Visio 2010 timeline for multiple projects

[Giles]

Dear all,

I want to display a portfolio of projects on the Visio timeline.

The problem I have is that the individual projects overlap each other horizontally, where both (or more) are taking place at the same time period.  Whilst I can use transparency for block intervals, this looks a real mess.

I want them to be listed vertically below the timeline, e.g.
                April     May     June
Project A
Project B
Project C

I use the timeline in MS Project 2010 but it is limited in that it is only of any real use for individual projects - whilst it does drop overlapping tasks above/below others, it is not much use for mixing projects and their tasks with other projects as you cannot have the project name on a Y axis.

I could manually create a list of the projects in Visio and manually edit the dates but - I want to link data to the shapes from project/excel so it is dynamically linked to the timeline.  I was sure when purchasing Visio that this would be a common requirement.

The only workaround I have come up with is to use the bracket intervals and reposition text so it does not overlap - but it starts to look very cluttered with a large project portfolio and layered block intervals would be far more visually impactive.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Alternatively, if anyone knows of a template for a Visio 2010 project portfolio / roadmap supporting multiple projects which is data linked and related to a single timeline, please let me know.  I have searched for hours but cannot find anything that meets this criteria.

Thanks

[wapperdude]

You might want to take a look at this post:  Visio Guy > Visio > Power User > Sync independent shapes with timeline so they show the date?,  http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=2736.0

HTH
Wapperdude

[Giles]

Thanks very much Wapperdude.

I will have a look at the shapesheet to get my head around how this works and how I can adapt it.  This is a great help.