Jump to Menu

Exporting Database Design to Excel for Mass Editing

Sometime, we need to perform large scale modification or validation of database design. While the diagramming interface is good for designing and understanding database design, it's not efficient enough for performing large scale changes. This tutorial shows how to export ERD to Microsoft Excel file, modify the Excel and import it back to the ERD.
Topics
1. Export ERD to MS Excel file
2. Make changes in Excel
3. Import Excel file back to ERD

The database design for the Computer Sales project:

Computer Sales project ERD

To export the diagram as excel, right-click on the diagram, and select Export > Export to Excel... from the pop-up menu.
Specify the path of the Excel file.
Select Model Type Per Sheet as the Export Style.
Open the exported file.
Open the Entity sheet.
Remove all the _ in the Name column, and press Save.
Back to the Visual Paradigm.
Select File > Import > Excel... from the main menu.
Select the modified Excel file.
The changes are listed in the Import dialog box. Review them and click OK to perform.
The changes are applied to the diagram.