Microsoft 365: Visio Advanced (2023): Connecting with Visio Desktop

Name: Microsoft 365: Visio Advanced (2023): Connecting with Visio Desktop
Author: Ali Green

Learn how to create Microsoft Visio visualizations that can be used in Power BI

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 3 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Hello, this is Ali Green. In this lesson, we're going to use our Visio 365 as well as our Visio desktop to create and update a computer network that we can use in Microsoft Power BI. Let's get started. Now, first, whenever we're talking about Power BI, Power BI is short for business intelligence, and what we can do with Power BI is take large amounts of data and visualize that data through graphs and charts and look for trends and patterns. So we're going to create a diagram from Visio and bring it into Power BI. So we'll come up to the top and we'll click on All Templates, and we're going to look for our computer network diagram. So if we scroll through, we have our popular diagram, our basic flow chart organization chart, timeline, block diagram, basic network diagram, and let's click on Create. We're going to create a diagram where each computer represents an office network within the entire network. So we'll come on over to the left and we'll click on our network and peripherals, and we're going to take the ethernet and drag the ethernet to the middle of our page, just like this. Now we're at the edge and we'll make this a little bit longer if we have to. We'll move that just around. We'll come on over to the left and we'll click on our computer monitors and we're looking for PCs. So we're going to grab our PC, drag it up, hold down Control, we'll make a copy, and we'll drag, we don't let Control go until we've made the copy, then we'll let Control go. We've made the copy, we'll drag again, and then we can also select over all three of our computers, hold Control, drag down, let the left mouse button go, and then let Control go. There we go, so all six of our computers. Now if our computers don't align perfectly, it's okay, because we can easily just nudge those computers over and look for the smart guides to see if they're in the right place. So let's name our computers. Now we haven't assigned numbers, but we'll name them. We'll click on our first computer and we'll type in Philadelphia. Our second computer, we're going to call this one Pittsburgh, and as we said before, these are going to represent the offices, and we're going to type in Cleveland. We want to watch the spelling, so we'll click on our fourth computer, we'll type in Airy, so this will be Airy Pennsylvania. We'll click on our fifth computer, we'll type in Buffalo, New York, and number six will be Detroit. So we've typed in the names of our computers, and we're going to grab our connection, which will give us the little green circle, and we'll drag our connection to our computers, and we're going to do that for each one. And wherever you drag it from, it's okay, not a problem at all. So there's our connections to our ethernet, and now we want to save our file, so we'll come up to the top, and we'll call this one Computer, City Network, and we want to make sure that we're saving it in the documents, which will connect us to one drive for business, and we'll press Enter, and we usually will give it just a few seconds to connect, so we'll say Computer, City Network, so we've named it at the top, and we can come up to our Computer, City Network, and we can close that one and if we're on our home, we'll see Microsoft 365, so our file hasn't updated yet, but it should update pretty soon. If we refresh, there's our Computer, City Network right there, and the event that it hasn't come up will refresh again. Computer, City Network shows up there, and we're going to open up this file and the desktop version of our program, so we want to make sure that we have Microsoft Visio open, so we're going to navigate to our Microsoft Visio, and we have Visio open, and again it takes a little bit of time for the file to put up under Recents. After a while, our Computer, City Network will pop up there, we're going to come on over to left, we'll hit Open, and there's our Computer, City Network, and in the event that we can't find it, we can also go to OneDrive, and we'll work our way over to Search, we can easily just type in Computer, and we'll get Computer, City Network, and we'll click, and that's going to open up our Computer, City Network, and we can work on it here. So if we hold Control, we're going to zoom in. Now, we have to assign numbers for each computer in order for our visualization to work in Power BI, so we're going to click on Philadelphia, we're going to right-click, and that's going to bring up our list, and we're going to come on down to Data and Shape Data. So we want to add some metadata to our shape, so we're going to look at the location. So for the location, for Philadelphia, we're going to type in 1, and press Enter, we'll click on Pittsburgh, and again with the Shape Data, we'll type in 2, press Enter, click on Cleveland, type in 3, press Enter, click on Erie, type in 4, press Enter, click on Buffalo, type in 5, press Enter, and click on Detroit, type in 6, and press Enter. So we're going to assign the numbers to each computer, and we'll close our Shape Data, we'll hit Save, we'll hit File, and we'll go to Close, and we want to navigate back to our Visio 365, so we'll come down to our browser, and we're back in our 365, and just in case we'll hit Refresh, and we'll come on down to our Computer City Network, so we'll click on Computer City Network, and that's going to open up. Now because we haven't made drastic changes, we can still edit within the 365 version, so we'll come up to Edit Diagram, Edit Browser, and that's going to open up our file, and we've just assigned the numbers with our metadata on the desktop version. So our next step will be to use this diagram in Power BI. Thank you guys for watching, and I'll see you in the next lesson. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.

Advanced Provider : Ali Green 3 Lessons · 24m in English

Course Description

In this course on Microsoft 365: Visio Advanced (2023), we will learn how to create and use Visio Visualizations in Power BI. We will explore the Power BI layout, metadata, and how both can be used to improve our Visio flowcharts. By the end of this course, we will be able to integrate Power BI into our flowchart creation workflow. Power BI is a Business Intelligence program whose main purpose is to turn data into useful information. Power BI accomplishes that by transforming our data into graphs, creating visualizations for the purpose of understanding and interpreting data clearly. This visualization of data will help us make useful and better decisions. Visio diagrams can be used in Power BI and connected to visuals, including maps for location and columns for numbers. We will create a diagram, add metadata to it and embed that diagram into a Power BI dashboard.

What You'll Learn

Navigate the Power BI environment and explore its layout
Install visuals into Power BI from the Microsoft Store
Add metadata to a Visio diagram and connect it to data in Power BI
Prepare shape data for use with Visio
Embed a Visio diagram into a Power BI dashboard
Integrate Power BI into your flowchart creation workflow

Key Takeaways

Power BI is a Business Intelligence program whose main purpose is to turn data into useful information by transforming it into graphs and visualizations.
Visualizing data helps you understand and interpret it clearly so you can make better decisions.
Visio diagrams can be used in Power BI and connected to visuals, including maps for location and columns for numbers.
The workflow covered includes creating a diagram, adding metadata to it, and embedding that diagram into a Power BI dashboard.
By the end of the course you will be able to integrate Power BI into your flowchart creation workflow.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You will learn how to create and use Visio visualizations in Power BI, explore the Power BI layout and metadata, install visuals from the Microsoft Store, and add metadata to a Visio diagram to connect it to data in Power BI.

What is Power BI according to this course?

Power BI is a Business Intelligence program whose main purpose is to turn data into useful information by transforming data into graphs and creating visualizations for understanding and interpreting data clearly.

How are Visio diagrams used with Power BI in this course?

Visio diagrams can be used in Power BI and connected to visuals, including maps for location and columns for numbers. The course covers creating a diagram, adding metadata, and embedding that diagram into a Power BI dashboard.

What topics do the lessons cover?

The lessons cover preparing shape data for Visio, downloading the Visio visual in Power BI Online, and connecting data to the Visio drawing visual.

What skills does this course build?

This course builds skills in flowcharts, metadata, Microsoft Power BI Embedded, Microsoft Visio, and Power BI.