Smart graphics for visual people
A feature lacking in Visio, like for-EVER, is the ability to align text along a connector’s path.
Now, Visio 2010’s new ShapeSheet functions and capabilities finally deliver.
Today we’ll show-off the cool new connector that I’ve developed for you, and get a very light technical explanation as to how it works!
[Read more…] about Text Along a Connector’s Path in Microsoft Visio 2010
We all know the numbers of the months. January is Number One! July is the 7th month, and December is the 12th.
But some folks need to know which week it is, and Visio has no formatting option to show dates as indexed weeks.
So we’re here to tell you how to do it!
[Read more…] about Calculate Work Weeks For Your Visio Shapes
Do you have shapes that contain multiple colors that you’d like to easily change?
Wouldn’t it be neat to be able to specify those colors in Shape Data fields, along with other parameters for the shape?
Visio’s Shape Data fields don’t directly support colors, but I’ve come up with a workaround. You can read how I did it, or just get the download and re-use what I’ve already built!
It’s easy to use Visio and not notice some of the things that make it a great diagramming application.
One great feature is how shapes resize–or more aptly–how parts of shapes resize. If you’ve wondered about the term “SmartShapes”, this is an area where Visio shapes are truly smart.
So let’s take a visual tour and see how Visio SmartShapes do intelligent resizing that saves you time and improves your diagrams.
[Read more…] about Why Visio Shape Smarts Makes Your Life Easier
Visio shape IDs are important.
No, seriously!
If you are developing with Visio, you will need to know how to get at them.
We’re here to show you how!
I’ve been working on a new multi-shape that you will hopefully find useful for presentations and process documentation. The Automatic Chevron Process Shape uses a new ShapeSheet technique for counting items in a list that I’ll share with you here.
As I was building it, I was faced with the challenge of calculating how many items are in a list.
It’s easy enough to enter “One;Two;Three;Four” into a shape’s text or into a ShapeSheet cell, but how do you know that there are four items in the list?
[Read more…] about How to Count the Number of Items in a List
If you are designing your own shapes, you’ll spend a lot of time manipulating text.
And the more you learn about Visio’s capabilities, the more you’ll want to control shape text. Oh yes, you’ll want to rotate it, reposition it, evaluate it, make it reflect data, make it resize with the shape, and much, much more.
Today we have a treatise on twelve text tips for both end-users and ShapeSheet fans.
In the US, March 14th is known to math fans as “Pi Day”, because in the US, we have a “special” date format (that makes dates much easier to sort and scan–trust me on this…)
Anyway, March 14th is written as: “3/14”, or perhaps 3.14. Pi Day. Get it?
Sadly, the rest of the world has no cause to celebrate, as March 14th is simply “14.3”–just another day on the calendar.
But today is May 1st, which could be abstracted to April 31st, which would be written in non-believing countries as 31.4. Pretty close. So I”m nominating today as “Metric Pi Day”.
To celebrate, I’m going to talk about Pi- and circle-related features in Visio! Today’s article is a hodge-podge of many end-user and ShapeSheet-related topics that have to do with circles and angles and Pi!
It’s nice to let your audience know where they are in a document, and how much further until the end. This is especially true if your Visio document does double-duty as a presentation.
A progress bar-style graphic does a nicer job of this than “Page 1 of 4” or “Page 3/4” or “75%”. The audience gets a real feel for how much is complete and how much remains.
Today’s article will show you some ShapeSheet techniques for creating a visual page-numbering shape. We’ll modify the Circle-text Title shape from an earlier Visio Guy article so that it shows you how far along you are in a document. You’ll also learn how to get the shape to position itself automatically on the page, so that it is even easier to use!
So go get a fresh cup of coffee and read on!
It is pretty easy to type text onto a Visio shape. And linking text to shape data fields takes just a quick visit to Insert > Field.
But did you know that you can use Visio shape text as a data source? That you can evaluate it as a meaningful number or useful quantity?
Today, we’ll show you a few tricks that will allow you to use shape text as quantifiable data that you can take action on.