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Visio 2010 Ribbon Commands Mega List

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Visio 2010’s Ribbon interface is very customizable, but it can be tricky finding the command you need.

We’ve published the complete list of commands in this article so that you can easily search the list!

Visio 2010 uses the “new” Ribbon user interface, which we love, hate and love to hate.

The great thing about the ribbon is that when it fails you, it is very customizable. Just right-click the ribbon and choose Customize the Ribbon.

The bad thing about the ribbon is that customizing it can be a pain in the neck.

click to view larger image

There are 554 items that can be added to the ribbon, and this list is not searchable. So if you don’t know the name of the item you are seeking, you’re in for a long, slow, visual, scrolling search. I find it really difficult to concentrate on that list and search for items. Especially in a world where I can Ctrl + F for just about anything!

You can narrow this list down by selecting Commands Not in the Ribbon from the drop-down list atop the dialog:

But wouldn’t it be nice if we could just search this list of commands?

Say you know you need a text-related command. There are at least 14 commands related to text, but only half of them begin with the word “text”.

  1. Convert to Text
  2. Draw Horizontal Text Box
  3. Draw Vertical Text Box
  4. Edit Text
  5. Left-to-Right Text Direction
  6. Right-to-Left Text Direction
  7. Rotate Text
  8. Text…
  9. Text
  10. Text Block
  11. Text Box
  12. Text Box Text
  13. Text Direction
  14. Text Style

The key to finding items in the customization list is to know the first letter of the item’s name. That way you easily can find it in the list.

Fortunately, Visio Guy is on the ball, and we’ve published a huge list of all the items. You can quickly and easily search this page to find the item you want, then attack the customize the ribbon dialog with confidence.

