Visio Guy Forums: New!

Posted by Visio Guy on April 23rd, 2008 - 539 views

Well, we held off doing this as long as possible--mostly because there are several other forums devoted to Visio (see:Visio Newsgroups and Discussion Boards)--but thanks to all of your enthusiasm, the Comments feature of this web-site was becoming seriously overloaded...

So we've added the Visio Guy Forums, where you can post questions, discuss issues, and share solutions with each other. You can also get to the forums by clicking the FORUM item at the right-end of the page navigation bar.

We haven't linked the user registrations from this site to the forum yet, so you'll have to create a new log in (sorry!), but the process is pretty painless. See you on the other side!

Posted in News | No Comments »

“Laser” Shape

Posted by Visio Guy on May 8th, 2008 - 341 views

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Recently, I was digging through some old projects, when I stumbled upon a Visio SmartShape that is loads of fun, and perhaps even slightly useful!

Years ago, I created a demo for one of Microsoft's marketing groups. One of the shapes is a laser show projection shape and was used in a scaled drawing of a baseball stadium that was to be configured for a software trade show party rock concert.

If you do any kind of system integration, especially stage-layout, event wiring diagrams or something similar, you might find this shape useful. But that's not the interesting part...

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Posted in AV Equipment, Shapes | 2 Comments »

Understanding Arc-Resize Problems in Visio

Posted by Visio Guy on April 28th, 2008 - 262 views

Read Full ArticleIf you've ever drawn arcs in Visio, then grouped them together with other shapes, you may have noticed that they behave rather oddly on resizing. As you make the group bigger or smaller, the arcs may bow or squish in ways that you didn't expect.

This problem arises because of the interaction style of the arc shapes, which is 1D. Visio has two interaction styles: 1D and 2D. They have to do with the green handles you see on the shape, and how you go about manipulating the shape with the mouse.

In this article, we'll describe the difference between the two interaction styles, and explain how to correct resizing problems you might be encountering.

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Posted in Code, Power User, ShapeSheet | No Comments »

Sewing Patterns With Visio

Posted by Visio Guy on April 28th, 2008 - 268 views

Read Full ArticleRelatives ask me now and again if That Visio software can help me make quilting patterns?. I start to answer Well, maybe... and then we get side-tracked by family gossip and questions about When ya moving home?, etc, so nothing ever comes of it.

Between my relative's inquiries and the decent traffic for the article: Visio for Fashion Design?, this seems to be a niche with more than passing interest.

On a recent trip to the Great Northwest and the Land of Microsoft, the sewing question arose yet again, but this time I had a large swath of fabric at my disposal.

The wheels in my head started turning...

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Posted in Humor, Power User | 1 Comment »

Importing Images as Backgrounds for Tracing

Posted by Visio Guy on April 16th, 2008 - 644 views

Many Visio users create detailed elevation drawings of network and audio/visual equipment. The quality of these drawings can impress customers and enable equipment to be more quickly recognized in a diagram.

While vendors such as Altima and D-Tools provide detailed Visio shapes, you may find yourself needing to create your own shapes from time to time.

One method for creating detailed equipment shapes involves tracing an image of the actual gizmo. We'd like to offer a few tips to help you get the job done in Visio!

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Posted in Development, Power User | 3 Comments »

Center-sizing Smart Shapes

Posted by Visio Guy on April 15th, 2008 - 510 views

Read Full ArticleVisio has tons of keyboard shortcuts, including modifiers for constraining the resizing and moving of shapes. For instance, with the Shift key depressed, you can constrain a shape to move only vertically or horizontally. Neat-o!

But unless I have totally missed something (which does occur occasionally), there is one feature that Visio could really use: the ability to resize shapes on-center.

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Posted in Illustration, Power User, ShapeSheet, Shapes | 4 Comments »

How Big Is My Shape?

