Mapping external data to shapes
Next, you need to make decisions on how to link the external data to
the shapes in your Visio diagram. You can drag each data row onto the
matching shape. Visio will try to match data column names to the names
of the properties in the shape. With properties that Visio does not
find a match for, it will create new shape properties. As each row in
the data set is linked to a shape, a small chain icon is displayed to
the left of each data row in the External Data Window. You can rename
properties and also change the column names associated with the shape
properties.
Once you drag a row of data from the External Data Window onto a
shape, a set of data graphics is created in the Data Graphics gallery
and the first data graphic in the gallery is automatically applied to
the data-linked shape. You can change this graphic, create a new data
graphic, or edit one of the data graphics that Visio built for you in
the gallery.
Alternatively, you can use the Automatically Link wizard in Visio to
link the data in the External Data Window to the Visio diagram shapes.
If no data has been imported by using the Data Selector wizard, the
Automatic Link command on the Data tab is unavailable. On the first
page of the wizard, you can choose all shapes on the page, as shown in Figure 3.
Next, you can decide how to tell Visio to match the column names to
the shape properties. The wizard allows you to create multiple
conditions for matching data to shapes by clicking And. However, in
many cases, you need only map the column that uniquely identifies a
data row with a shape, as shown in Figure 4.
The final page
summarizes your choices. When you click Finish, Visio will then match
the rows in the data set with the shapes in the diagram.