The Mega List

  1. <Separator>
  2. 100%
  3. 2 Sides
  4. 3 Sides
  5. 4 Sides
  6. 5 Sides
  7. 6 Sides
  8. 7 Sides
  9. About
  10. Actual Size
  11. Add Jumps To
  12. Add to Group
  13. Add-Ins
  14. Add-Ons
  15. Adjust
  16. Align Bottom
  17. Align Center
  18. Align Left
  19. Align Middle
  20. Align Objects
  21. Align Right
  22. Align Top
  23. All Caps
  24. Allow Themes
  25. Always Fit to Contents
  26. Apply after Linking Data to Shapes
  27. Apply Theme to New Shapes
  28. Arc
  29. Arc
  30. Area Select
  31. Arrange
  32. Arrange
  33. Arrange All
  34. Array Shapes…
  35. Arrows
  36. Assign to Layer…
  37. Assign to Layer…
  38. Auto Align & Space
  39. AutoBalance
  40. AutoConnect
  41. AutoCorrect Options…
  42. Auto-Create Ink Shapes
  43. Automatic Resize
  44. Automatically Link…
  45. Back
  46. Back
  47. Background Color
  48. Background Page…
  49. Backgrounds
  50. Backgrounds
  51. Behavior…
  52. Blank Page
  53. Bold
  54. Borders & Titles
  55. Brightness
  56. Bring Forward
  57. Bring Forward
  58. Bring to Front
  59. Browse to Other Document…
  60. Bucket Tool
  61. Bullets
  62. CAD Drawing…
  63. Calendar…
  64. Callout
  65. Capitalize Each Word
  66. Cascade Windows
  67. Center Drawing
  68. Change Case…
  69. Change Row Type
  70. Check Diagram
  71. Check Diagram
  72. Check In
  73. Check In
  74. Check Out
  75. Clear
  76. Clip Art…
  77. Clipboard
  78. Clipboard
  79. Close
  80. Close
  81. Close
  82. Close
  83. Close Icon Editor
  84. Close Ink Shape
  85. Close Ink Tools
  86. Close Ink Tools
  87. Close Print Preview
  88. Close Stencil
  89. Code
  90. Color Palette…
  91. Colors
  92. COM Add-Ins…
  93. Combine
  94. Comments
  95. Compress Picture
  96. Connect Shapes
  97. Connection Point
  98. Connection Points
  99. Connector
  100. Connectors
  101. Container
  102. Container Styles
  103. Container Styles
  104. Contrast
  105. Control Properties
  106. Controls
  107. Convert
  108. Convert to Group
  109. Convert to Group
  110. Convert to Shape
  111. Convert to Text
  112. Copy
  113. Corner Rounding
  114. Create
  115. Create New Data Graphic…
  116. Create New Subprocess
  117. Create New Theme Colors…
  118. Create New Theme Effects…
  119. Create Shortcut
  120. Create Subprocess from Selection
  121. Crop Tool
  122. Current Printer
  123. Current View
  124. Curved Lines
  125. Custom Toolbars
  126. Cut
  127. Dashes
  128. Data Graphics
  129. Decrease Font Size
  130. Decrease Indent
  131. Decrease Paragraph Spacing
  132. Define Styles…
  133. Delete
  134. Delete
  135. Delete
  136. Delete All Markup Overlays in Document
  137. Delete Comment
  138. Delete Markup
  139. Delete Markup Overlays on Current Page
  140. Delete Markups
  141. Delete Pages…
  142. Delete Shape ScreenTip
  143. Design Mode
  144. Developer Reference
  145. Developer Reference
  146. Diagram Parts
  147. Diagram Validation
  148. Direction
  149. Disband Container
  150. Discard Check Out
  151. Display Data
  152. Distribute Center
  153. Distribute Middle
  154. Distributed
  155. Document
  156. Document Stencil
  157. Double Strikethrough
  158. Double Underline
  159. Double-Click…
  160. Draw Horizontal Text Box
  161. Draw Vertical Text Box
  162. Drawing Explorer
  163. Drawing Page…
  164. Drawing Tools
  165. Drawing Tools
  166. Duplicate
  167. Dynamic Grid
  168. Edit Background
  169. Edit Comment
  170. Edit Data Graphic…
  171. Edit Formula
  172. Edit Icon
  173. Edit Link…
  174. Edit Links to Files
  175. Edit Master
  176. Edit Object
  177. Edit Text
  178. Editing
  179. Editing
  180. Effects
  181. Effects
  182. Ellipse
  183. E-mail
  184. E-mail as PDF Attachment
  185. E-mail as XPS Attachment
  186. Equation Editor
  187. Event Monitor
  188. Exit
  189. Expand as Needed
  190. Expand Row
  191. Export
  192. External Data
  193. External Data Window
  194. Fill
  195. Fill Options…
  196. Fill Style
  197. Find…
  198. Find
  199. Find Similar Shapes
  200. First Line
  201. First Tile
  202. Fit Curve
  203. Fit Curve…
  204. Fit to Contents
  205. Fit to Drawing
  206. Fit to Window
  207. Font
  208. Font
  209. Font
  210. Font Color
  211. Font Size
  212. Foreground
  213. Format Ink…
  214. Format Painter
  215. Format Picture
  216. Formula Tracing
  217. Formula Tracing
  218. Formulas
  219. Forward
  220. Forward
  221. Fragment
  222. Freeform
  223. Gantt Chart…
  224. Gap
  225. Glue to Connection Points
  226. Glue to Guides
  227. Glue to Shape Geometry
  228. Glue to Shape Handles
  229. Glue to Shape Vertices
  230. Go to Page
  231. Grid
  232. Group
  233. Group
  234. Guides
  235. Header & Footer…
  236. Heading Style
  237. Highlighter
  238. Horizontal in Vertical…
  239. Horizontal Lines
  240. Icon Area Select
  241. Icon Lasso Select
  242. Icons & Details
  243. Icons & Names
  244. Icons Only
  245. Ignore Issue
  246. Ignore Rule
  247. Ignore This Issue
  248. Illustrations
  249. Import
  250. Import Rules From
  251. Increase Font Size
  252. Increase Indent
  253. Increase Paragraph Spacing
  254. Ink
  255. Ink Color
  256. Ink Tools
  257. Insert
  258. Insert
  259. Insert a Field…
  260. Insert After
  261. Insert Cell Name
  262. Insert Chart
  263. Insert Controls
  264. Insert Function
  265. Insert Hyperlink
  266. Insert Legend
  267. Insert Object
  268. Insert Page…
  269. Insert Picture from File
  270. Insert PivotDiagram…
  271. Insert Symbol
  272. Insert Symbol from Dialog
  273. Intersect
  274. Issues Window
