Customizing data graphics

Started by Rasmfrackn, October 20, 2012, 02:27:23 AM

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Rasmfrackn

Hi, this is my first post. Big fan of Visio in general. :)  I'm still using 2007, in case they've done anything with data graphics since then.  The trilogy-meter trilogy was helpful, but I have a few things I'd like to do that it didn't cover.

I'm trying to visualize a simple set of values from a spreadsheet. I've created the spreadsheet, linked the data in, and tried making data graphics to match.  The basic premise of my data is that I have many distinct entries, each with a text field describing it.  I also have a second text field grouping them into A, B, or C.  Each entry has a numeric value associated.  Finally, I have local image files that I would like to display for each entry in the chart.

My problems are these:

1) I'd really like to color my data bars based on a second field.  Is there a way to create a custom data graphic that can use 3 different bar colors based on A, B, or C?

2) I notice that my objects understand my "File" field as hyperlinks, and when I right click on my object the first line of the menu is a "File" hyperlink that opens my image when I click on it.  Is there any way to get Visio to display this image on my object directly?

3) Is there a way to adjust the width of my data bar?  I would like to make the maximum bar width larger to see finer resolution between values.

My general formatting is this:

Text describing entry using "Name" field | Image of entry using "File" path field | Variable-length bar of single value associated with entry, color coded into 1 of 3 colors, using "Value" numeric field

The data graphics are so close to what I'm looking for... technically I can import each image by hand, but I haven't found a way to do #1 or #3 yet.

Thanks!

- One alternative I'm seeing for #3: is there a way to change where the handle anchor is for the data bar? If it wasn't centered I could use the size & position values to adjust the width decently...

Rasmfrackn

#1
Sorry, I guess those were very simplistic questions that a little more digging could answer.  I came across a vislog article by John Goldsmith that helped quite a bit, so I'm almost there on #1, and #3 is pretty simple now that I've found Edit Master Properties.  #2 is still a little sketchy but I can understand if it's just not supported.

Anyway, the one problem I'm having is figuring out the proper approach to creating a generic reference in the master to inherit another value from the data reference linked from the A/B/C string, as well as the bar width numeric value.  That is, I see how I can use a few shapesheet values to create the colorizations I want (I mostly just copy the visDGCBVFill, FillForegnd, and FillBkgnd formulas from the Color By Value data graphic), but I've only managed it on a per-instance level by editing each object (Sheet.1, Sheet.2).  My master stencil seems to use Ref() in those spots and the default masters don't use anything that looks like a placeholder for referenced data.

What am I missing?
Thanks,
Nathan

Rasmfrackn

I'll just keep conversing with myself here. :)

I figured out nearly everything now.  I never figured out how to automatically tie the data bar into multiple data values based on the field names, but I did manage to create a Detail category to choose a second data field to colorize from.  This wasn't trivial because the categories weren't updating as I tried to add Proj fields!  I had to swap to a different Data Bar and back to get them to show up... grumble.

Anyway, this was a fun learning experience.  A "nice to have" that I haven't figured out is to automatically display the image associated with each object.  I found another Goldsmith vislog that was SO close, but dependent on using orgcharts and not a generic template.  http://visualsignals.typepad.co.uk/vislog/2008/06/linking-org-chart-images.html  I'm sure I could probably modify the VBA code and maybe pull some shenanigans by starting with his orgchart example and working backwards, but there's a lot of extra baggage in those shapesheets so for now I'll leave it alone. 

If anyone can easily explain what modifications I'd need to add to my data graphic and the VBA code from that guide, I'd be all ears though.

Thanks,
Nathan

olgabudieri

Hi Nathan,

I was wondering if you have some tips on point number 1 below. I am using visio to draw a customer journey map, and depend largely on data grpahics, it would be helpful to be able to color the data bars.

Also, if you have any resources on icon sets and how to import customized sets, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Olga