Org Chart Shape Custom Layouts

Hi @BadBatzMan 

Would you like to give it a try by customize the layout of individual shapes in your Lucidchart Org Chart for better organization and conditional formatting. While there's no readily option to create multi-section shapes,

• Group by location and use color coding to identify locations while preserving reporting lines with Groups Visualization and this is all Conditional Formatting

While the focus is on the Visual hierarchy and easy identification based on specific data points

The above method Groups your org chart by a chosen field (like -  location) and applies conditional formatting based on that data.

Hope this helps - Happy to help further!!
Thank you very much and have a great one!

Warm regards

Hi @Kristy!  Wow, did you make a video just for my question?!? Not a redirect to an already existing tutorial video? 😍 That’s so awesome!  I must say, I underestimated the user support here and fired off a question thinking that my chances of getting an answer, much less a workable one, was slim.

So, I will say that I started off trying the approach you showed, but I really, REALLY need those connecting lines, so I didn’t go very far.  The organization I have is big, around 500+ people.  Don’t ask why we need this in one org chart, we just do.  

I managed to get a similar result that I was looking for using conditional formatting with the Org Chart shapes by using the Icon with a Text Badge and displaying the Shape Data.  That worked well with short bits of text, which is what I had for now.  Things like PT for part time and FT for full time.  

Also, I wanted to use the Org Chart functionality to discuss with various department heads about how they want to arrange their department for the project.  So dumping it all in there before the reporting lines are finalized is nice because then we can work to move the resources around and the reporting IDs will automatically update.  Then when we’re done we can export the data and update our staffing plan.  For example, if a department has 30 people on a project, the department/discipline manager will have a few leads and then everyone else will be under those leads.  We can preliminarily assign all the resources and then have a meeting to drag/drop the boxes around.  That’s not something we can do with the custom shapes.

In the end, the built-in features are taking care of about 95% of what I need to do.  I’m finding the limitations are within the conditional formatting, not the shapes themselves.  For example, if I want to see an org chart of only people who are currently mobilized, or to be mobilized in the next two weeks, I’d like to have a way to hide all people with a mobilization date that is greater than two weeks from now.  So far, I haven’t seen a way to do that, so we are resorting to exporting the data, filtering it, and then re-importing just the data set we want.

Thanks again for the helpful video.  I know I will probably end up using that method for a different task.

@BadBatzMan You’re so welcome! I LOVE the use cases you’ve found. Thank you for sharing.

Here is another video on how to filter out employees based on a data property. 

I hope that this helps, keep me posted!

I can’t believe I didn’t see the Filters option under the Data tab of the Contextual Panel! 😑

That’s perfect, but what field(s) do I need?  When I import my data, the mobilization date is just plain text I believe.  Is there a way to format the data type so that it is recognized as a date? I would like to learn more about using formulas.  

I recently (today) upgraded to the Enterprise version, so now I can replace the dataset. This is helpful since we are just getting started and there are constant updates to the staffing plan.  Once the project gets started, there will be fewer changes, but we could have weekly updates. Being able to replace the dataset means I get to keep all the conditional formatting, shape styles, and employee fields that I had selected previously.

On a typical project, org charts are often created at the beginning, only show the top 3 or 4 tiers, and then maybe updated just once after that because they are considered a hassle to create/update.  But for the project I’m currently working on, there is a requirement to maintain an org chart showing ALL project personnel at every level, and to keep it current.  So far the org chart features here are proving to be very useful for us to meet this project requirement. 

The only problem I have now is getting the org charts that are grouped by department to fit on a single piece of paper.  I know it’s archaic to print these out and I would rather share them in Teams, but that is how we submit them to our client. In some cases where we haven’t finalized the organization structure, we may be showing 30 direct reports under one department manager.  That department org chart ends up being too wide or too tall.  Is there a way to “wrap” the org chart shapes to fix that issue?

Thanks again!

I recommend manipulating your data before importing (i.e. using excel / Sheets to get the data in the format you’d prefer to see). If the data still needs to be formatted in Lucid, refer to our Formula Library (there is a Date Section). To REALLY understand formulas, I HIGHLY recommend taking our Introductory Formula Course. It will explain how to reference data and the relations of data in Lucid (remember we are a visual platform where data can have ‘levels’ and ‘connections’. While we try to align our formulas to match other tools, there are some nuances that are important to understand). I also have 2 more advanced videos for you: 1) Org Charts + Dynamic Counters and 2) Org Chart + Summary Formulas.  If you’re getting stuck, post a video using our Loom integration here in the Community and we can do our best to guide you.

Unfortunately there is not a way to ‘wrap’ the org charts. And you’re right in the assumption that I would recommend sharing via a Publish (available to ANYONE) or Share link (available to Lucid users) directly from Lucid so that your client can navigate the org chart, use hover features, and any links/layers/embeds. If you MUST print, I recommend using page tiling (or even fit to page) in your Document Settings to get the best fit possible. 

Thanks @Kristy, again and as usual, your reply has been very helpful.  I will look into the formula courses, for sure!

Unfortunately, the organization I work for is forcing me to use another application to perform this task since Lucid was not “approved”. I have been using my own personal license. There is a slight chance they will review and allow the use, but I would give it maybe 2% and it could take half a year to go through the process.

The other application is much more expensive, but it does have some of the features I mentioned, like freeform editing of the org chart after importing, grouping people into teams, adjusting layouts by smaller groups within the org chart or on the entire org chart. Of course the data importing, updating, linking is all there as well, but the user interface leave a lot to be desired. If your curious, it is Visio, something I have not used in quite a while and hated using it when I did.  Alas, I must give it one more chance.  

Thanks again for all your help!