Microsoft Visio cheat sheet: How to get started

It’s often much easier to convey information with a well-designed diagram than to communicate through a large text blurb. As the old saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

That’s where Microsoft Visio comes in. Part of the Microsoft 365 suite, this app helps professionals convey information through professionally designed diagrams.

In this article:

What is Microsoft Visio?

How to find Visio in Microsoft 365

How to create a flowchart in Visio

How to create an organizational chart in Visio

How to create a Venn diagram in Visio

How to create a diagram from scratch in Visio

How to save, open, and collaborate on Visio diagrams

What is Microsoft Visio?

Microsoft Visio is the diagramming and vector graphics application in the Microsoft Office family. If you need to make diagrams such as decision trees, flow charts, org charts, and so on, this is the Microsoft tool to do it. Visio is less popular than other Microsoft apps like Word or Excel, but it is still a valuable tool to understand and use in everyday business.

Although there is a desktop Visio application, this cheat sheet will walk you through the basics of using Visio in Microsoft 365 — the web-only version that’s included with Microsoft 365/Office 365 business and enterprise subscriptions — since most business professionals who use Office have access to this version. All of the features in the web version of Visio can also be found in the desktop application, but not vice versa.

How to find Visio in Microsoft 365

For most people, Visio will not appear by default on your Microsoft 365 home page. To find Visio, navigate to your Microsoft 365 home page, sign in if you haven’t already, and type visio in the search bar.

From the Microsoft 365 home page, search for Visio and launch it in your browser.
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Click Visio in the results list to launch the web app in your browser. You will be taken to a page where you can see some commonly used templates for creating diagrams. This includes flowcharts, basic diagrams, organizational charts, infographic timelines and more.

There’s also an icon labelled “All templates” — here you can go through the complete list of templates available in Visio to help you find the exact template that’s right for your situation.

The Visio start page offers a variety of templates to start from.
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Using templates is the easiest way to begin making diagrams in Visio. I’ll walk you through three of the most common Microsoft Visio use cases — creating flowcharts, org charts, and Venn diagrams.

If Visio doesn’t have a template that suits your business needs, it’s quick and easy to make custom diagrams using Visio’s drag-and-drop features; I’ll show you that process as well.

How to create a flowchart in Microsoft Visio

A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents a workflow or process. It is excellent for showing the step-by-step process for completing a task while giving you the flexibility to show different decisions that need to be made and representing if-then scenarios. Microsoft Visio makes it extremely easy to create this type of diagram.

In this example, we will create a simple flow diagram to show what will happen during a team meeting to discuss a new idea for a company app. The team will discuss the idea, decide if they like it, and then take action based on that decision before ending the meeting.

Begin by clicking the Flowchart Template icon on the Visio start page. You’ll be taken to the main Visio interface, which looks a lot like Microsoft Word and other Microsoft 365 apps.

The flowchart template opens with basic flowchart shapes in the left column and a blank canvas on the right, topped by the Office Ribbon toolbar.
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The first step for any flowchart is creating a start point. Click and hold the oval Start/End icon in the left panel and drag it onto the blank canvas area on the right. The oval object appears with eight “handle” points at the corners and sides. To resize the oval, click and drag any of these handles; to move the oval on the canvas, click the middle of the oval and drag it.

Drag and drop a Start/End oval onto the canvas. You can drag any of the “handles” around the outside of the oval to resize it.
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To add text to a shape on the canvas, double-click in the center of it, and you’ll enter text edit mode — just type in the text you want to appear there. In our example, we’ll call the starting oval shape “Team Meeting Begins.” You can adjust the text’s font and size using the tools in the Ribbon toolbar at the top of the screen. I recommend making the text at least a size 24 so that it is properly visible.

The start oval now shows “Team Meeting Begins.”
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Next, you need to add your processes — every step that will be taken for the task to be completed that doesn’t require a decision to be made. These are represented by rectangles.

Click the Process icon and drag it to the canvas below the oval we added previously. As you do so, a dotted green line appears that guides you to place the rectangle directly below the oval. Resize the rectangle as needed, then name it “Team Discusses Idea.”

To connect the items, hover over the bottom edge of the start shape, then click and drag from the green and white button on the start shape to the top of the process shape. This will create a downward-flowing arrow connecting the two.

Connecting the process rectangle to the start oval.
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If you make a mistake, you can delete any shape or line on the canvas by right clicking-it and selecting Delete from the pop-up menu.

In our flowchart, we’ll next show that the team needs to decide whether they like the app idea. This is represented via a diamond shape and will have three possible outcomes.

Click the Decision icon in the left panel, drag it below “Team Discusses Idea,” and repeat the steps outlined above to resize it, name it “Does the team like the idea?” and connect it as shown below.

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The three possible responses to the decision will be “No,” “Yes,” and “Not enough info.”

To add text boxes for the responses, go to the Home tab on the Ribbon toolbar and select the Text Box icon (a rectangle with an A in the middle). Click on that, and your cursor will be able to draw text boxes on the canvas.

The lines around a text box appear when you select the box or type in it but disappear when not selected — so the text inside appears directly on the canvas rather than inside a shape.

Create a text box for each response, then type the appropriate word or phrase in each one. You can work with text boxes in the same ways you can with shapes.

Adding text boxes for the three possible responses.
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Below each text box, add a rectangular Process shape for its outcome and name the outcome shapes as shown below. Draw connector lines from the Decision shape to each response and from each response to its outcome.

To create connector lines that go across and then down the canvas, simply drag from the starting object out to the side and then down, and the connector line will appear where you dragged.

Adding and connecting the three outcomes to the flowchart.
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Now we’ve added three possible outcomes to our decision tree that will cover the possible outcomes of the meeting. Please take note of the third decision (furthest to the right). Often you may need to account for decisions that will result in you going back to an earlier step in the process and redoing some steps.

(Having the third option return to a previous step in this example is for demonstration purposes; in reality, you’d conduct more research outside the meeting and then discuss the idea again in a later meeting.)

Now there is only one step left: add the ending to the flowchart (using the Start/End shape again), which is when the meeting ends.

Add, label, and connect the end shape, and the flowchart is complete.
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How to create an organizational chart in Microsoft Visio

Next, we will look at how to create a simple org chart that consists of one head executive, their assistant, two managers, and their corresponding teams. Go back to the Visio start page and click on the Organization Chart template.

Creating an org chart is relatively simple. As we did with the flowchart, drag and drop the items you want — in this case, colored rectangles corresponding to work roles — from the left pane onto the main canvas and organize them in a hierarchical structure as shown below.

Drag and drop placeholders for the employees in your org chart.
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All that’s needed after that is to draw the lines showing the relationships between staff members. As with the flowchart, draw lines going from the higher-level staff to the lower-level staff.

Draw connector lines showing the relationship of employees to one another.
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To add text to the boxes, click on each image, then modify the name and title of the staff member.

Fill in the employees’ names to complete the org chart.
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How to create a Venn diagram in Microsoft Visio

Venn diagrams are a great way to visually compare two or more groups or items and show where they overlap. To quickly create one in Visio, go to the Visio home page and select All templates. In the search bar, type venn and choose Venn Diagrams from the type-ahead options that appear.

In the results, you’ll see a basic Venn diagram template as well as some completed sample diagrams. Select Venn Diagram Template.

Search for and select the basic Venn diagram template.
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On Venn diagram building page, you will see multiple shape and appearance options on the left. For our example, a simple two-item comparison, select the 2-sets Venn item and drag it onto the canvas. As with the shapes in other templates we’ve worked with, you can resize the 2-sets Venn item by dragging the “handles” that appear at the corners and edges when you click on it.

Drag the 2-sets Venn item onto the canvas.
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For this example, we’ll compare tomatoes to apples. Using the Ribbon toolbar, add a text box for “Tomato” at the upper left and one for “Apple” at the upper right.

Add labels for each side of the Venn diagram.
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Now to add labels to each portion of the Venn diagram, simply double click each area (left side, middle, and right side) and type in the appropriate text. To finish the Venn diagram, add the text shown in the picture below.

The completed Venn diagram shows both how tomatoes and apples are different and how they’re alike.
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How to create a diagram from scratch in Microsoft Visio

If there are no templates that suit your exact needs, you can create a diagram from scratch. While we can’t anticipate every action you might want to take in creating a custom diagram, here are the basic steps.

To begin, from the Visio start page, click Blank drawing.

1. Select and place your shapes.

As when using a template, you’ll see the Shapes panel on the left side of the screen, with a blank canvas to the right. The basic building blocks of your diagram are different shapes that you use to represent different items. Click and drag your desired shape(s) onto the canvas.

Drag any shapes you want to use for a diagram from the shapes panel onto the canvas.
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You can move, resize, and add text to shapes on the canvas just as we did when using a template.

In addition to the generic shapes that appear in the Shapes pane by default, you can look up custom icons that more accurately describe the information that you want to convey. Click the plus symbol at the left of the panel, and you’ll be able to browse through multiple collections of shapes and icons that you can pin to your panel, such as Cycle Diagram Shapes, Business Frameworks, and Interface Icons. (In fact, Visio templates are basically targeted sets of these shape collections.)

You can also use the search box at the top of the Shapes panel to search for specific icons, as shown below.

Use the search box to find highly specific shapes or icons for your diagram.
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2. Add arrows

Next, you need to use arrows as connectors to show relationships between the items in your diagram. These arrow images help people to understand the logical direction that information is flowing. Click the icon with two curved arrows at the left of the Shapes panel to see the Arrow Shapes collection.

Visio offers an array of arrow types you can use to show the progression of your diagram.
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3. Apply a theme

Themes can be helpful to make your diagrams more visually appealing or to reflect company or client color schemes. To select a theme, go to the Design tab in the Ribbon toolbar, click Themes, and select the theme of your choice.

Applying a theme makes your diagram more attractive and easier to take in quickly.
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How to save, open, and collaborate on Visio diagrams

As you’re working on a diagram in your browser, Visio autosaves your work, calling it “Drawing” (or “Drawing2,” “Drawing3,” etc.) by default. To change its file name to something more meaningful, click its name in the title bar at the top of the screen and type in a new name.

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When you go back to the Visio start page, you’ll see all the diagrams you’ve created (and that others have shared with you) in a list at the bottom of the page. Click any file name in the list to open the diagram.

Visio files you have access to are listed on the Visio home page.
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The diagram will open in a mode that lets you view and comment on it but not edit it. To switch to editing mode, select Edit Diagram > Edit in Browser at the top right of the screen.

When you open a saved diagram, you’ll need to click Edit Diagram to make changes to it.Shimon Brathwaite / Foundry

Like Word, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps, Visio lets you collaborate on diagrams with co-workers in real time. Microsoft calls this “co-authoring.” To share a diagram, click the Share button at top right and select Share from the menu that appears.

The “Share” pane appears. Here you can type in colleagues’ names or email addresses and an optional message. Click the pencil icon at the right to choose whether you want to let the people you’re inviting edit the diagram or simply view and comment on it. When you’re done, click Send, and your invitees will receive an email with a link where they can access the diagram.

You can invite colleagues to collaborate on a Visio diagram.
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To add a comment to a diagram, click the Comments button at the top right and then click New in the pane that appears. Or, to comment on a specific item in the diagram, click its shape and then click the New button in the Comments pane.

Type your comment in the comment box (you can @mention someone to call their attention to it) and then click the Post comment button (a paper airplane icon). Others can read and reply to your comments and/or add their own comments.

Adding a comment to a diagram.
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Now you’re all set to begin creating and sharing custom diagrams for every business need.