Visio 2013 — how do I create links in objects that open external application?

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Hello,

I’m kind of a Visio neophyte. I would like to create a logical network diagram in which I can embed links in the objects that will open external programs such as PuTTY or which will be dynamically linked to an Excel spreadsheet so that if the information changes in either place it’s updated in the other application. Is this even possible?

Also, does anyone have some recommendations on some good on-the-web training for Visio? I’ve looked at some of the Microsoft provided training and it’s OK, but I’m afraid I like examples rather than videos. (You can always search text, but not so easy with a video.)

Thank you!

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Hi,
You’re asking several questions here. Let’s start with links to other programs. You can link to a file or document that is in one of the formats that Visio recognizes. For example, you can link to an Excel file and create a Hyperlink accessible with a right mouse click that will open that file. Without special programming, you cannot launch an application whose file type is not in Visio’s list. To create a Hyperlink, go to Insert > Hyperlink and browse to the file you want to open. You can also see the list of file types that Visio will recognize in the Link to File dialog box.

For linking spreadsheet data to objects that will update when the Excel file is modified, you must use Visio Data Linking. Go to Data > Link Data to Shapes and follow the wizard. Here’s an article that should help:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Link-data-to-diagrams-I-Getting-started-6b637f40-6231-4822-a81e-65d622fb8c13
There are good videos on YouTube as well. Search for “Visio data linking” and you’ll see them.

Updating Excel from Visio is another matter. That also requires special programming. If this is really important to you, my company Visimation specializes in Visio and can help but perhaps the one-way solution will suffice.
As for training sites, if you don’t want videos you can search Microsoft Office Online papers for help. There are many articles on specific topics like the one above that you can easily find with the appropriate search words.

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