linking data to shapes on another page?

[merlin777]

I want to have the data (text) contained in a table on one page to be repeated in around 100 shapes on another page in the same document.

is that possible?

[aledlund]

Assuming the data is in a spreadsheet, the easiest way would be to use the dataconnect features in the pro version (v2007/v2010) and then just paste the worksheet into the document
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0uouTAw74Q

al

[Yacine]

Hi JC,
it is not really clear what you mean by table.
The linking itself - from one shape to several other ones - is very easy.
But getting the text from the table, depends on what the table is.

Cheers Yacine

[merlin777]

Hi, Yacine.

I'll try to be a bit less vague!

on sheet 1 i'd like an org chart. It won't change shape or layout much but the names and job titles and photos may change often. I don't mind if it's a normal block diagram based drawing or an actual org chart based drawing. Either way it'll look the same.

on sheet 2 i'd put a table with 84 rows containing job titles and associated columns with team number, name, photo location etc i.e. all the info that need to go into the boxes on the org chart.

the table need not be visible or elegant but it can just be a convenient way to hold the data. Ideally I'd like to either cut and paste from excel into the table or even better to keep the table updated by linking it to an excel file.

at the moment, I can't even work out how to put the text and photos in the boxes by linking them from the table.

[geh_heim]

do you really need the table inside of visio?

you could just use excel only. Build the org chart with the wizard and afterwards connect it with the excel sheet.
that would be the way i'd go.

What Visio version are you using?

[Yacine]

I can only agree with Geheim,
despite having the data on a separate page sounds interessting, you have to realise that you are building your DB inside a Visio-Dokument ... bad idea, because it is a blind alley.

[merlin777]

I'm using 2003. The linking facilities don't extend to org charts. You need to run the wizard from scratch each time and it scrambles the org chart layout. I can't find a way to link a photo either.

Hence the reason I wanted to have my database already within visio.

However, I think I'll have a go with an external spreadsheet linked to a non-org chart diagram and see how I go with that.

[merlin777]

ooohh - forgot to say, that all brings me back to pert of my original question; how can I create a shape like an org shart shape which takes a photo and displays lines of text (seperate lines so I can link them to different cells).

[Yacine]

just a tought ... as you insist.

Draw a simple rectangle, give it the custom properties that you want, transform it into a group. Thats your basic container.
Now for each person duplicate the container, insert the right image in the group and drop it on a stencil. Name it with the ID of the person.
When all your persons are in the stencil, it should be easy via VBA to replace the images in the chart by the right ones.