When you have to move people, computers, or other assets around in your facility, it's a lot easier to make the changes in a Visio Professional space plan diagram, where you can actually see the spaces affected by the move, than in a spreadsheet or database.

This article describes:

• Why space plan reports are valuable
• How reports work
• Creating a report definition
• Generating a report

Why space plan reports are valuable

In a space plan diagram, moving is as simple as dragging a shape representing a person or asset from one office space to another.

While moving shapes around in a diagram may be easy, it still leaves you with a problem: How do you reflect the changes that you made to the diagram in a personnel database or departmental spreadsheet?

That's where reports come in.

After you make changes in a space plan diagram, you can generate reports that reflect the changes and then import the data from the reports to update your personnel or departmental data sources.

Reports can also be useful for inventory or reference purposes because they list information such as which people occupy which offices, which offices have double occupancy, or what computer equipment is assigned to what person.

How reports work

Generating a report from information in a space plan diagram is a two-step process:

• First you create a report definition by specifying which aspects of the diagram you want to report on. For example, you could create a definition that results in a report that lists each person's name and the room number that the person occupies.
• After you save the definition, you can use it at any time to generate a report based on current information from the diagram.

You can choose to generate a report as one of the following types:

• A Microsoft Excel file.
• A Web page (an HTML file).
• A Microsoft Excel file embedded in a Visio shape in your diagram.
• A Visio table shape in your diagram.
• An XML file.

When you're deciding what format to choose, keep in mind how you intend to use the report.

• To import the results into a data source, such as a personnel database, choose Microsoft Excel file.
• To share the report with others by posting it on your intranet site, choose Web page.
• To save the report as a shape in your space plan diagram, choose either Visio table shape or Microsoft Excel shape.

Creating a report definition

In the process of creating a report definition, you must make several choices:

1. What shapes from the diagram do you want to report on?
   • For example, do you want to report on shapes from all pages of the diagram or just the current page?
   • Are you reporting on people? If so, specify Person shapes.

     

   • Are you reporting on spaces? If so, specify Space shapes.

     

   • Are you reporting on assets, such as computers? If so, specify Asset shapes.

     

2. What information from the shapes (called shape properties) do you want the report to include?

   Each property that you include appears as a column in the report. For example, you might want a report about people to include name, office number, department, and cost center columns.

3. What order should the columns appear in?

   For example, you might want the first column in a report about people to display the people's names.

You can sort the report information in various ways and control its format, such as whether units display.

To create a report definition

1. Open the Visio Professional diagram for which you want to create a report definition.
2. On the Tools menu, click Report, and then click New.
3. Choose whether you want to report on all shapes in the document, just the shapes on the current page, or just currently selected shapes (if any shapes are selected), and then click Limit Selection.
4. For Property, Condition, and Value, select options that limit the shape selection to only the shapes you want to report on.

   For example:

   To report on	For Property, select	For Condition, select	For Value, type
   People	ShapeType (Custom Property)	=	Person
   Spaces (offices and cubicles)	ShapeType (Custom Property)	=	Space
   A specific type of asset, such as computers	ShapeType (Custom Property)	=	Computer (or Printer, Furniture, Equipment, Fixture)
   All assets	ShapeClass (Custom Property)	=	Asset

5. Click Add, click OK, and then click Next.
6. To choose what information, or properties, from the shapes will appear as columns in your report, click the Show all properties check box, and then check the properties you want.

   For example:

   • To include columns for people's names and office numbers in a report about people, click the Belongs To and Name check boxes.
   • To include columns for office number and occupancy in a report about spaces, click the Name and Occupancy check boxes.
7. Click Next, type the title that you want to appear at the top of the report, and then click Sort.
8. Under Column order, select a column, and then click Move Up or Move Down to change its position in relation to the other columns, click OK, and then click Next.
9. Type a name for the report definition (32-character limit). This name will appear in a list of report definitions in the Report dialog box, so type a name that will make sense the next time you see it, such as Person Room or Space Occupancy. Type a description, if you want.
10. Click Save in a file, click Browse to choose the location, and then click Save. Click Finish, and then click OK.
    To save your report definition in the same location with other existing Visio report definitions, after you click Browse above, browse to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Visio10\1033\Samples\Visio Extras.

Generating a report

To generate a report, you find the report definition that you want, run the definition, and then choose the report format and where or how you want to save the report file or shape.

To generate a report

1. Open the Visio Professional diagram on which you want to generate a report.
2. On the Tools menu, click Report.
3. Under Report Definition, select the report definition that you want to run, and then click Run.
4. Select the report format that you want, indicate where or how you want to save the report, and then click OK.