Improve Your Productivity With Microsoft Visio

Have you ever needed to create a flowchart or an organisation chart?

How about a process map or even a floor plan?

Perhaps you’re using SmartArt and other tools available in PowerPoint or Word to do this.

SmartArt and Shapes are certainly very useful tools for simple diagrams, but when you need to build something more complex you may find yourself running into limitations.

If this sounds like you, then you probably should be using Visio.

What is Visio?

Microsoft Visio is a business diagramming tool. It can be used to create a multitude of diagram types, from simple flowcharts to complex network diagrams, and a whole range of other things in between.

In our busy roles, we can often find ourselves having to present a complex topic or plan to our colleagues and clients. At times, we run the risk that they’ll not fully understand the information since they are in different roles, and are therefore not “close to the data’’.

By way of comparison, think for a moment about charts. We may use Excel to set up a spreadsheet, but choose to present our data in the form of a chart or graph. The purpose here is to simplify and clarify our data; instead of making our viewer wade through pages of figures, we can present information in a clear, easy to understand format.

But what if you’re no good at drawing or design?

Here’s where Visio comes in. One of the best aspects of Visio is the fact that you don’t need to be able to draw. No, really – it’s true!

You can use Visio to create clear and professional diagrams like:

• Flowcharts
• Cross-Functional Flowcharts (Swim lanes)
• Organisation Charts
• Network Diagrams
• Server Rack Diagrams
• Brainstorming Diagrams
• Floor Plans
• Site Plans
• Timelines
• Gantt Charts
• SharePoint Workflows
• Data Flow Diagrams
• Calendars
• And more…

Visio is vector-based for simple scaling

The diagrams you create in Visio are vector images, as opposed to bitmaps. This means they are not resolution dependent. The advantage here is that you can scale a Visio diagram up as much as you need without the image becomes fuzzy.

Visio uses numerous templates & stencils

Visio ships with a ton (or is that tonne? these things used to be so simple!) of templates. If you want to build a flowchart, there’s a template for that. How about a floorplan, there’s one for that too. Each template contains a number of stencils, and each stencil contains numerous shapes. Shapes are the building blocks of your diagrams.

Visio shapes are smart

The shapes in Visio have “behavior” programmed into them. For example, if you connect two shapes in a diagram and then decide to move the shapes around, the connectors will automatically reroute to maintain the connection, or even create a jump point when two lines cross over each other. That’s partly because connectors are themselves shapes.

Visio can use your existing data

Visio can pull in live data from an existing source such as Excel. For example, you can build an organisation chart by pointing Visio at your list of employees in Excel, firing up the wizard, choosing a few options, and letting Visio do the heavy lifting. A minute later you have a nice shiny new organisation chart with minimal effort on your part.

A couple of quick examples

Flowchart flexibility

I created the flowchart above in just a few minutes.

Although I could do something similar using SmartArt, I have more functionality available to me in Visio.

For example, I can connect shapes automatically and, because the connectors are also shapes, I can type directly into them. I can easily change the shape type if I change my mind and if I move shapes around, they will always stay connected.

Even better, each shape has properties that are stored with it, enabling me to add extra detail about the flowchart to help me track and report on the progress or process. You can see an example of a shape’s properties in the second image below. As a bonus, these property sheets can be customised to your needs.

Brainstorming becomes a breeze

Hands up if you have ever taken part in a brainstorming session. Ok, put your hands down, people are looking at you kinda funny.

During a typical brainstorming session, we come up with a whole bunch of clever ideas about how we’re going to revolutionise the World/Business/Breakfast Menu. Then somebody will scribble them down so that we end up with a room full of flip charts and post it notes.

Up to this point, we are doing fine, but then someone will say “we need to keep this for Fred/Jenny (insert name of relevant minion here) so can you type this up for us and give everybody a copy. Oh, and we need that yesterday. Thanks sooooo much!”

Now let’s rewrite this scenario and instead begin by setting up a brainstorming diagram using Visio and projecting it to the room.

We simply use the built-in Brainstorming template, drag in the Main Topic shape, and add our title. Once that’s done, we right-click on the shape, select Add Multiple Subtopics and we are presented with a nifty dialog box.

Now we can dispatch our fastest typist to the front of the room and begin shouting our pet ideas at them.

After our session, we can click �?OK’ and a wonderful Brainstorming diagram appears before our eyes. Choose a style from the Brainstorming menu and, Instant Artist!

The result

The great thing is that we can immediately save and send this to our colleagues; it can be back at their desk before they are!

Visio as a productivity tool.

In summary, you might just find yourself saving a good deal of time by using Visio.

Of course, you can go ahead and create flowcharts in Excel, but it’s a bit like building spreadsheets in Word; it can be done, but it’s not pretty, and it’s not efficient.

A saying I’m fond of is, “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like nails”. Sometimes you need a different tool for the job, perhaps even a Swiss Army Knife ®. Visio is there for when that need arises.

If you’d like to learn more about this great tool, get in touch with us at Keystroke Learning.