  275. Italic
  276. Join
  277. Jump Style
  278. Justify
  279. Language
  280. Language
  281. Language Preferences…
  282. Lasso Select
  283. Last Line
  284. Last Tile
  285. Last Zoom
  286. Layer
  287. Layer Properties…
  288. Layers
  289. Layout
  290. Layout & Routing…
  291. Left Button
  292. Left-to-Right
  293. Left-to-Right Text Direction
  294. Line
  295. Line
  296. Line Style
  297. Link Data to Shapes
  298. Link Shape to Existing Subprocess
  299. Links
  300. Lock Container
  301. Macro Security
  302. Macros
  303. Margins
  304. Markup
  305. Master Explorer
  306. Master Shape
  307. Membership
  308. Menu Commands
  309. Message Bar
  310. Minimize the Ribbon
  311. More Layout Options…
  312. More Lines…
  313. More Windows…
  314. Move Other Shapes Away on Drop
  315. Multiple Select
  316. Names Only
  317. Names under Icons
  318. Never Reroute
  319. New
  320. New…
  321. New Master…
  322. New Page…
  323. New Stencil (Metric)
  324. New Stencil (US Units)
  325. New Stencil (US units)
  326. New Window
  327. Next
  328. Next Markup
  329. Next Page
  330. Next Tile
  331. No Automatic Resize
  332. No Lines
  333. Normal
  334. Offset…
  335. Open
  336. Open in Visio
  337. Open Recent File…
  338. Open Stencil
  339. Operations
  340. Options
  341. Organization Chart…
  342. Organize My Shapes
  343. Outline Weight
  344. Page…
  345. Page
  346. Page Auto Size
  347. Page Breaks
  348. Page Default
  349. Page Orientation Gallery
  350. Page Setup…
  351. Page Setup
  352. Page Size Gallery
  353. Page Width
  354. Pages
  355. Paint
  356. Pan & Zoom
  357. Paragraph
  358. Paragraph
  359. Paste
  360. Paste
  361. Paste as Hyperlink
  362. Paste Special…
  363. Pause Recording
  364. Pen
  365. Pen Pressure
  366. Pencil
  367. Pencil Tool
  368. Pens
  369. Persistent Events
  370. Picture Corrections Options
  371. Picture Styles
  372. Pointer Tool
  373. Position
  374. Preview
  375. Preview and Print
  376. Previous
  377. Previous Markup
  378. Previous Page
  379. Previous Tile
  380. Print
  381. Print
  382. Print Preview
  383. Print Preview Page Setup
  384. Print ShapeSheet
  385. Proofing
  386. Properties…
  387. Protect Document…
  388. Protection…
  389. Publish as PDF or XPS
  390. Quick Print
  391. Reconvert
  392. Record Macro
  393. Rectangle
  394. Reduce File Size
  395. Refresh
  396. Refresh All
  397. Refresh Data…
  398. Re-Layout Page
  399. Re-layout Shapes
  400. Remove from Group
  401. Remove Hidden Information…
  402. Remove Theme
  403. Reorder Pages…
  404. Replace…
  405. Reports
  406. Reroute as Needed
  407. Reroute Freely
  408. Reroute on Crossover
  409. Research…
  410. Reset Connector
  411. Resume Recorder
  412. Reverse Ends
  413. Reviewing Pane
  414. Right Angle
  415. Right Button
  416. Right-to-Left
  417. Right-to-Left Text Direction
  418. Rotate
  419. Rotate Diagram
  420. Rotate Shapes
  421. Rotate Text
  422. Routed line
  423. Routing Style
  424. Rows
  425. Ruler
  426. Ruler & Grid…
  427. Rules to Check
  428. Save
  429. Save As
  430. Save As Other Format
  431. Save As Other Formats
  432. ScreenTip…
  433. SDK Tools
  434. Sections
  435. Sections
  436. Select
  437. Select
  438. Select All
  439. Select by Type…
  440. Select Contents
  441. Send
  442. Send Backward
  443. Send Backward
  444. Send to Back
  445. Server
  446. Set Proofing Language…
  447. Shadow Color
  448. Shadow Options…
  449. Shape
  450. Shape
  451. Shape Action
  452. Shape Actions
  453. Shape Data
  454. Shape Data
  455. Shape Data Sets…
  456. Shape Data Window
  457. Shape Design
  458. Shape Name
  459. Shape Reports
  460. Shapes
  461. SharePoint Workflow
  462. Show
  463. Show Ignored Issues
  464. Show Line Jumps
  465. Show Markup
  466. Show New Screen
  467. Show ShapeSheet
  468. Show Window
  469. Show/Hide
  470. Show/Hide Data Windows
  471. Single Tile
  472. Size
  473. Size & Position
  474. Small Caps
  475. Snap & Glue…
  476. Snap to Alignment Box
  477. Snap to Drawing Aids
  478. Snap to Grid
  479. Snap to Ruler Subdivisions
  480. Snap to Shape Intersections
  481. Space Shapes
  482. Spelling…
  483. Square
  484. Stamp Tool
  485. Stencil
  486. Stencil
  487. Stencil Explorer
  488. Stop Ignoring Rule
  489. Stop Ignoring This Issue
  490. Stop Recording
  491. Straight Lines
  492. Strikethrough
  493. Stroke Eraser
  494. Style
  495. Style…
  496. Style Explorer
  497. Subprocess
  498. Subscript
  499. Subtract
  500. Superscript
  501. Switch Windows
  502. Task Panes
  503. Text…
  504. Text
  505. Text Block
  506. Text Box
  507. Text Box Text
  508. Text Direction
  509. Text Style
  510. Themes
  511. Themes
  512. Thesaurus…
  513. Timeline…
  514. Toggle Full Screen View
  515. Toggle Glue
  516. Toggle Snap
  517. Toolbar Commands
  518. Tools
  519. Trace Dependents
  520. Trace Precedents
  521. Track Markup
  522. Translate
  523. Transparent
  524. Transparent
  525. Trim
  526. Underline
  527. Ungroup
  528. Union
  529. Update Alignment Box
  530. Update Icon
  531. Values
  532. Vertical Lines
  533. View
  534. View
  535. View Code
  536. View Direction
  537. View Macros
  538. View Version History
  539. Views
  540. Visio 2000-2002 Drawing (*.vsd)
  541. Visio Drawing (*.vsd)
  542. Visio Guy
  543. Visio Template (*.vst)
  544. Visual Aids
  545. Visual Basic
  546. Weight
  547. Whole Page
  548. Window
  549. Window
  550. Zoom
  551. Zoom…
  552. Zoom
  553. Zoom In
  554. Zoom Out


