Applies to
Microsoft Visio® 2002 Microsoft Excel 2002

From a data-rich flowchart, you can create numerical and inventory reports with which you can estimate how long a process should take, how many resources it requires, and how much it costs. Compare processes with one another and choose the more efficient one. Track the efficiency of processes over time. Reuse the data in a database.

This article describes how to:

• Add data to a flowchart
• Add data fields or types that you pick yourself
• Make reports from your flowchart data
• Export flowchart data to a database
• Make a flowchart from data

When you store data with the shapes that represent process steps, you turn a flowchart into a powerful evaluation tool.

Add data to a flowchart

In Visio, a flowchart can be much more than a picture — it can be a valuable medium for storing data. Each shape in a drawing can act as a kind of visual database field that stores data that you can retrieve in a report. For example, a shape in an office-move flowchart can store data about the cost, duration, and resources involved in the step that the shape represents.

You store data in property fields associated with shapes — the data doesn't appear as part of your drawing, but you can report on it and automate calculations to have the drawing do the math for you.

Flowchart shapes have predefined Cost, Duration, and Resources property fields in which you can view or enter data. You can also add custom fields.

To add cost, duration, and resource data to flowchart shapes

1. On the File menu, point to New, point to Flowchart, and then click Basic Flowchart. Create a flowchart that represents your process.
2. Click a shape that you want to add data to.
3. On the View menu, click Custom Properties Window.
4. In the Custom Properties window, click in a field that you want to add data to, and then type. Repeat for each relevant field.
5. Leaving the Custom Properties window open, click the next shape that you want to add data to, and repeat Step 4.
6. When you're finished adding data, close the Custom Properties window by clicking Close.
   
   

Add data fields or types that you pick yourself

While most flowchart shapes come with three pre-existing property fields, you may also want to track other types of data — for example, the number of permanent employees and the number of temporary or contingent employees involved with each step in a process.

Or you may want to add property fields to one of the types of flowcharts that doesn't come with existing fields, such as Mind Mapping, Cause and Effect, Data Flow, or IDEF0.

The shapes in this flowchart include two custom property fields: Permanent Employee and Temporary Employee.

To create custom property fields for an existing flowchart

1. On the File menu, point to Stencils, and then click Document Stencil.

   The Document stencil, a stencil that contains master versions of the shapes in your flowchart, opens. By adding property fields to these masters, you simultaneously add the fields to all the corresponding shapes in your diagram.

2. Right-click a shape on the Document stencil to which you want to add custom properties, and then click Edit Master.

   The master window opens with a large version of the shape in it. If you can't see the whole shape, choose a smaller magnification from the Zoom list on the Standard toolbar.

3. Click the shape. On the Shape menu, click Custom Properties. In the Custom Properties dialog box, click Define.
4. Click New. Type or choose information about your new property field for Label, Type, and the other options. If you want to add another new property field, click New again.
5. When you're finished adding property fields, click OK. Your new property fields appear in the Custom Properties dialog box. Click OK again.
6. Click the Close button for the Master window to return to the flowchart. When asked if you want to update the master and all of its instances, click Yes. Repeat Steps 2–7 for each master to which you want to add new property fields.
7. When you're finished adding property fields, right-click the title bar of the Document stencil and click Close. Save your flowchart.

Tip   You can also create custom property fields to use in every new flowchart. Open the flowchart solution for the type of flowchart that you typically create. Right-click the title bar of the Flowchart Shapes stencil and click Edit. Follow Steps 3–10 above. Right-click the stencil's title bar, and then click Save or Save As.

Make reports from your flowchart data

After you add data to flowchart shapes, you can generate reports that:

• Provide a list or inventory of the data so you can easily see patterns, relationships, and other information.
• Present the results of calculations, such as total, average, or median, so you can evaluate processes and make comparisons.

You can save a report as:

• A Report shape that appears in your flowchart if you want the results readily available in your diagram.
• A Microsoft Excel worksheet.
• A Web page.
• An XML file.

In this Report shape, you can see the total cost and duration for the juice-making process using both permanent and temporary employees. By changing some data and generating another report, you could quickly compare the costs of producing juice with and without temporary employees.

To generate a report from flowchart data

1. Open the flowchart that contains data from which you want to generate a report.
2. On the Tools menu, click Report.
3. In the Report dialog box, click New.
4. Choose options on the Report Definition Wizard pages to define the type of report you want. For help on a page, click the question mark (?).
5. In the Report dialog box, under Report Definition, select the definition that you just created, and then click Run.
6. Under Select report format, select the format in which you want your report saved.
7. If you save the report as a Microsoft Excel (shape) or Visio Table Shape, the report appears in your diagram as an Excel worksheet embedded in a shape or as a Visio table shape. Under Save report with:

   Choose Copy of report definition to store a copy of the report definition locally with the shape. This allows you to change the local report definition (by right-clicking the report shape and choosing Update Report) without affecting the original definition.

   Choose Link to report definition to link the shape to the original report definition. If you change the definition, you can update the report by right-clicking the report shape and choosing Run Report.

8. If you save the report as an HTML, XML, or Excel file, under Save report as, choose a name and location for the report file, and then click OK.

Export flowchart data to a database

You can use the Database Export Wizard in Visio to move the data that you have stored in your flowchart into a database for reuse in other ways. You simply tell the wizard what data to export and what type of database to create, and then you're ready to start exporting.

To export flowchart data to a database

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macros, point to Visio Extras, and then click Database Export Wizard.
2. On the first wizard page, click Next.
3. Follow the instructions on the remaining wizard pages. For help on a particular page, click the question mark (?).

Tips for exporting flowchart data

• When the Database Export Wizard asks you to select the data that you want to export, you see a long list of properties. To quickly locate the data fields that you want to export, scroll to the properties that begin with "Prop", such as Prop.Cost.
• If you make changes to the data in your flowchart after you have already exported it to a database, it's easy to re-export the data and update the database. Simply right-click the drawing page and click Data Export Table. When you're prompted to replace the database table, click Yes.

Make a flowchart from data

If you have collected data for a particular process, such as how long each step takes and how much it costs, and stored the data in Excel (.xls) or text (.txt) format, you can automatically generate a flowchart from the data file using the Import Flowchart Data Wizard.

How to set up your flowchart data file

You need to add some information to your data file before the Import Flowchart Data Wizard can use it to generate a flowchart. The wizard must know:

• The exact names of the shapes and stencils that you want to use to create your flowchart.
• Which shapes in the flowchart you want to connect to one another.

As you set up the data file, keep in mind that:

• Each step in the process corresponds to a shape in the flowchart.
• Each step, or shape, is represented by a row in the data file.
• Each type of data that you are tracking (such as cost or duration) is represented by a column and will appear as a data field associated with the shapes in your flowchart.

To find the exact names of flowchart shapes and stencils

1. In Microsoft Windows® Explorer, open Program Files\Visio\Solutions\Flowchart to locate the flowchart stencils. Files with a .vss extension are stencil files.
2. Record the name of the flowchart stencil (for example, Basic Flowchart Shapes.vss or Audit Diagram Shapes.vss) that contains the shapes that you want to use in your flowchart.
3. Double-click the stencil to open it so you can see the names of the shapes that the stencil contains. Keep the open stencil handy as you set up your data file.

To set up a data file that the wizard can read

1. In Windows Explorer, locate the Excel template file at Program Files\Visio\Samples\Sample Flowchart Data.xlt. Double-click the file to open it. As you follow the steps below, replace the sample data in the file with your own data.
2. On the Shapes Worksheet tab, in the Shape ID column, type a unique ID number (such as 100001, 100002, etc.) for each shape (that is, process step) that your flowchart will contain.
3. In the Master Name column, type the name of the flowchart master shape that you want to use to represent each process step. You can find the master shape names on the stencil that you opened in the previous procedure.
4. In the Stencil Name column, type the name of the stencil (including the .vss extension) that each shape is stored on. If all the shapes come from the same stencil, then the same name will appear in each row of this column.
5. In the Shape Text column, type the text that you want to appear on each shape in the flowchart.
6. If necessary, rename the Cost, Duration, and Resources columns to correspond to the names of the columns from your original data file. Add more columns if you have more than three data fields that you want to associate with each shape.
7. Copy your data values into the columns so that each process step (shape) is associated with a value.
8. Click the Connectors Worksheet tab. In the Connector ID column, type a unique ID number (such as 200001, 200002, etc.) for each connection that you want to create between process steps in the flowchart.
9. In the Connector Text column, type the text that you want to appear on a connector. For example, connectors from a Decision shape might say "No" and "Yes."
10. In the From Shape ID and To Shape ID columns, type numbers from the Shape ID column on the Shapes Worksheet tab that correspond to the process steps, or shapes, that you want to connect.
11. Save the Excel file in worksheet (.xls) format.

Tip   If you want to create your data file in text rather than Excel format, in Step 1, open the text template, Flowchart Data Template.txt, and follow the instructions.

How to generate a flowchart from the data file

After you have set up your data file so the Import Flowchart Data Wizard can read it, you are ready to generate a flowchart.

To generate a flowchart from a data file

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macros, point to Flowchart, and then click Import Flowchart Data Wizard.
2. On the first wizard page, click Next. On the second wizard page, choose Read Data From Existing File, and then click Browse.
3. Locate the text (.txt) or Excel (.xls) data file from which you want to create a flowchart. Select the file, click Open, and then click Next.
4. Click Finish.

   A flowchart is created based on the data in the file.