How to import diagrams made in excel to visio

S N

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Nov 21, 2008, 2:41:25 AM11/21/08

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I have created flow charts using drawing objects (rectangles, circles etc)
in excel.
Now I want to import these diagrams in visio, such that I am able to edit
the text entered in the rectangles etc while preparing the charts in excel.
I have tried it by copying the individual rectangles / circles in excel and
pasting them in visio. But they appear in visio as uneditable objects
(similar to jpg image of text which cannot be edited as text).

Kindly advise on how to import the excel diagrams as editable visio
diagrams.

John Goldsmith (Visio MVP)

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Nov 21, 2008, 4:48:49 AM11/21/08

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Hello SN,

How did you create your Excel shapes? Insert/Shapes or Insert/SmartArt?
What version of Excel are you using?.....and lastly have you tried
ungrouping (Shift+Ctrl+U) your pasted shapes once in Visio?

Best regards

John

John Goldsmith (Visio MVP)
www.visualSignals.typepad.co.uk
www.visualSignals.co.uk

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S N

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Nov 21, 2008, 8:39:01 AM11/21/08

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Hello
I have used the Drawing toolbar icons to draw rectangles, circles etc and
added text box from drawing toolbar to insert text. (Menu item-
View>Toolbars>Drawing). I am using Microsoft Excel 2003.

Please help on how to import these diagrams to visio while ensuring that the
text and rectangles remain editable.

S N

Paul Herber

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Nov 21, 2008, 9:12:43 AM11/21/08

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On Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:39:01 -0800, S N <S...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

>Hello
>I have used the Drawing toolbar icons to draw rectangles, circles etc and
>added text box from drawing toolbar to insert text. (Menu item-
>View>Toolbars>Drawing). I am using Microsoft Excel 2003.
>
>Please help on how to import these diagrams to visio while ensuring that the
>text and rectangles remain editable.

The problem appears to be that the text in the Excel shape is pasted
into Visio as a separate shape and is no longer associated with the
original shape.
I have no solution though.

--
Regards, Paul Herber, Sandrila Ltd.
Electrical for Visio http://www.electrical.sandrila.co.uk/

S N

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Nov 21, 2008, 11:20:05 AM11/21/08

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The object pasted in visio behaves as if it is a jpg image which cannot be
edited as a shape.
Does anyone have a solution to enable editing for shapes/diagrams copied
from excel in visio?

John Goldsmith (Visio MVP)

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Nov 21, 2008, 11:58:27 AM11/21/08

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Hello SN,

I agree with Paul. Pasting from Excel to Visio creates an EMF image that
can be broken up by ungrouping, but as Paul points out you do lose the
text/shape connection.

You could probably do something with code, but unless you have hundreds of
shapes you're probably better to copy and paste the text back in. So my
work around for you is this:

1) Paste your shapes into Visio.

2) While they are selected (just a single shape at this point), ungroup them
using Shape/Grouping/Ungroup

3) Now for each shape - select the text shape, and press Ctrl+C

4) Select the shape you want to paste the text into and press F2 to enter
text edit mode and then click Ctrl+V to paste the text in

If you do this each of your flowchart shapes you'll at least end up with
shapes with the proper text in them although not based on a master.

The coding route isn't difficult as opposed to laborious as there are a lot
of different types of drawing shapes within Excel that would need to be
treated differently. The work would be less if you're only dealing with a
couple of type (eg a circle and a square) but it depends on your particular
situation.

I notice, by the way, that ungrouping the emf appears to produce
sequentially ID'd shapes (eg Sheet.21 = the fill, Sheet.22 = the border,
Sheet.23 = the text) so at least there's a potential sequence to reorder
them programatically. Text might be an extra issue as multiline text
produces a new shape per line.

Anyway, probably not the answer you're looking for, but I hope that helps.

Best regards

John

John Goldsmith (Visio MVP)
www.visualSignals.typepad.co.uk
www.visualSignals.co.uk

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WapperDude

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Nov 21, 2008, 3:24:15 PM11/21/08

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I made an autoshape rectangle, then typed some text into it in Excel, I copy
and pasted the shape into Visio, ungrouped, regrouped, text is editable.
Don't know if that helps???

Of course, I would have started in Visio to begin with...

HTH
Wapperdude

S N

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Nov 22, 2008, 8:59:01 AM11/22/08

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Actually my flow chart in excel has more than 200 rectangles with text inside
them.
I would not be able to do manual operation on all of them.
Kindly suggest code or any alternative method for doing the same

"John Goldsmith (Visio MVP)" wrote:

John Goldsmith (Visio MVP)

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Nov 22, 2008, 10:44:57 AM11/22/08

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Ok, fair enough. I'd be happy to take a look at the Excel doc if you 'd
like to email it to me at

FirstNameAddADotHereLastNameAt
visualsignals.co.uk

Best regards

John

John Goldsmith (Visio MVP)
www.visualSignals.typepad.co.uk
www.visualSignals.co.uk

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