SmartDraw creates some of the best organizational charts
I have seen. The new version 7 provides even more possibilities.
In fact, SmartDraw now has a special Org Chart edition
that you can download
and use free for 30 days.
The new version also adds an Org Chart Builder, which
we'll discuss later in this page...
Organizational charts are also known as organization charts
or org charts. They are essentially tree or hierarchical
layouts that help understand the relationships between higher
and lower levels. Such charts are normally used to present
the divisions between personnel, departments, or even as
family trees and mind maps.
For the rest of this tutorial, I'm assuming you have SmartDraw
7 or higher installed. This tutorial will work with both
the trial and full versions of SmartDraw.
- Launch SmartDraw. If you are presented with the "Welcome
to SmartDraw" dialog box, choose the "New..." option.
Alternatively, choose File | New within SmartDraw.
- Choose the Org Charts template category and select any
org chart style from the display thumbnails. I wanted to
do something different, so I chose one of the Inverted
Trees.
- You'll next see a blank organizational chart open within
SmartDraw with a helpful left pane that includes symbols,
an Org Chart wizard and shape sets.
- Click any option in the wizard to get guided assistance
on accomplishing a task.
- Save your drawing.
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Doing more with Org Charts
Visit the SmartDraw
site for a detailed tutorial on creating org charts
including an introduction to org chart terminology. Click
the Tutorials link to get there.
Jason Hardy of SmartDraw adds that "the Org
Chart edition has received a huge face lift in SmartDraw
7, including the Org Chart builder that will auto-generate
an org chart from a raw data file".
Importing Org Charts from Data Files
 In
addition to drawing a chart manually, you can import a data
file and have SmartDraw built your tree automatically. Simply
click on the Import Data tab of the Org Chart Wizard, click
on the Org Chart Builder button, and open your data file.
You can import two types of data files:
- A tab-indented text file
- An ID-formatted text file (where hierarchy is indicated
by supervisor names or ID numbers)
Once you have a file open in the Org Chart Import dialog,
you can set the parameters SmartDraw will use to build your
tree.
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Related Links
Learn more about using SmartDraw content within PowerPoint
in another Indezine
article...
Read an interview with Paul Stannard, the CEO of
SmartDraw.com elsewhere
on this site...
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