Visio SmartShapes

12 Month Data Graphic Shape (almost)

April 25, 2007 By Visio Guy 10 Comments

This morning I was thumbing through one of Edward R. Tufte’s books, and I got this idea for a “12-month bar shape” — a shape that shows vertical bars for each month of the year, in a compact, easy-to-read format. My original thought was that it would make a perfect Visio 2007 Data Graphic!

So, without thinking, planning, or researching, I plunged ahead creating the details of the shape, and then realized that making a Data Graphic is more complicated than I thought. Ugh!

Nevertheless, I’ve created a shape, which displays bar-graphics for 12 months of the year, and which links to external data. Perhaps you’ll find it useful!

Map of World

April 23, 2007 By Visio Guy 58 Comments

Well, it’s been a while since any map-drawings have found their way to the Visio Guy blog-bits. And, judging by the messages I’ve been reading in the newsgroups, as well as personally receiving, there are a few more maps that you folks would like to see.

Since Mrs. Visio Guy and I are spending this year traveling around the world, it seemed appropriate that we offer up a map of the world for you to download!

So here we have it: in between hikes through rainforests, sky-diving adventures, and dolphin-watching tours, I’ve managed to produce a Visio drawing that shows all the countries of the world.

[Read more…] about Map of World

Wave Generator Diagram

March 15, 2007 By Visio Guy 5 Comments

Well folks, the Missus and I have been traveling New Zealand’s south island for the past few weeks, and I’ve finally found the time get online and offer up a new post.

The land is beautiful down here, and folks are very conscious of the environment. In the news, there’s been lots of talk about generating power using the energy stored in ocean’s waves and tidal flows. On the long train ride from Auckland to Wellington, I had a conversation with a guy about a simple power generator that works by anchoring a buoy to the ocean floor, and using the up-and-down motion caused by floating to generate electricity.

I had the idea to create a Visio diagram to illustrate how such a wave generator might work. [Read more…] about Wave Generator Diagram