Organization charts in OfficeXP

[Ellen]

We are upgrading staff from NT/Office97 to XP/OfficeXP and
are getting a lot of complaints about the organization
chart. There are issues with how unfriendly the program
is and how difficult it is to work with.

Are there any tips on how to best use this tool? Staff is
having trouble with automatic features where text in all
shapes just keep getting smaller and smaller. They can
resize the text, but it automatically resizes again when
they add another entry.

There have also been issues with the connecting lines for
the shaps. Some are impossible to get a straight line
from one box above another. The line will jog out and
then come back and connect.

Are there any settings for the tick marks that you can
have under shapes where names are listed? There is a lot
of space between the lines, unlike the version in Office97.

We are at the point where we are looking at other software
available for organization charts because of all the
negative feedback we are receiving. I've searched the
internet and have gone to the MVP sites but can't find any
information on creating organization charts. I get very
few articles from the knowledge base and they all have to
do with visio or the version in office97. The help in
officeXP doesn't provide any information on these issues
that I've been able to locate. From what I've found at
Office Online, these articles deal with cteating these
programatically which is not how our admin staff uses this
feature.

Any suggestions on this feature or other software
available would be appreciated.

 

[John Langhans [MSFT]]

[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the critical
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]
[TOP ISSUE - Are you having difficulty opening presentations in PPT 2003
that you just created in PPT 2003? -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329820]

Hello,

What you are experiencing is due to the automatic formatting and layout
capabilities built into the new diagramming feature for Office.

The diagramming feature in Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Office 2003
System are provided by the shared Microsoft Office Drawing feature by using
the AutoShapes and imposing behaviors (formatting and layout rules) that
are specific to each type of diagram (Organization Chart, Venn Diagram,
Cycle Diagram, etc.). Because of the built-in behaviors or heuristics
associated with each diagram time, the formatting of the diagram changes as
you add or remove elements (to keep it fitting the canvas) and/or some of
the normal selction and editing capabilities will not be available for the
shapes and lines in each type of diagram until those rules have been
disabled.

Different sets of rules or behaviors can be enabled or disabled by each of
the following two diagram commands:

AutoLayout:

1) Select diagram
2) On the toolbar associated with the selected diagram, choose "Layout ->
AutoLayout" to toggle whether this behavior is turned ON or OFF.

AutoFormat:

1) Select diagram
2) Right-Click on an empty area in the diagram and select "Use AutoFormat"
from the contextual menu that appears, to toggle whether this behavior is
turned ON or OFF.

NOTE: Some of the automatic formatting and layout behaviors for the
Organization Chart diagram type were improved in Office 2003 (compared to
Office XP)

If you (or anyone else reading this message) have suggestions for
improvements to the diagraming feature in PowerPoint (Office), don't forget
to send your feedback to Microsoft at:

http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

It's VERY important that, for EACH wish, you describe in detail, WHY it is
important TO YOU that your product suggestion be implemented. A good wish
submssion includes WHAT scenario, work-flow, or end-result is blocked by
not having a specific feature, HOW MUCH time and effort ($$$) is spent
working around a specific limitation of the current product, etc. Remember
that Microsoft receives THOUSANDS of product suggestions every day and we
read each one but, in any given product development cycle, there are ONLY
sufficient resources to address the ones that are MOST IMPORTANT to our
customers so take the extra time to state your case as CLEARLY and
COMPLETELY as possible so that we can FEEL YOUR PAIN.

IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions).

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

 

[slg]

I teach our users to create org charts from scratch using
the drawing toolbar because the diagrams do not meet the
need for the complex charts we create.

-----Original Message-----
[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the critical
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]
[TOP ISSUE - Are you having difficulty opening presentations in PPT 2003
that you just created in PPT 2003? -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329820]

Hello,

What you are experiencing is due to the automatic formatting and layout
capabilities built into the new diagramming feature for Office.

The diagramming feature in Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Office 2003
System are provided by the shared Microsoft Office Drawing feature by using
the AutoShapes and imposing behaviors (formatting and layout rules) that
are specific to each type of diagram (Organization Chart, Venn Diagram,
Cycle Diagram, etc.). Because of the built-in behaviors or heuristics
associated with each diagram time, the formatting of the diagram changes as
you add or remove elements (to keep it fitting the canvas) and/or some of
the normal selction and editing capabilities will not be available for the
shapes and lines in each type of diagram until those rules have been
disabled.

Different sets of rules or behaviors can be enabled or disabled by each of
the following two diagram commands:

AutoLayout:

1) Select diagram
2) On the toolbar associated with the selected diagram, choose "Layout ->
AutoLayout" to toggle whether this behavior is turned ON or OFF.

AutoFormat:

1) Select diagram
2) Right-Click on an empty area in the diagram and select "Use AutoFormat"
from the contextual menu that appears, to toggle whether this behavior is
turned ON or OFF.

NOTE: Some of the automatic formatting and layout behaviors for the
Organization Chart diagram type were improved in Office 2003 (compared to
Office XP)

If you (or anyone else reading this message) have suggestions for
improvements to the diagraming feature in PowerPoint (Office), don't forget
to send your feedback to Microsoft at:

http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

It's VERY important that, for EACH wish, you describe in detail, WHY it is
important TO YOU that your product suggestion be implemented. A good wish
submssion includes WHAT scenario, work-flow, or end- result is blocked by
not having a specific feature, HOW MUCH time and effort ($$$) is spent
working around a specific limitation of the current product, etc. Remember
that Microsoft receives THOUSANDS of product suggestions every day and we
read each one but, in any given product development cycle, there are ONLY
sufficient resources to address the ones that are MOST IMPORTANT to our
customers so take the extra time to state your case as CLEARLY and
COMPLETELY as possible so that we can FEEL YOUR PAIN.

IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions).

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

.