If you’ve ever wanted to automatically visualize things like who’s working on different project
teams, employee location, seniority, or other factors relating to your organization, Lucidchart’s
Group View feature is for you.
Let’s explore how to use it.
On the canvas is an org chart I created by importing employee data from a spreadsheet.
You don’t have to use a spreadsheet to create your org chart (you can just drag out the
org chart shape and start creating from scratch) but for this example, I want to access some
different types of information included on my original spreadsheet.
As you can see, my current org chart gives me a great view of reporting structure, but
let’s imagine that my organization works on client projects and I want to see who is
on each project team.
Because the information for project teams is included in the spreadsheet I used to import
my data, this will be nice and simple.
(Later in the video, we’ll look at how to create groups even if you don’t have the
information in a spreadsheet, so stay tuned for that.)
First, let’s double-click on the org chart so that we activate the options for editing
the chart.
You can always tell when you’re editing the org chart because the toolbox on the left
will be replaced by the org chart data panel.
From here, we’ll click the Manage Data icon at the top of the panel on the left, then
select “Create Group View” and click Next.
Now I can indicate the data from which I want to create my group, so I’ll select “Project
Team” and then click “Create Group View.”
As you can see, Lucidchart creates a whole new page with my new Group View and people
are categorized by their Project Team.
Anyone who did not have any information in the Project Team column in my spreadsheet
appears here in this “non-categorized” group.
Let’s go ahead and add everyone’s titles to our group view so we can make sure this
looks correct.
I’ll go to the top of the Group View panel on the left, click the dropdown next to Shapes,
then select “Title” to instantly see everyone’s title on my diagram.
Next, let’s look at editing these groups.
Maybe I’m doing some project planning and want to re-arrange some of these teams.
Start by double-clicking to get into the group then just drag employees into new groups.
The updated Project Team will be reflected across my entire org chart.
I can even make a whole new group by clicking the blue “plus” button on the top left
corner of my groups, label it, and start moving employees by dragging and dropping them.
Want to add a new team member?
Easy.
Just click the blue “plus” button in the container where I want to add the new person,
then type their name and info directly in Lucidchart.
Deleting employees is easy, too.
Just click on the employee shape so it’s highlighted blue, then press the delete key
on the keyboard or right-click and choose “delete.”
You may have noticed that group containers automatically resize so that they’re always
an equal height.
Right now, there is not a way to resize group view containers, but we’re always adding
new functionality to Lucidchart, so stay tuned for more customizable options for your groups.
An option you do have for customizing this diagram is styling the look and feel of your shapes.
Just select an individual object or group of objects, then change the settings
on the Properties Bar.
If you find a style a really like, you can easily apply it to other shapes using the “Set
Default Group Style” option in the banner at the top of the canvas.
One last thing, you can use the options at the top of the Group View panel choose a new field
to group by.
For example, let’s group by who is remote and who works onsite.
Or even levels of seniority.
Lots of possibilities!
If you want these various groups to appear on different pages, all you need to do is go back
to your original org chart and select “Create Group View” to get another page in the diagram
with the new group visualized. Alright and that's it!
Let us know in the comments how you’re planning to use Group View or if you have any questions.
Happy diagramming!