Category: microsoft Visio

Microsoft Visio – Dealing with Collisions ”; Previous Next When adding many milestones, it is possible that the description text of the milestones will run into each other creating a messy look. It is possible to avoid collisions by changing the position of the milestone text. If you happen to have a colliding text, simply grab the yellow end of the milestone and drag to a separate position, such as the bottom or higher up. You can also angle the yellow end by simply turning your mouse to a desired angle. The idea is to ensure that the text doesn’t collide and is represented as clearly as possible. Once the yellow end is dragged and released, the Line milestone shape adjusts itself accordingly. You can also use the guides to glue the yellow ends of multiple milestones so that they are all aligned. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Scaling & Adding Structural Elements to a Floor Plan ”; Previous Next Before adding elements to a floor plan, it is important to set the scale correctly. Setting the correct scale ensures that elements within the floor plan scale well according to the dimensions of the output paper. To change the dimensions of the scale, click the Design tab and in the Page Setup section, click the downward facing arrow to open the Page Setup dialog box or press Shift+F5. In the Page Setup dialog box, click the Drawing Scale tab to set a defined scale. You can use a predefined scale or enter a custom value. You can set the Page size (in measurement units) fields to the appropriate page size. Click Apply to see the changes in the dimensions of the ruler and click OK to close the Page Setup dialog box. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Adding Markers and Indicators to a Timeline ”; Previous Next Markers and indicators can be used to denote specific events such as current date or elapsed time. Markers help to gain a perspective of where you currently stand with respect to your objectives in the current timeline. To add a marker such as today’s date, drag the Today marker shape onto the timeline. You might want to adjust the yellow end to ensure that the marker text does not overlap with your milestone or other information. The Today marker moves as days’ progress, giving you a real-time perspective of your current status. Another marker or indicator that can be useful is, Elapsed time. The Elapsed time indicator helps in gauging the time elapsed since the beginning of the timeline. It is indicated by a green rectangle along the duration of the elapsed time. Of course, just like any other shape, the color of the Elapsed time shape can be customized. To show the elapsed time, drag the Elapsed time shape from the Shapes panel onto the timeline. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Customizing the Calender ”; Previous Next Calendars can be customized just like any other Visio drawing by applying themes and variants. Calendars can also be customized to show weather conditions or even moon phases. To add a shape such as weather icons, scroll down the list of shapes in the Shapes pane and drag the desired icon onto a date in the calendar. You can align multiple shapes using the dynamic grids that appear when you try to align shapes next to each other. You can also change the look and feel of the calendar by selecting themes and variants from the Design tab in the Ribbon. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Customizing the UI ”; Previous Next Visio’s UI is entirely customizable. You can show or hide elements in the UI to whatever suits you best. The Quick Access Toolbar The Quick Access Toolbar allows you to easily add often-used commands so that they are always available within reach. Apart from the standard Undo, Redo, and Save commands, you can add additional buttons, such as a toggle between Touch and Mouse mode depending on your display by clicking the arrow icon in the Quick Access Toolbar. You can also add more commands by clicking the option More Commands… The Ribbon The Ribbon can be collapsed to allow more real estate for the canvas. You can reduce or expand the Shapes pane by clicking and dragging the edge of the pane inwards or outwards respectively. The Ribbon can be customized just like the Quick Access Toolbar but to do so, you need to navigate to the File menu and click Options. Then click Customize Ribbon. You can select the tabs that you wish to display on the workspace. You can also create a new tab or group by clicking New Tab or New Group to accommodate the commands that you use frequently. You can export these customizations and import them to a new instance of Visio by clicking the Import/Export dropdown menu and selecting Export Customizations. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Adding Appointments to a Calendar ”; Previous Next In this chapter, we will learn how to add appointments to a calendar. Adding a Single Day Appointment To add a single day appointment, click the Appointment shape in the Shapes pane and drag it on to a location in the calendar. This opens the Configure dialog box, where you can enter the details of the appointment. Click OK to add the appointment on the prescribed date. Adding a Multi-Day Appointment Sometimes, appointments can stretch over multiple days. To add a multi-day appointment, click and drag the Multi-day event shape from the Shapes pane onto the calendar. This again opens a Configure dialog box, where you can specify details of the event along with the start and end dates. Once the multi-day appointment is created, you can drag the appointment handle to cover additional dates, if needed. