Custom Visual Work Instructions and Graphic Procedures

Tips and Insights

Over our 28 years of explaining, we've accumulated a wealth of valuable information that doesn't fit neatly under our web site tabs. This body of knowledge includes some tools we have developed, approaches that have worked well, other approaches that failed, and a large amount of miscellany that could be called "accumulated wisdom" or perhaps more accurately "battle scars"

We organized this section as topic threads that invite further insights and comments. We welcome your additions.

We also welcome questions and suggestions for new topics.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Drawing with Excel

Our guys-the illustrators-laughed at the notion of drawing with Excel until one of the clients we coach revealed that Excel and Word were her only options for creating in-house work instructions. We had to do some fast learning. Actually, I had to do some fast learning; the illustrators stayed away from it. As it turns out, most simple shapes are possible in Excel, and I learned quickly how to group, align, and rotate objects, as well as add dimension and depth.

As a platform for developing graphic work instructions, especially when compared with a Word file, the Excel spreadsheet format offers some advantages:

Drawing in Excel is easier than a sophisticated illustration program such as Adobe Illustrator.
You can scan photos, insert them in Excel, and then trace them into drawings. This allows you to manipulate the shapes as needed.
Once you develop a library of parts and pieces, you can easily create new instructions. Check out this example...

Of course, Excel also has some limitations:

You can't import CAD files.
Isometric/perspective views are limited.
Using color with customized shapes is tricky.

Sophistication is possible, though, if you want to take the time to practice. Look at what this gal can do. After studying her intricate drawings-including expression in the faces-I was pretty happy our client only asked me to draw machines or parts that I could reduce to combinations of squares and circles.

By the way, you use pretty much the same drawing tools in Word and PowerPoint, so once you've mastered one application in Microsoft Office, you've mastered them all.

Labels: Excel, illustrations, visual work instructions