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You are here: Home / Archives for SmartShapes

SmartShapes

Automatic Chevron Process Shape

August 4, 2009 By Visio Guy 61 Comments

automatic-chevron-process-shapeIf you need a Visio shape that allows you to quickly create a chain of “chevron” arrows for your management presentations, then you have come to the right place! Our Visio SmartShape is jammed full of smart behaviors that save you a ton of time!

[Read more…] about Automatic Chevron Process Shape

Filed Under: Featured Articles, Shapes Tagged With: Auto Colors, Fill Format, Quick Text, repeating shapes, Right-Click Actions, SmartShapes

Take Note With the Visio Sticky Note Shape

April 17, 2009 By Visio Guy 13 Comments

sticky-note-title

If you like the way you can add comments to Microsoft Excel worksheet cells, or the way you can glue Post-it sticky notes to your monitor’s bezel, then you’ll appreciate this sticky note Visio SmartShape from guest-poster David Edson!

Today’s offering has some pretty neat features, so check out the article which explains how to use the shape, and shows off its unique capabilities!

[Read more…] about Take Note With the Visio Sticky Note Shape

Filed Under: Shapes Tagged With: Custom Properties, David Edson, Multi-shapes, Shape Data, SmartShapes

Visio Squircles

April 2, 2009 By Visio Guy 4 Comments

squircle-visio-shapeA couple weeks ago, I briefly glanced at my annoying Facebook page and noticed that people were commenting on the “new look”, which I was fortunate enough to not notice.

What did catch my eye was a comment from one friend, who noted; “Hey, the new Facebook has squircles!” Then another replied; “Yes, squircles are so Web 2.0!”

Naturally I was put off by how folks try to Out-clever-two-point-oh each other on Facebook, but I was nonetheless curious about squircles, because they sounded…well…visual!

[Read more…] about Visio Squircles

Filed Under: Shapes Tagged With: Artistic Effects, Geometry, SmartShapes, User-defined Cells

Run Circles Around Your Text With the Circle-text Title SmartShape

March 27, 2009 By Visio Guy 9 Comments

circle-title-textThe other day, I visited one of my favorite coffee houses in Munich: Aran. While sipping my mocha, the logo on the cup gave me the idea for a Visio SmartShape:

A title shape that automatically places each character in a circle.

The cup graphics look something like the thumbnail you see at the beginning of this article. In fact, I used the newly-created SmartShape to make that a-r-a-n that you see in the square.

[Read more…] about Run Circles Around Your Text With the Circle-text Title SmartShape

Filed Under: Illustration, Shapes, Web Design, Wireframes & IA Tagged With: Artistic Effects, Quick Text, repeating shapes, SmartShapes, Text

DIP Switch Shapes Gone Wild!

February 28, 2009 By Visio Guy 5 Comments

visio-dip-switch-smartshapes

Recently in the Visio Guy Newsgroups, user Ziorg77 submitted a wonderful Visio SmartShape of a DIP switch, where you could toggle each of the eight switches individually.

This led to a flurry of discussion, and several more user-submitted versions of the shape.

Each version had a unique interaction style that provided an opportunity for a fascinating comparison of Visio shape behavior and user interaction.

You can see all the shapes in action in a video I’ve prepared, and–even better–you can download these free Visio shapes at the end of this article.

[Read more…] about DIP Switch Shapes Gone Wild!

Filed Under: Electrical & Electronic, Video Tagged With: Right-Click Actions, Shape Data, SmartShapes

Trilogy-meter Data Graphics Part I

February 23, 2009 By Visio Guy 3 Comments

trilogy bar graph

Today, Visio Guy will show you how to create a three-bar SmartShape and link it to data using Visio 2007 Professional’s brilliant “Link Data to Shapes” feature.

We’ll cover the intricacies of creating a shape that visually reacts to data, and show you how to link instances of this shape to actual rows of data in an Excel spreadsheet!

This is the first in a three-part series on data graphics and data linking, so read-on, and stay tuned!

[Read more…] about Trilogy-meter Data Graphics Part I

Filed Under: Data, Power User, ShapeSheet Tagged With: Data Linking, Formulas, SmartShapes, Text, Visio 2007

Design Web Pages With This Visio Breadcrumbs Shape

February 3, 2009 By Visio Guy 6 Comments

breadcrumbs-visio-shape-thumb

I’ve seen much buzz lately regarding breadcrumb shapes in Visio.

Evidently a lot of folks are using Visio for IA and wireframes. Yup, you can lay-out and design web-sites with good ol’ Visio!

So I decided to create a Visio Breadcrumbs Shape to help web-site designers more quickly finish their prototypes. This shape incorporates some smart-behavior that should save you a lot of time!

[Read more…] about Design Web Pages With This Visio Breadcrumbs Shape

Filed Under: Shapes, Web Design, Wireframes & IA Tagged With: repeating shapes, SmartShapes, Web, Web Design

Flip the Switch, Feed the Creature

January 22, 2009 By Visio Guy 4 Comments

feed-the-creaturePeople really get excited about Visio when they see that SmartShapes can react visually to changing conditions.

Whether you change size or position, data stored with the shape, select a context menu item or double-click, a Visio shape can be built to show that something has changed.

A classic example of this is a simple rectangle that changes color when you extend it beyond a certain length…

[Read more…] about Flip the Switch, Feed the Creature

Filed Under: History, ShapeSheet Tagged With: Color, Fill Format, Hidden, IF statements, ShapeSheet, SmartShapes

Visio SmartShape for Inauguration Day 2009

January 20, 2009 By Visio Guy 2 Comments

inauguration-dayHappy Inauguration Day 2009, to everyone who finds it happy!

And to those who don’t find it particularly happy…well you find something to be positive about.

Which brings me to the point of this article: a bit of Visio inauguration-day  humor!

[Read more…] about Visio SmartShape for Inauguration Day 2009

Filed Under: Humor, ShapeSheet Tagged With: Coordinates, Hidden, ShapeSheet Formulas, ShapeSheet Functions, SmartShapes, Text, Transformation, Visio Groups

‘Indexed’ Shapes – for that Hand-drawn Look

August 20, 2008 By Visio Guy 34 Comments

A few ideas have been burning (another) hole in my head, and I just had to get them out.

I’ve wanted to build shapes that look hand-drawn for quite some time. Using random formulas in the ShapeSheet, each shape could have slight variations that make them look natural.

I’ve also wanted to make a set of shapes for creating simple graphs and charts. Not that this hasn’t been done before, but I wanted some simple shapes for illustrative purposes.

A few recent posts and articles finally drove me to it. I hope you find the results useful, interesting, and most importantly, amusing!

[Read more…] about ‘Indexed’ Shapes – for that Hand-drawn Look

Filed Under: Charts & Graphs, Illustration Tagged With: Humor, random, SmartShapes

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