Creating Organizational Charts in MS Visio
Visio is a tool used for diagramming solutions such as Organizational Charts, Flow Charts, and Floor
Plans. You do not need to be an artist nor a graphic designer to use this application. It’s fun and easy!
Creating an Organizational Chart
1. Open Microsoft Visio 2007
2. On the File menu, point to New Business Organization Chart (US Units).
3. From the Organization Chart Shapes stencil in the Shapes window, drag the top level shape
for your organization, such as Executive, onto the page.
4. With the shape selected, type a name and title for the shape.
5. From the Organization Chart Shapes stencil in the Shapes window, drag a shape for the first
subordinate person onto the superior shape. This automatically links the two in a hierarchy.
6. To complete your organizational chart, simply continue to drag subordinate shapes onto
superior shapes, and type a name and title for each one.
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Updated June 29, 2011
Using the Chart Wizard
You can use existing data, alone with the Chart Wizard to create an Organizational Chart.
File formats that the Chart Wizard can read:
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Microsoft Office Excel (.xls or .xlsx)
Microsoft Exchange Server Directory (the data in the Microsoft Exchange e-mail Address
Book)
Tab-delimited or comma-delimited text (.txt)
Org Plus (.txt)
The file foe a database created in an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)- compliant
database application, such as Microsoft Office Access
Required Data
The Organization Chart Wizard must be able to identify:
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Each employee uniquely
Each employee’s name.
Who each person reports to.
Note: The way names appear in your data file, is the way they will appear on the organization
chart.
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Updated June 29, 2011
Creating the Chart
After you have structured your data file so the wizard can use the information it contains, you
are ready to make an organization chart.
1. Open Microsoft Visio 2007.
2. On the File menu, point to New Business Organization Chart Wizard (US Units).
3. The Chart Wizard dialog box opens. Choose Information that’s already stored in a file
or database. Click Next.
4. Select the type of file where your information is stored. If it is a Microsoft Excel file,
choose A text, Org Plus (*.txt), or Excel file, and click Next.
5. To locate the file, click the Browse button.
6. Select your file and click Next.
7. Now you must specify the columns in your file where the wizard will find the
information required to build an organization chart. For example, for Name, choose the
name of the column that contains the names of the employees. Click Next.
Note: The required information types are Name and Reports to. First name is required only if
the first and last names are separated in your data file.
8. Choose the data you want to appear on your chart and click Next.
9. Choose additional data you may want to display on your chart and click Next.
10. At the next screen you may leave the options at default and click Finish.
Your chart is now created.
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Updated June 29, 2011