Hello All,

I built a flowchart in Visio and would like to save it as an XML file, so I can get the data into Excel and play around. The goal is to have each step in the flowchart to become an item in an Excel checklist.



Even though a lot of Googling says otherwise, this is not a simple "save as" operation, as XML does not appear on the list of file types.

How do I do it?

TIA,

BG

The Organization Chart template in Visio has additional coding that allows you to import and export data to and from Excel. However, out of the box the Flowchart template does not.

If you want to move data between Visio and Excel for a flowchart then you will probably need a macro to do so. I would go direct to Excel rather than bother with XML which really requires more effort than it is worth. The coding is not particularly difficult but it does require specialised knowledge in VBA and alignment with particular shapes/stencils.

If you are interested in a 'play around' then I would recommend you try playing with Org Charts first so you can see what can be achieved there. If that whets your appetite, then it might be worth the pain to learn some of the coding to work with Flowchart data instead.

On a conceptual basis, Org Charts are more straightforward because each role has one boss (each box has one connector to a parent). Flowcharts on the other hand have more of a one to many relationship with their connectors (each box could have multiple connectors coming in as well as multiple connectors going out) so you would probably need import/exports that deal with two Excel tables instead of one.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia