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[wmc]

The manual says that OrgPlus supports dotted-line relationships but it doesn't say how to make them work. We have a complex organization that is a mix of direct and matrix relationships. I can't see how OrgPlus enables the management of these relationships.

[Forum Administrator]

You have a couple of options for representing dotted-line reporting.

The first option is to draw an auxilary line from the employee to their second line manager. This is done by following these instructions:

To draw an auxiliary line between two boxes:

1. Select Line | Auxiliary from the Insert menu or click the Auxiliary Line tool.

2. Move the pointer over a box. Anchor point symbols appear on all four sides of the box. Move the mouse to one of the anchor points and click and drag toward another box.

3. Once over the other box, the same anchor point symbols are displayed. Release the mouse button over the desired anchor point.

If you have your chart information in an Excel sheet or a database, you can import that information specifying for OrgPlus to show dotted-line relationships. Please note that the only way to have OrgPlus show these dotted-line relationships in this way is for you to import from an Excel file or other datasource.

1. In your datasource, there will be an additional row for each manager to which an employee reports. All data in these rows will be duplicate, except for the manager (or ReportsTo, etc) field.

2. When you are importing, in the second step "Import wizard - Data settings" you must state that this chart has dotted line reports. This is done by putting a check in "Show Dotted-line reports."

3. Then you must select your key field. This field will have duplicates. For instance, if you have and ID field, it will have the employees ID listed more than once. Or perhaps you will use the name field.

4. Complete the import process.

5. In the chart you will now see your employee listed more than once. They will have ">>" marks beside their name. This denotes dotted line reporting. You can click on those marks and it moves you from one instance of their name to the other.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Sincerely,

Trisha Diesch
Customer Advocate
HumanConcepts
OrgPlus. Organize. Visualize. Strategize.
(415) 332-3030 ext. 3000
www.orgplus.com

[wmc]

Trisha,

Thanks for the instructions. It works from the import because that will allow subcharting whereas the auxillary line method will not. The only problem now is that the >> marks are lost when the chart is converted to html or pdf and the employee appears on both subcharts without any supporting information. How can we show the dotted relationship with subcharts and after conversion to other formats? We need to be able to distribute our charts by pdf.

[TedO_HC]

We are aware that the >> dotted line marks disappear when you publish to PDF.  Hopefully in the future these will be carried over to all the formats when you publish.

Sincerely,

Ted Osborne
Customer Advocate
HumanConcepts
OrgPlus. Organize. Visualize. Strategize.
(415) 332-3030 ext. 3000
http://www.orgplus.com