Creating the List

If you’ve scrolled down here, you know that 554 items is a lot! And if you think that I slowly typed each item from that huge list by hand, then you overestimate my generosity.

So how do you grab a bunch of text from a big ListBox? One way is to train Lemurs from Madagascar and feed them nutmeg beans. I hear they are fast and accurate typists. Another way is to use automation…

For the visuals on this website, I use Visio’s Save As… feature to create PNG files, and I use TechSmith’s legendary SnagIt application (currently version 9.1.3) for screenshots that show the user interface.

While pondering how to text-ify this gargantuan list, I poked around SnagIt’s features.  Luckily, I found the Text Capture feature.

AHA!

Unfortunately, I still had to scroll the list box 20 or so times to capture all the text page-by-page, so to speak. SnagIt does handle capturing extra-long images from scrollable windows and lists, but I had trouble getting it to work in the Customize the Ribbon dialog.

I also ended up with a lot of blank lines between each item. I was surprised that I couldn’t find a way to get rid of the blank lines in Word 2010. Perhaps there is a simpler way, but I had to resort to a few lines of VBA code that looked for paragraphs that had a length of 1, and then delete them.

Related posts:

  1. Visio 2010 Backstage Options Mega List

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. @artbraune

    Hi, Lemmi here. I’m one of the lemurs.
    We’re kinda nocturnal, so no pics this time, sorry.

    @visioguy
    The beans sucked!

  3. Remove blank paragraphs/lines:

    Search and Replace (Ctrl-H) “^p^p” with “^p”. If your line consists of a single space, change the first string to “^p ^p”

    I learnt this technique while converting old-style text files with a return at thened of every line (no word-wrap!). In this example I would replace “^p^p” with “~~”, replace all remaining “^p” with ” ” (space) and then replace all “~~” with “^p^p” to get a line between each paragraph. No VBA!

    Cheers

  4. Thanks AJD,

    I’ll have to try. I did tried searching for ^p^p and replacing with nothing, but it didn’t work. Maybe first replacing with *something* is the key.

  5. And this is the reason I absolutely loathe Office 2007 and later. I spend way too much time trying to find the command I need rather than being able to drill down through a menu structure. I never had any trouble finding what I need using Office 2003 menus but waste significant amounts of time Googling for answers when using any of the office 2007+ applications. Dumbing down office for the lowest common denominator has ruined it

  7. I tried to customize the Fonts Ribbon. I use subscript and superscript *all the time*, so it’s a pain to click into the full Fonts dialog.

