Every once in a while, folks ask about map shapes in Visio. Does Visio have countries and continents? Yes? Well, where on earth (pun intended) are they?
Visio has had map shapes for a long time, but it has become increasingly difficult to find them. First, some of the shapes got moved into the shape database. That means they are no longer in a stencil, but must be found by running a Shape Search. And we all know that search can be less than perfect at times.
Second, the politicians and lawyers got involved. It seems that a few countries are having border disputes. And if poor Microsoft tries to sell anything in these countries that depicts borders not to their liking, they might end up getting sued. Hey, we just want to get our diagrams done!
So I’ve found an old .vsd of Europe that I made before these “issues” arose. I’ve added a few features that you might find useful or interesting:
- Nicer colors and formatting
- Text centered more appropriately on country shape
- Text field on each shape that shows the name (of the master)
- Put a silly grid on a background layer to give it that special “map feeling”
(Layer name = Grid, which is locked. Go to View > Layer Properties… to unlock) - Removed some of the graphically unappealing portions of Norway and Russia.
Perhaps this will allow some of you to find the shapes that you want more easily.
To help the folks out in search land, this drawing contains Visio shapes of the following countries:
EN: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Belarus, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, FYROM, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom
DE: Albanien, Österreich, Belgien, Bosnien und Herzegovina, Bulgarien, Weißrußland, Kroatien, Zypern, Tschechische Republik, Dänemark, Estland, Finnland, Frankreich, Deutschland, Griechenland, Island, Irland, Italien, Ungarn, Lettland, Litauen, Luxemburg, Ehem. jugoslaw. Rep. Mazedonien, Moldawien, Niederlande, Norwegen, Polen, Rumänien, Serbien, Rußland, Slowakische Rep., Slovenien, Spanien, Schweden, Schweiz, Türkei, Großbritannien
Download “Visio Map of Europe” s!Aj0wJuswNyXlhXFLvN1dXk-qjIPc – Downloaded 7471 times – 103 B
Just found this link that gives more details about the history of map shapes in Visio, and some tips on how to search for them.
1:15 AM
Way kewl post, Chris. Glad you launched the blog – Good idea 🙂
– Barb
Thank you very much. I had some trouble getting Visio to line the shapes up autoamtically when I tried to create my own, and the country names, etc… are a great addition. This has saved me a lot of work.
DJG
Is it public domain and free to use?
I would love to upload it to my site, so everyone in Denmark can benefit from it.
Hi KortX,
You can link to this site from yours, then anyone can download the maps!
– Chris
Good day,
What version of Visio is the map in. I cant open it due to the verison
Hi Kyle,
They’re all in Visio 2003 format. Sorry that you’ve had problems.
– Chris
Thank you for this great work.
I’ve got a problem to make a good diagram for explaining system arch. for European countries but I could make it much nicer using this.
Again, thanks.
Thanks for these great maps. I have been using them with Color by value, but, bizarrely, the shape for Norway changes the line colour but not the fill colour. Any ideas why this might be? I have looked at the ShapeSheet, but can’t see an obvious difference between the Norway one and the other countries.
Hi Bob,
I just tried out the Color by Value stuff and it worked for my Norway.
I did, however, notice that I’ve left the German names of the countries in the Shape Data field called “Name”. I don’t think this would screw you up, though.
Thanks for the response. I have been having lots of fun with the maps, they’re great, but am having to work around the Norway problem. I’ll try a download and start again at some point. I have quite a range of custom properties for the maps I’ve made now. Very cool!
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Hi,
I’m working with VISIO 2000 are you able to post a European map in an older version of VISIO.
Thanks for the effort
Hi sjefm,
Try the download now. It contains two versions: one saved for Visio 2003/2007/2010, the other saved for Visio 2000/2002. Hopefully that will work!
More info on Visio file formats: Visio File Formats
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