Excel to Graphviz Relationship Visualizer

Relationships are the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected. Visualization is any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message. Relationship Visualization therefore is a technique for creating a diagram or image of how concepts, objects, or people are connected.

The Excel to Graphviz Relationship Visualizer tool was derived from personal work to break a complex situation into descriptions of its simplest relationships, and combine them back into a visualization. Collecting data in Microsoft Excel made it the ideal data entry tool. Finally, pairing Microsoft Excel with the free, open-source graphing engine Graphviz facilitated converting the data in spreadsheets into graphs and views providing alternate perspectives.

You can reap the benefit of rapid visualizations by releasing the mental paradigm of where shape and line placements should occur. Give the Relationship Visualizer simple ‘A’ is related to ‘B’ statements, and it will give back a graphical depiction of the data. Then use the included Style Designer to give the diagram some visual polish. 

See a brief video of it in action on YouTube here (will open a new window). 

Download the tool, user manual, and sample spreadsheets from SourceForge here.