    I tried to add Subscript and Superscript to the Fonts Ribbon, and it said:

    Commands can only be added to Custom Groups.

    Why doesn’t Microsoft allow its customers to modify their workflow to make it more efficient for themselves?

    Then, while as I was making the interface more efficient for myself, I thought I would take all the Position commands (align [objects] left/center/right/top/bottom/middle) and bring them up to the top of my new ribbon. I use these commands even more than sub/superscript, so avoiding the cumbersome user interface of having to click Position, then navigate down to the option I want, I would be able to just click on the button directly!

    Unfortunately, this is also a NO-GO from Microsoft! All the user gets to choose is the top-level Position button and its time-consuming interface.

    I think this clunky interface, while powerful, is why it takes me hours to create my drawings in Visio.

  8. A button I’d really like to see is one where I could set the width of an object to “textwidth(thetext)” and the height to “textheight(thetext,width)”. It would be nice to generalize this, but when I set these two fields in the ShapeSheet, these are the values I use 99% of the time.

  9. Chris — I was just pondering the same task, and you saved me the trouble, not to mention cluing me in to SnagIt’s text capture. Nice!
    — Graham

  11. Thank You!!! I was searching for 1/2 hour to add footers to visio 2010 and once I found your site, it was a breeze!

  13. @Tlarkin,

    Only using automation (code).

    The problem is that you can have multiple windows into the same page, so you can’t tie shape size to zoom in a natural way.

  14. What happened to “Document Location”. Office 2010 kept it for Word, but I can’t find it for Visio or Access. Does it exist or have an equivalent? It is awfully handy to know a file’s location without multiple steps.
    thank you

  15. Hi Diana,

    It’s buried, but still there.

    1. File > Info in the Backstage area.
    2. Far right, top find Properties, and click the teeny down arrow.
    3. Click Advanced Properties
    4. Click the General tab. You’ll see the Location field there.

    If you want to see it on a drawing, draw a rectangle, then select Insert > Field. In the Field dialog, select Document Info on the left, and Directory on the right.

    You can copy this shape into any document, and the directory-path text will update automatically for the document. Note, if the document isn’t saved, the text will be blank!

  16. Yes, or I could do a Save As and it would show me. What I am looking for is a way to make it more obvious, like in the Quick Access (always visible in Word) or Ribbon for one click. I want to avoid having to do more than just see where it is.

    Check out Word, Options, Quick Access Toolbar, All Commands, Document Location.

    Diana

  17. Please forgive my tone, but I am so pumped with infuriation I can hardly stand it. Viso was great before Microsoft bought it. It has since improved in functionality, but increased in infuriation and frustration cubically!

    I s there a way to RUN these commands that are not in the ribbon menus (Or I might add the F1 documentation)? How is the user to know that they even exist, and how are they to run them without building a huge personal addition onto the ribbon system?

    Putting commands in a custom tab just makes a person kludge! I don’t want to re-design visio, then when I have to re-install for any reason, or go to another PC, nothing is as I am used to! I can learn ANYTHING, just put it all there to be found – perhaps in a hierarchy of menus, where each level of abstraction is aptly named – what a concept! Instead of back to the future, perhaps the future could be back to the past and we could get work done.

    Microsoft just keeps making things harder and harder to actually use as they strive to make them more user friendly.

  18. Agh! The customize ribbon functionality is great; the display not so much. Actually, the display sucks and looks like something out of Windows for Workgroups 3.11.

    Now that I just dated myself, how do we get the new commands to line up under each other with small icons instead of 4 new commands occupying half the freakin’ ribbon?

    It’s as if they put a noob on the ribbon design. I mean, seriously. Or did I just miss the “make the ribbon pretty” checkbox??

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  20. I have an unusual issue, office 2013 doesn’t show the insert pop up when using org to add a picture. I have tried it a number of ways and it fails, even the multiple picture option fails to bring the browse window for picture insertion.

    Uninstalled and re-installed Visio and this failed to make a different, created a new Visio document this too failed.

    Any idea who might be able to help me figure this out.

    Mark

  21. In Visio 2010, my boss has a ‘Database’ tab with a ‘Reverse Engineer’ command that allows him to access one of our databases and show all of the joins, primary and foreign keys, and fields. This is very helpful, but I cannot find how to add it to my ribbon. Can you assist?

  22. I have found the answer to my problem above – my boss has the premium edition while I have the standard.
    Thanks anyway.

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