Automatically link imported data to shapes

With the Data Link functionality in Office Visio, you can connect any Visio diagram to a wide variety of data sources, such as Microsoft Office Excel worksheets, Microsoft Office Access databases, and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services lists. You associate all the shapes in a diagram with data by using the Automatic Link Wizard.

There are three major steps in using the Automatic Link Wizard to link imported data to shapes:

1. Place shapes on a drawing and then add data to their Shape Data dialog box that matches the data in your data source.

   For example, you can place employee shapes in a drawing and add an Employee ID number to each shape. 

2. Import data from an external data source by using the Data Selector Wizard.

   For example, you can import a worksheet of employee data by using a column for Employee ID. For more information on importing data see Import data from Excel, SQL Server, SharePoint sites, and other external sources.

3. Use the Automatic Link Wizard to match rows in the data source with shapes in your drawing (Data >Automatically Link).

   In our example, you match the Employee ID in the shapes to the Employee ID column in your imported data to determine how to match shapes to rows.

   Note: If no data has been imported by using the Data Selector Wizard, the Automatically Link command is unavailable (appears dimmed).