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Useful Resources ”; Previous Next The following resources contain additional information on Microsoft Visio. Please use them to get more in-depth knowledge on this topic. Useful Links on Microsoft Visio Microsoft Visio Wikipedia – Wikipedia reference for Microsoft Visio. Useful Books on Microsoft Visio To enlist your site on this page, please drop an email to [email protected] Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Using the Org Chart Wizard ”; Previous Next Although you can manually create the org chart using different shapes in the Shapes pane, Visio also provides an automated way of importing information about your organization from an external source. In this chapter, we will look into importing data from information in an Excel spreadsheet. Creating Information in an Excel Spreadsheet Create an Excel spreadsheet or use an existing one containing some of the important information in the header row that goes into creating an org chart. Important information includes Employee, Title, Manager and Department. The Employee and Manager fields are mandatory and the others are optional. Additionally, you can also include a field called the Master_Shape, which indicates the exact shape to be used for a particular employee. Note that the name, Master_Shape field needs to be used as is for Visio to designate a specific shape to the employee. Starting the Organization Chart Wizard There are two ways of starting the Organization Chart wizard. The first method involves using the Organization Chart Wizard from the Templates section in the New menu. The other method is to use the Import command in the Organization Data section from the Org Chart tab in the Ribbon, if you have already created an org chart. The second method is recommended if you need the background formatting to carry over onto all the pages in the org chart. The first method creates all the pages required, but you need to individually format each page, which can get tedious if your organization is large. Either ways, the Organization Chart Wizard appears in which you can specify the features of your org chart. Using the Organization Chart Wizard The first screen of the Organization Chart Wizard gives the option of either selecting the existing information from a file or manually entering information. For this example, we will choose the first option. Click Next to proceed to the next screen in the wizard. In the following screen, you can choose the source in which the organizational information is stored. It could be a location on a Microsoft Exchange Server, a local text, CSV or Excel file, or an ODBC-compliant data source. Select the second option and click Next. Now, enter the location or path to the Excel file and click Next. In this screen, in the Name field dropdown, select the field in the Excel spreadsheet that contains the name of the employee. In the Reports to field dropdown, select the field in the Excel spreadsheet that denotes the reporting manager. If the name and first names are in different fields, specify the field containing the first name of the employee in the First name dropdown. Visio will combine the name and first name fields to generate the full name of the employee. Click Next to continue. The Data File Columns box lists all the data fields that are present in the header of the Excel file. You can select the fields that you need to be displayed in the Displayed Fields section by selecting the required fields and then click Add. Click Next, once the desired fields are added. In the next screen, you can choose the fields the shape data should be based on. The shape data fields will be similar to the fields selected in the previous step so in most cases, you can leave it as such. You can also add any additional fields if needed. In the following screen, you can choose to include pictures of the employees. If you have labelled pictures in the same format as the employee names, you can point to the location of the folder containing pictures of all the employees. Or you can simply choose not to include any pictures. In this screen, you can choose how much of organization info can be displayed on one page, if there are many employees spanning many pages. You can also choose to allow Visio to automatically break the org chart across pages. Make sure that Hyperlink employee shapes across pages and Synchronize employee shapes across pages are selected. Click Finish to finally create the org chart. After clicking Finish, Visio will start processing information from the Excel spreadsheet and create the org chart based on the parameters specified in the wizard. You will see a progress indicator showing the status of the creation. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Adding Executive Pictures ”; Previous Next You can add pictures to different levels in your org chart to make it more visually appealing. To add executive pictures, double-click the shape to zoom into it and then click the picture field within the shape. Then click the Insert button to select a picture for adding into a shape. To prevent an image from showing up in a shape, click the Show/Hide button. After adding an image, you can use the usual picture formatting tools to adjust the brightness and contrast or crop the image. If you want to automatically import executive pictures into their respective hierarchies, simply make sure the file names of the executive pictures match that of the names in the shapes. Then import the entire folder and Visio will automatically place the executive in his/her corresponding hierarchy. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Adding, Editing and Placing Subtopics ”; Previous Next In this chapter, we will learn how to add, edit and place subtopics in the brainstorming diagram using Visio. Adding Subtopics In a brainstorming diagram, sub-shapes are not directly inserted on top of the main shape. A sub-shape is inserted as a subtopic. To insert a subtopic, first click the Main topic shape and then click the Brainstorming tab on the Ribbon. In the Add Topics section, click Subtopic. It creates a subtopic to the Main topic shape, which is ready to type on. You can also create multiple subtopics at once by clicking the Multiple Subtopics in the Add Topics section. This opens the Add Multiple Topics dialog box, where you can enter the names of each of the subtopics. Each subtopic is automatically connected to the Main topic shape. Editing and Placement of Subtopics Subtopics can be edited simply by clicking the title of the subtopic and typing over it. You can also edit a subtopic by clicking its name twice in the Outline Window. The Outline Window represents the topic hierarchy of the brainstorm. The subtopics can be dragged by their connectors and placed anywhere on the canvas. They will always be linked to the Main topic shape. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;