Category: microsoft Visio

Applying Theme Colors and Effects ”; Previous Next Themes are useful to customize the appearance of the document. Visio goes a step further and allows to customize the themes themselves. Themes come with variants that can be further customized as needed. Theme variants can be accessed from the Variants section in the Design tab. You can use the stock variants or click the dropdown menu to customize many other aspects. In the Colors menu, you will find that there many color combinations to choose from. The Effects menu shows some of the effects that can be applied onto the selected shape. You can also choose from a range of connectors. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Blocking Themes from Affecting Shapes ”; Previous Next Sometimes, it becomes necessary to prevent themes from affecting one shape or a group of shapes, especially if they have important information that has to be presented in a particular way. Visio allows to protect a shape, thereby preventing any theme changes from affecting the shape’s intended design. To enable protection for a shape, click a shape or a group of shapes. Go to the Developer tab in the Ribbon, click Protection in the Shape Design section. (Note − You may need to first enable the Developer tab by customizing the Ribbon). This opens the Protection dialog box that allows to select which components of the shape to protect from being overridden. We will focus on protecting the theming of the shape for now. So, select the checkboxes for Text, Format, From theme colors, From theme effects, From theme fonts and finally, From theme index. Click OK. If you now select any theme from the Design tab, you will notice that the shape that is protected is unaffected by the theme change. To reverse the changes, simply go to the Protection dialog box again, click None and finally click OK. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Sharing Timelines ”; Previous Next Timelines can be shared just like other Visio drawings as PDFs, Visio drawings, or graphic files. Visio also allows you to let others edit the drawing, if provided access. This happens via Microsoft OneDrive and you need to be signed in to Visio to access this feature. To share a drawing for editing or review, go to the File menu and click Share. The document has to be first saved to the cloud, so click Save to Cloud to save the document to your personal or official OneDrive folder. Once the document is saved to your OneDrive folder, you can invite others by sending them the link to the shared drawing. You can define whether people just get to view it or get to edit it as well. Your collaborators can then open the shared drawing in the cloud and open the drawing directly in their Visio installation. Note − Visio Online is available to Office 365 customers who have Visio included in their cloud subscription. They can open and review the drawing online in their browsers; however, any changes to the drawing itself requires the users to have a local copy of Visio installed. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Prototyping Software Using Wireframes ”; Previous Next Wireframe diagrams are typically used by software developers to prototype the design of the software user interface. Wireframes help to visualize the position and behavior of various elements in the UI before the software can be deployed. Opening the Wireframe Template Click the File menu and then click New. In the Templates section, click the Software and Database category and scroll down to select the Wireframe Diagram template. It opens the template for the Wireframe Diagram and the Shapes pane lists all the controls and buttons commonly used in a software UI as shown in the following screenshot. Creating a Wireframe Dialog Box In the following example, we will create a wireframe dialog box for the Print command. Click the Dialogs category in the Shapes pane and drag the Dialog form shape onto the canvas. You can resize the default shape as needed. Double-click the header text in the dialog box and type Print. We now have the outer frame for the dialog box. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Adding Milestones ”; Previous Next Milestones represent specific points in time during which an important event has occurred or is scheduled to occur. To add a milestone, click and drag the Line Milestone shape onto a chosen interval on the timeline. It need not be dropped exactly on a specific interval, since you can manually configure the exact date and time of the event. When you drag the milestone onto the timeline, the Configure Milestone dialog box appears, where you can specify the exact date and time of the milestone along with a description of the event. You can also choose from the standard date formats to better represent the time and date. Click OK to create the milestone on the timeline. The milestone can be dragged along the timeline, and the date and time of the milestone will be updated accordingly. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Themes and Styles ”; Previous Next Themes and Styles are useful to give the diagram a design makeover and make it stand out. Visio provides a standard set of themes and styles, which are customizable. Themes Themes apply to the entire diagram. Themes comprise of a set of colors and effects that generally blend well with each other. They are a great way to quickly give the diagram a polished look. Themes also affect other parts of the document such as titles, headings, text, etc. To apply a theme, go to the Design tab and select a theme from the Themes section. The dropdown arrow provides more choices categorized by theme type. When you click a theme, all the aspects of the diagram and other parts of the document reflect the theme settings. A theme can have many variants, which can be selected from the Variants section of the Design tab. Styles Styles are different from themes such that, they are applicable to a selected shape or a group of shapes. Styles help in customizing the aspects of a particular style. To change a style of a shape, select the shape and from the Home tab, then select a style from the Shape Styles section. Style can be applied to both shape elements in the diagram as well as to individual text boxes. You can select multiple shapes to apply the style to all of them together. . When you change a theme after applying a style to a shape, the shape will take up the characteristics of the theme but will still remain distinct from other shapes. Of course, you can continue to customize the style even after applying a theme. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Reporting Structure Views ”; Previous Next Individual manager shapes can be collapsed and shown as needed. Collapsing shapes is useful to reduce the clutter in the diagram. To collapse the hierarchy under a shape, right-click a shape, go to the Subordinates menu and click Hide Subordinates. The subordinate shapes then collapse under the manager shape. This is indicated by a tree icon under the manager shape. If the shapes are synchronized, any changes made to them elsewhere will be automatically reflected in the main shape. To reveal the subordinates again, right-click the manager shape, go to the Subordinates menu and click Show Subordinates. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Working With Windows ”; Previous Next It is easy to work with multiple windows or multiple versions of a document in Visio. You can switch between windows easily or arrange them side by side for a comparative look. The options for window rearrangement can be found in the Window section of the View tab. New Window New Window basically allows to create a new copy of the existing window. The new copy will not show the stencils directly, however, they can be selected by clicking the More Shapes arrow in the Shapes pane. The new window can be identified by the presence of a number in the title bar of the window. In the following example, the original file name was BlkDiagm.vsd. Using the New Window command creates a new window with BlkDiagm: 2 in the title bar. Arrange All This function allows you to arrange all windows side by side. This feature is useful for comparing two windows, however, if you have a high-resolution display, you might be able to accommodate more windows beside each other. The Shapes pane and other panes can be minimized to allow more screen real estate. Cascade This function allows cascading of windows to give an overall view of the open windows. The active window is in the foreground, while inactive windows are in the background with title bars visible. Cascade view is useful to know which documents are open at a glance. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Creating Three and Multiple-position SmartShapes ”; Previous Next Although you can create individual shapes by dragging the desired shapes from the Shapes pane, Visio facilitates creating multiple shapes at one go. All shapes added together will be automatically connected and aligned. Creating a Three-Position SmartShape To create a three-position SmartShape, drag the Three Positions shape onto any of the higher manager shapes. This creates three shapes directly below the higher shape. You will notice that the shapes can spill over onto the next page. This can be rectified by clicking the Re-Layout button in the Layouts section of the Org Chart tab. Creating a Multiple-Position SmartShape Similar to a three-position SmartShape, Visio also helps to create a multi-position SmartShape in which you can select as many positions as you want. To create a multiposition SmartShape, click and drag the Multiple shapes from the Shapes pane onto a selected shape on the canvas. It opens an Add Multiple Shapes dialog box in which you can select the type of shapes and the number of shapes to be added. Click OK to add the shapes to the selected shape. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Creating Layers with SmartShapes ”; Previous Next Adding SmartShapes automatically creates layers. Layers are basically overlays, which can be individually customized and turned on or off. Each shape and connector in the diagram forms a layer whose properties can be customized. To know the list of layers in the diagram, in the Editing section of the Home tab, click the Layers dropdown menu and click Layer Properties… This opens the Layer Properties dialog box, which you can use to customize the different layers in the diagram. The Layer Properties dialog box lists the different layers in the document and allows changing the individual properties of the layers. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;