Lucidchart’s automated layout features are an easy and fast way to make sense of complex
data.
Lucidchart already lets you automatically generate org charts from spreadsheet data,
but now you can take it a step further by converting your org chart into a group view.
Similarly, you can now use our smart containers to visually group any other kind of information
into categories.
Today, I’ll show you how to use these features to see more, know more, and do more with Lucidchart.
Let’s start with org charts and group view by opening our org chart by cross-functional
team template.
You can generate org charts in Lucidchart by importing an employee table.
For more details on how to do this, watch our org chart import tutorial linked in this
video.
Once you have your org chart imported, add more shapes to the canvas.
You can also add to or change conditional formatting rules, which are helpful because
they highlight key points of data without cluttering up your diagram with lots of text.
In this example, we chose to highlight cross-functional teams.
To make changes, go to the dock and click on the conditional formatting tab.
Once you’ve got your org chart just right, generate a group view––this is especially
useful for visualizing cross-functional teams, as we’ve done, and other metrics outside
a traditional reporting structure.
Double click on your org chart, then go to “Manage Data” in the top left of the canvas.
Select “Create Group View,” and follow the prompts in the dialog.This creates a new
page in your document with the groups you selected.
If you change your mind about who belongs to which team, all you have to do is drag
and drop the shapes between containers, and they will automatically adjust and resize
for you.
And regardless of whether you make changes in your org chart or in the group view, the
data can be downloaded again to a new CSV so that you can easily update your internal
files and systems.
Simply go back to “Manage data” and select “Export as CSV.”
Any changes will be highlighted for you and you can choose the information you want to
download.
On the other hand, if you make changes to your original spreadsheet––for example,
you need to add more employees to your org chart––simply make the changes and then
refresh the data in Lucidchart to automatically add those changes to both your org chart and
group view.
But what if you aren’t starting from an org chart but still want to quickly organize
your data into groups?
Meet our new smart containers.
Let’s take a closer look using this HR Hiring Process with smart containers template.
Smart containers have all the same functionality of group view for org charts, but you don’t
need an org chart to generate one.
All you need is a set of data––this template already has a sample data set, so let’s
make a copy of it.
Go to the toolbox and select “Import Data” under the “Smart Containers” shape library.
If this library isn’t already in the toolbox, you can search for it in the library shape
manager.
From this import dialog, you can either go straight to importing your data or browse
through our smart container templates.
Go through the import dialog, and choose the header for each container and shape.
Since we’re tracking candidates through the hiring process in this template, we’ll
choose status and candidate name.
From here, you can rearrange both containers and shapes.
You can also add in more information inside each shape.
Double-click your smart containers, and go to the “Shapes” drop-down menu in the
top left-hand corner of the toolbox.
And select any additional shape fields you want to show.
If you want the shape field label to show up as well, go to “More Options” and select
“Show label.”
Smart containers, like group view, can be easily formatted.
If you want to apply default formatting, double-click a container, make the changes you want, then
click on “Set Default Container Style” in the advanced toolbar at the top.
The same can be done in a shape.
Use conditional formatting to highlight different steps in the process so that you and your
colleagues can check on candidates at a glance.
As with group view in org charts, your changes can be downloaded to a CSV and changes you
make to your data can be automatically added to your smart containers.
Once you’re done editing your smart containers, you can easily add any other shapes to your
canvas.
Once you’ve made all the adjustments you want to a template, don’t forget to share
it with others.
And if you liked this template, make sure to check out our other org charts and smart
container templates in our template gallery to learn how Lucidchart can help you see more,
know more, and do more.