Well, we’d love to think that Visio Guy is your end-all resource for all-things Visio, but that would be…well…stupid. But since you’re here already, we’d like to point you to a wonderful source of Visio information: Visio newsgroups!
If you’ve got a problem using Visio or developing a solution for Visio, you can simply post a question in the Visio newsgroup forums, and a member of the Visio community will might answer it!
Edit: Visio Guy also has it’s own discussion forums. Check them out at www.visguy.com/vgforum.
There are many ways to read newsgroups; either by using newsreader software like Outlook Express <cough>, or by visiting web-sites that host all the posts for you. Try one of the following links to get a feel for how the newsgroups look:
- Visio 2010 Forums on Microsoft Technet
- Visio Zone on Experts Exchange (requires subscription)
- Microsoft Discussion Groups Home Old-style newsgroups have been deprecated. Use Technet or the Visio Guy forum.
- Google Groups
Depending on your needs, there are sub-groups within the topic of Visio . Try to post your question in the most-appropriate sub-location.
Microsoft has a whole slew of newsgroups for Visio, spanning many languages.
Update: these have sadly been deprecated in favor of the Technet forums, which currently only has one section for Visio.
The English-language Visio newsgroups are:
- microsoft.public.visio
- microsoft.public.createshapes
- microsoft.public.visio.database.modeling
- microsoft.public.developer
- microsoft.public.visio.developer.diagrams
- microsoft.public.visio.developer.shapesheet
- microsoft.public.visio.developer.vba
- microsoft.public.visio.developer.vc
- microsoft.public.visio.general
- microsoft.public.visio.installation
- microsoft.public.visio.printing
- microsoft.public.visio.software.modeling
- microsoft.public.visio.troubleshoot
The non-english Visio newsgroups are:
- microsoft.public.cn.visio (chinese)
- microsoft.public.kr.visio.qna (korean)
- microsoft.public.tr.visio (chinese traditional)
- microsoft.public.tw.visio (taiwanese)
- microsoft.public.de.german.visio (german)
- microsoft.public.es.visio (spanish)
- microsoft.public.fr.visio (french)
- microsoft.public.il.visio (hebrew/israel)
- microsoft.public.it.office.visio (italian)
- microsoft.public.jp.visio (japanese)
- microsoft.public.nl.office.visio (dutch)
The Visio experts at Visimation also have a few newsgroups on their ShapeSource website:
If you are a fan of D-Tools‘ System Integrator products, they have a Visio section in their support forum. The questions range from very D-Tools-and-Visio-specific to general Visio questions, so it’s worth a look, now and then!
Our very own web site has a discussion forum too!
I applogize for the length of this post! I have made several Visio 2003 Pro symbols [each consisting of group(s) of parts] and put them in stencils. Some became “masters” in Visio speak. Others did not. The difference in behavior is that when I delete a part of the symbol grouping [did not ungroup] from one instance of the symbol but not another the vsd drawing correctly shows the deletion for both those that are copies of “masters” and those that are copies of “non-masters”. However when I save the VSD file as an SVG file the deleted part of the symbol is, unexpectedly, still shown in the SVG view when the symbol is from a “master” but is, as expected, not shown when the symbol is from a “non-master”. Both “master” and “non-master” symbols were made and put into stencils the same way as far as I can tell. I want the “non-master” behavior. Can anyone tell me how to consistently create “non-masters” in stencils?
I am looking for a way to creat text which would “wrap around” the arc of a circle similar to what Word Art offers in MS Word . Is there anyway to create an arc in Visio 2003 and have the text wrap to the arc ??
Hi Mwunsch,
Visio doesn’t have “text on a curve” functionality, because it concentrates on diagramming. But you can import Word Art objects into Visio.
I find that it’s easier just to fire up Word and create a Word Art object, but you can get to from Visio via: Insert > Object. Then pick “Microsoft Word Picture”. You’ll get a funny-looking window that lets you create a Word Art object inside.
– Chris
Hi,
I would like to know; how can create Container type VISIO SHAPE JUST LIKE GANTT CHART, WHICH HAS CHILD ELEMENTS ATTACHED TO PARENT FRAME. Can any one can guide me in this……..
Thanks N Advance
SHAJI
Hello,
I have been unable to get help on this issue. I’ve called Microsoft and the young man who answered said he is not familiar with the software!!! Anyway,
Visio 2007 will not change the page orientation. I select the print setup tab in page set up dialog box and then click the setup button. There I choose landscape radio button and click OK. If I click the setup button again, the radio button is back to portrait. So I am only able to print portrait. What do you think?
Thanks
dear sirs,
Im a visio rookie, can you all professors tell me how to create a shape driven by a set of data, its not inserting data to shape(s), but creating shapes by data. for example : I want a rectangle shown if the data is 3, or circle if the data is 4 et cetera.
thanks for the help, (yusuf) yusuf220679@gmail.com
I am trying to create hyperlinks on Visio so that I can create a cover page that allows me to link directly to specific shapes on a separate page.
I was able to create this hyperlink and perform this action when I right click on the hyperlink, but I can’t figure out how to format the hyperlinks so that I can double click and go directly to the shape. When I right click on the hyperlink and follow: Format–>Behavior–>Double Click, it only allows me to double click to the other page, but not the specific shape. How do I do this? Thanks
Hi Dave,
You can do this via the ShapeSheet.
1. Find the id of the target shape to which you want to jump
2. Note the target page name
3. Select your source shape
4. Go to: Window > Show ShapeSheet
5. Find the Events section
6. In the EventDblClick cell, enter this formula:
=HYPERLINK(“”,”Page-2/sheet.1″,”zoom=150″,0,0)
You will have to substitute the page name, id, and zoom level, of course, but this should do what you want!
Hello,
Is it possible to save a Visio file as website WITHOUT frames? It is very hard to implement it to another page when its built like that..
Hi Frank,
That’s a very good question indeed! I think if you do the Save As Web with the non-fancy, IE-only features, it might not have the frames, but I’m not sure. Also, under the Publish button in the save dialog, you can specify custom templates, but I’ve never experimented with that.
John Goldsmith at VisualSignals has been doing a lot of investigation and tweaking of Visio’s Save As Web features. I’ve posted an article that highlights his work here: Improving Visio’s Save As Web Feature. He’s probably added new articles since I wrote this, so follow the links to his site and have a look around!
– Chris
Btw: The topic of frames is being discussed in the forum under this topic: Save flowchart as webpage! Need help.
How do I select multiple pages at once in Visio 2010? For instance, say I want to paste multiple pages from Visio into Powerpoint (or Word, etc.) and I don’t want to do one page at a time? (I used to be able to do this in older versions using Ctrl or Alt or something).
Hi,
My visio class diagrams have a procedure which has so many parameters. Please let me know how can I wrap them?
Many thanks in advance
Jigar
How do you remove invisible floating shapes in a Visio diagram?
Whenever creating PDF, floating objects appears in the PDF format. If I deselect – “Include custom Properties” the objects disappears.
–
I placed a Legend box within a “Container” and ungrouped my shapes that were embedded, now the shapes floats within the document whenever you create a PDF. They are only visible after the creating of a PDF. If I remove the option of “Include customer Properties” the shapes disappears.
I had this problem before with Visio 2003, and I can’t recall how I moved the floating objects.