Posted by Visio Guy on April 13th, 2008 - 433 views

Read Full ArticleWhether you're a Visio end-user creating measured drawings, or you're developing a Visio solution with customized Visio shapes, at some point, you'll want to know how big your shapes are, and how to precisely resize them.

There are several ways to do this, and many of them allow you to edit the data as well. Today's post offers a run-down of the many ways that you can edit and view the size of your Visio shapes!

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Posted in Development, Power User, ShapeSheet | 1 Comment »

Effects of Imported Images on Visio File Size

Posted by Visio Guy on April 12th, 2008 - 522 views

Read Full ArticleYou can quickly create detailed shapes by importing images into Visio. If you don't have time (or budget!) to make a detailed drawing of that special ThinkPad or iPhone or USB Stick shape that you've been craving, you can simply browse for an image, and insert it into Visio!

It's a fairly simple matter that you can achieve via two ways: Choose the menu: Insert > Picture > From File... or: Copy an image from an image-editor or image-viewing program and paste it into a Visio page. Simple indeed!

But what happens to Visio file sizes when you import images?

Does Visio compress famously-large BMP files on import, or will the .vsd become huge itself? Will we get significant savings by importing JPG or PNG files as opposed to straight-bitmaps?

Well today, we ran a few tests to see what happens!

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Posted in Development, Power User | 4 Comments »

More Articles...

Work Faster With Our Top Visio Keyboard Shortcuts

Posted by Visio Guy on April 9th, 2008 - 918 views

An old Visio Corporation coworker of mine used to talk about “…being a two-handed Visio user, as opposed to being a one-handed Visio user.”
What he meant was that you can get a lot more done if you learn a few keyboard shortcuts and mouse techniques.
The Visio keyboard shortcuts that we’re sharing with you today will […]

Lens Flare & Highlight Shapes - Bling Bling!

Posted by Visio Guy on April 6th, 2008 - 749 views

Welcome to this month’s issue of Pimp My Visio Shapes! (*cough*)
I’ve come up with some shapes that will allow you to add lighting effects such as lens flares, star-highlights, and other shininess-enhancing effects to your overdrawn Visio diagrams.

Map of UK Counties and Boroughs

Posted by Visio Guy on April 4th, 2008 - 476 views

David Parker, of bVisual Ltd, has created a really cool map of the UK’s counties and boroughs, and released it for download. Have a look at the article here: UK Counties and Boroughs Map Shapes for Visio.

Visio Guy Wins Landmark €400MM Decision vs. EU (April Fools’)

Posted by Visio Guy on April 1st, 2008 - 413 views

Just a little April Fools’ humor, taking a poke at the EU picking on poor Microsoft.

Smart LineWeight: Bigger Shape, Thicker Lines

Posted by Visio Guy on March 29th, 2008 - 557 views

Recently we were introduced to the Cisco IP Telephone Shapes, and learned how they could be improved in the article: Making Shapes More Efficient: Using Fewer Shapes & Groups.
Today we’re going to focus on what happens when the Cisco shapes get resized, and discuss a technique for making the lineweight proportional to the size of […]

Making Shapes More Efficient: Using Fewer Shapes & Groups

Posted by Visio Guy on March 28th, 2008 - 574 views

Learn how to make your Visio shapes more efficient by reducing the number of sub-shapes and nested-group levels.

Cisco IP Telephone Shapes

Posted by Visio Guy on March 27th, 2008 - 1605 views

With these Cisco IP Telephone Button Shapes, you can document the changes and customizations that you’ve made to your to your Cisco IP system!Telephone..

Apple iPhone Network Shape

Posted by Visio Guy on March 23rd, 2008 - 1370 views

Well, it’s been a while since we offered an overdrawn Visio Network shape, like the Logitech VX Revolution Mouse Shape, the Thinkpad Network Shape. or the USB Stick Shape.
Since it’s Easter Sunday, and things are slow around here, I was in the mood to create something pretty. And of all the new gadgets on the […]

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