How to create & customize organizational charts in Visio

Microsoft has released new features to help you quickly create & customize org charts in Visio.

Org (short for organizational) charts are the perfect tools to educate people about the structure of a team. They are very useful to new people, especially, because they offer visual cues into the hierarchy of your company.

But they can also be used for restructuring your company or even hiring initiatives. So learning how to create and customize an org chart can be a very valuable asset.

For some time, Visio has become a very handy tool to create such org charts and the Redmond tech giant has been quietly investing resources into making it work flawlessly. So these new features are very welcome.

Just keep in mind that the new features are available to those with a Visio Plan 1 or Visio Plan 2 license. Without further ado, let’s get into it!

Here’s how you can create and customize your org charts with the new Visto features

Create your org chart with the Format Org Chart task pane

1. Click on the Format Org chart below the Organization chart tab
2. The Format Org chart will then open to the right
3. Once open, you can create your chart with different fields and details as you can see below

Customize your org chart with the Change the Node style feature

1. Go to the Node style in the task pane and click on it
2. Select your option
3. The org chart will automatically refresh with your new option

Personalize your chart with the Insert employee photo feature

1. Click on the Upload Photo button
2. Select one or multiple photos
3. Add them to your org chart

Add employee information with the Add additional employee fields

1. Go to the Employee fields option
2. Once there, select the fields you want to add to your org chart

Create work hierarchies in your org chart with the Add child notes feature

1. Hover over any node in your org chart
2. Once the ‘+’ button appears, click on it
3. Add a child note

Connect all your nodes together with the Snap Together feature

1. Select the node you want to link
2. Hover the node over an existing one to connect them in your org chart

The new Visio features are intended for customizations. For example, the new Format Org Chart feature lets you do a lot of things. You can change the org chart shape, you can upload photos, and even add employee fields to existing shapes.

With the Change the node style feature, you can change the style of the shapes in your org chart. You can also create visual cues to highlight the work hierarchy. For example, management roles can be represented by badge nodes, while assistant roles can be represented by rollout nodes.

The Insert employee photo feature allows you to upload multiple photos at once, and then manage them in your org chart.

The Add additional employee fields feature speaks for itself, but you have a lot of fields to choose from. For example, you can personalize your Visio org chart with information such as Department, Email, Address, Location, and Telephone.

With these being said, Visio is definitely a must-have tool for any organization, and it’s definitely one of the better options if you deal with work management and workflows.

Visio is currently part of the Office suite, and like all Microsoft products, it is designed to work best on Windows operating systems. However, if you are a Mac user, there are great alternatives for this product on the platform.

Do you work with flowcharts? Are you using Visio? Are you excited about these new features? Let us know in the comments section below.