, the first two closer and further, “do what they say on the tin!” and are applied to selected shapes or pages.

Figure 5 - Spacing dialog box

Clicking on the Custom option and the Values button opens the dialog box shown in Figure 6, which allows specific measurements to be specified.

Figure 6 - Custom spacing values

Entering text and moving shapes

Enter text into shapes by double-clicking on the appropriate text box, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 - entering text

Moving shapes

Use the Move buttons in the Arrange group to rearrange individual shapes or legs.  Figures 9 and 10 show the results of moving Stuart up a leg by using the Move Left/Up and Figures 11 and 12 show the results of moving a leg from left to right using the same Move button.

Figure 8 - Moving options

Figure 9 - Moving Stuart up a leg

Figure 10 - Result of moving Stuart

Figure 11 - Moving a leg from left to right

Figure 12 - Result of moving a leg from left to right

Design options – Height and Width

Use the Height and Width options, as shown in Figure 13, in the Shapes group to increase or decrease the height and width for all shapes on a drawing page or selected shapes.

Figure 13 - Height and Width options

Figures 14 and 15 show a change in height and width to all shapes on the drawing page.  Once objects are selected, as shown in Figure 16, only these objects display an increase/decrease in width and height.

Figure 14 - Shapes the original height and width

Figure 15 - Shapes changed height and width

Figure 16 - Height and width changes for selected shapes

This is the second installment of a series of posts on organisation chart creation in Microsoft Viso.  The other blog posts cover Building a Visio organisation chart, Further design options and Linking pages.

To learn about Microsoft Visio, give us a call on 020 8203 1774 and find out how we can help your organisation get better results.  If you are looking for more information on Microsoft Visio try the following blog Microsoft Visio blog.

Regards

Paul