How to use Visio Data Visualizer
Data Visualizer names two different things: a retired Excel add-in and a live set of Visio desktop templates. Which one you have decides the licence, the platform and the whole procedure — here is each, exactly.
A worked example, stage by stage
Descriptions only
"Raise a travel request with dates and purpose" and "Estimate the total trip cost" are just labels so far. This is Data Visualizer's Process Step Description column and nothing else: two steps, no order, no shapes.
Shapes and next-step numbers
The row number is the identity, exactly as Process Step ID is in Microsoft's workbook, and the next-step column is what draws the arrows. "Trip within the travel policy?" now renders as a diamond with two exits instead of a rectangle.
Branch labels and the loops
Labelled exits are what make a branching chart readable — Data Visualizer's Connector Label column, comma-separated. "Finance approves the escalated cost?" has three, in this order: Approved, then "Cheaper option only", which sends the trip back to be re-costed, then Refused.
Phases and owners
The last two columns are the equivalent of the function and phase columns in Microsoft's workbook: Employee, Line manager, Travel desk and Finance across Request, Approval, Booking, Trip and Expenses. Same rows, two more columns, and the flowchart becomes a cross-functional one.
How it works
Establish which Data Visualizer you are dealing with
If the entry point you remember was a button in Excel, that is the retired add-in. If you want the version Microsoft still documents, you need the Visio desktop app, which among the subscriptions ships only with Visio Plan 2 — Plan 1 is web and Teams only, and Microsoft states plainly that the Data Visualizer templates and the Create Diagram from Data wizard are "only available with Visio Plan 2". There is no Visio desktop app for macOS, so a Mac is not a starting point for this.
Open one of the three Data Visualizer templates
Microsoft's steps: open Visio, or select File > New if you are already editing a diagram, select TEMPLATES, then select Flowchart. In that category pick "Basic Flowchart - Data Visualizer", "Cross-Functional Flowchart - Data Visualizer" or "Audit Diagram - Data Visualizer". Choose the cross-functional one if the process crosses teams and you want swimlanes; the basic one ignores the function and phase columns entirely.
Take Microsoft's Excel data template
From the template preview, select "Excel data template" to download the starter workbook, choose a unit of measurement, then select "Create". Creating launches the Create Diagram from Data wizard. Starting from Microsoft's workbook rather than your own sheet is worth the two minutes: it arrives with the column set the wizard expects, so the mapping page is confirmation rather than guesswork.
Type the process into the workbook's columns
The columns are Process Step ID, which must be unique and never blank; Process Step Description, the text on each shape; Next Step ID, the ID of the next shape in the sequence; Connector Label, where branching shapes carry their labels as comma-separated text; Shape Type; and the function and phase columns, which apply to a cross-functional flowchart and are ignored by a basic one. The wizard accepts a table or a custom range, but Microsoft's guidance is to use an Excel table "if you want to keep your diagram and data synchronized".
Work through the wizard's five pages
The pages are Excel, Functions/Phases, Process Steps, Shape Types and Connections. On the first you select the workbook and then a table or custom range in it. Functions/Phases maps "Function or Swimlane", which is required, and "Phase or Timeline". Process Steps maps the required "Process Step ID / Activity ID" plus the description and an Accessibility section; Shape Types maps shapes; Connections carries "Delimiter" and "Connector Label". Select Finish and Visio draws the shapes and the connectors.
Refresh in either direction, and keep the container selected
Click in the diagram container to enable the Data Tools Design tab, then select Refresh Diagram to pull changes from Excel, or Update Source Data to write diagram changes back. Refreshing only changes shapes and connections inside the container and preserves your formatting; a "Refresh Diagram Conflict" dialog appears when a refresh would discard changes, and an "Update Source Data Conflict" dialog when writing back might lose data, where you select "Overwrite". If the workbook lives on a desktop machine or a network file server it must be saved and closed first.
Frequently asked questions
Is Visio Data Visualizer being retired?
The Excel add-in is. Microsoft announced its retirement on the Microsoft 365 Blog on 3 November 2025, last revised 9 December 2025, and to tenant admins as MC1182535, with the service shutdown set for 2 March 2026 — a date it confirmed in December 2025 was unchanged. Microsoft has published nothing since either confirming the shutdown executed or reversing it, and its support pages still describe the retirement in the future tense. The Data Visualizer templates in the Visio desktop app are a different feature and carry no retirement notice at all.
Do I need Visio Plan 2 to use Data Visualizer?
For the desktop templates, yes. Microsoft states that the ability to use the Data Visualizer templates, and the Create Diagram from Data wizard, is "only available with Visio Plan 2" — US$15 per user per month paid yearly, list price at the time of writing, and the only subscription tier that includes the desktop app. The retired Excel add-in was different: creating a diagram needed no Visio subscription, basic editing in Visio for the web needed Plan 1, and editing in the desktop app needed Plan 2. Whether the perpetual 2024 editions include the templates is not something Microsoft's documentation settles.
How do I get a diagram out of the Excel add-in before it stops working?
Microsoft documented two rescue paths, and they are not equivalent. On a Microsoft 365 work or school account, select the ellipses (…) in the diagram area, then "Open in web" and sign in: a Visio file is created and stays accessible from OneDrive and Visio for the web. Consumers without Microsoft 365 get the add-in window's top-right drop-down arrow, then "Show as Saved Image", then right-click and Copy — a picture, with no .vsdx route offered at all. If your diagram only exists inside a workbook, an image may be all you can salvage — /guides/excel-data-visualizer-flowchart walks that rescue and what to do with the table afterwards.
What can I use instead of the Data Visualizer add-in?
Microsoft's own recommendation is Visio Plan 2 and the desktop templates, and if you already run Windows and want Visio's stencil ecosystem, BPMN 2.0 validation or offline work, that is a reasonable answer. If you want the free, no-signup replacement for what the add-in did, ProcessMapping.app's Data Visualizer alternative is linked below and does exactly that. QueryChart is the option when the process needs governing rather than just drawing — approvals and checkpointed revisions, where Visio's version history is 30-day OneDrive file versioning an administrator can switch off. /guides/visio-data-visualizer-alternatives weighs them up.