Category: microsoft Visio

Microsoft Visio – Inserting Backgrounds ”; Previous Next Backgrounds are inserted using pages called background pages. Background pages can contain graphics or text such as copyright info and other information. Background pages are always separate but appear overlaid on the main page. Inserting a Background Page You can change the background of a document by choosing from preset backgrounds or using your own background template. To insert a background, click the Background dropdown menu from the Design tab on the Ribbon and choose a background preset. This creates a new page in addition to the diagram page. You can right-click the newly created background page to rename it. The new background will be automatically applied to all newly created pages in the document. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Rulers, Grids and Guides ”; Previous Next Visio comes with visual aids to help align and structure the elements in the diagram so that it appears great both on-screen and in print. The main visual aids available include rulers, grids, and guides. Rulers Rulers help in providing perspective to the elements in the diagram. They help orient the shapes to attain a consistent and clean look. Rulers can be switched off or on with a simple checkbox in the Show section of the View tab. When you move a shape, you will notice that there are 3 dotted lines (shown in the following example in red rectangles) on both the vertical and horizontal rulers. These 3 dotted lines denote the left, middle, and right parts of the diagram. When you drag the shape vertically or horizontally, these 3 dotted lines help position the shape exactly at the place you need. You can turn of the Ruler checkbox if you need some screen estate. Guides Just like rulers, guides help in orienting different shapes of the diagram properly. You can create any number of guides from both the vertical and horizontal rulers. To create a guide, simply drag a line from either the vertical or horizontal rulers. Guides are represented by lines, which appear thick when selected. You can delete a guide by simply selecting the guide and pressing the Delete key on the keyboard. Uncheck the Guides checkbox in the View tab to remove all the guides from view. Dragging a shape onto a guide will enable you to snap the shape to the guide. When a shape is snapped to a guide, it moves along with the guide. Grids not only help to align shapes within the drawing but can also be an important measurement tool. Grids comprise of square boxes of defined area, which can be adjusted. Therefore, grids help you have an estimate of the likely area occupied by the shape, which allows you to size the shapes as needed. To turn grids on or off, simply check or uncheck the Grid checkbox in the View tab. You can also customize the size of each grid by adjusting the spacing between the grids. To do so, click the small downward facing arrow to the bottom-right of the Show section in the View tab. This opens a Ruler & Grid dialog box where you can adjust parameters such as subdivisions in a grid, the horizontal and vertical spacing, etc. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Using Visual Aids ”; Previous Next Apart from commonly used visual aids such as the ruler, guides, and grids, Visio also comes with few other visual aids to help you better organize your diagram. These include AutoConnect, Dynamic Grid, and Connection Points. AutoConnect One of the advantages of using SmartShapes is the ability to quickly and easily connect a shape to the top four favorite shapes. AutoConnect helps to quickly select a shape from the top four and instantly establish a connection to the new shape. Sometimes, you might not need this feature. In such cases, you can disable the AutoConnect feature by simply unchecking the AutoConnect checkbox from the Visual Aids section of the View tab. When the AutoConnect checkbox is unchecked, the SmartShapes and connecting arrows do not appear when a shape is selected. Dynamic Grid Dynamic grid provides a relative alignment cue when you insert a new shape. When the Dynamic Grid option is turned on, you will see guides and indicators relative to the shape. Dynamic Grid can be used in conjunction with the actual Grid. The actual Grid is more of an absolute measurement and should be considered when precise measurements are of importance in deciding the placement of the shapes. The Dynamic Grid is more of a relative measurement. In the above example, we see that turning on the Dynamic Grid allows us to see the relative distance of the new shape with respect to pre-existing shapes. Connection Points Connection Points help in connecting shapes to specific points along the surface of a shape. For example, a shape can have four Connection Points along its perimeter to which connectors can attach to. Turning on Connection Points help to connect shapes precisely at defined connection points. Connection Points can be identified by green squares that appear on all sides of the shape. If you want to connect to the shape directly rather than to a connection point on the shape, uncheck the Connection Points checkbox in the View tab of the ribbon. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Inserting Graphics ”; Previous Next Apart from the shapes that are part of the diagram, you can add your own images to the document. Images can come from any online or offline source. If you add an image to the background page, the image will appear on all the pages in the document. Adding Graphics to a Document To insert your images or graphics, go to the Insert tab on the Ribbon and select from any of the commands in the Illustrations section. It can be a picture on your local drive, an online source, a chart or even a CAD drawing. You can also replicate the picture on all the pages by inserting the picture in a background page. To do this, select the background page and insert the picture as described above. Drag and resize the picture as needed. Now, navigate to the page containing the diagram and you will find that the picture appears on that page and any other subsequent pages that are added. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Formatting Shape Lines ”; Previous Next Visio makes it easy to format the shape outlines and the connectors. You might be looking to format a shape outline to make it stand out from the rest of the shapes or to highlight something important. Formatting Shape Outlines To format a shape outline, click the shape or hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and select multiple shapes. Then, from the Shape Styles section of the Home tab, click Line and select Line Options… This will open a Format Shape flyout. In the Line section, select the options you need to customize the shape outline. You can change the color of the shape outline, increase the width to add more weight, change the rounding, and a whole lot more. You can also create gradients for the line to suit the diagram. Formatting Connectors Like shape outlines, connectors can also be formatted as needed. To format a connector, select the connector in the diagram and bring up the Format Shape pane by going to the Line dropdown menu and clicking Line Options… In the Line section of the Format Shapes pane, select the Dash type of your choice to change the connector pattern. You can also change the color of the connector and adjust the transparency levels as needed. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Re-layout Page ”; Previous Next Visio provides options for automatically changing the layout of the diagram with the ReLayout Page command. The Re-Layout Page command provides commonly used layouts. You can also customize some of the aspects of the layout as needed. Changing the Diagram Layout Open the diagram and navigate to the Design tab on the Ribbon. Click the Re-Layout Page dropdown menu and select a layout as needed. You will see that the diagram now changes to the selected layout. You can also preview the look before clicking by hovering the mouse over the layout style. Customizing the Layout You can further customize the layout by clicking More Layout Options… in the Re-Layout Page dropdown menu. This opens a dialog box in which you can configure the layout properties. You can change the spacing between the shapes by manually changing the values in the Spacing field. You can also change the appearance of the connectors to curved by selecting Curved in the Appearance dropdown menu. Remember to select the Apply routing style to connectors checkbox to be able to change the appearance of the connectors. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Microsoft Visio – Changing View Modes ”; Previous Next Visio has a few options for changing how you view the drawing. The View tab lists all the possible view options that you can use on the canvas. We will look at some of the commands that are useful in changing view modes. Slide Snippets The Slide Snippets Pane is available only in the latest Office 365 version of Visio. Basically, slide snippets allow you to directly export a Visio diagram as a PowerPoint slide. To take a slide snippet, click the Slide Snippets Pane in the View tab to open it. Then, select an area of the drawing that you want to export to a PowerPoint slide and click the Add button in the Slide Snippets Pane. Add a title in the Enter title here… field and click Export to export the captured drawing to a PowerPoint slide. Presentation Mode The Presentation Mode shows a full screen view of the drawing without any distractions. This mode can also be toggled by pressing F5 on the keyboard. Ruler, Grid and Guides You can toggle between showing the vertical and horizontal rulers, the grid, and the guides by toggling the corresponding checkboxes in the Show area of the View tab. The scaling of the rulers and grid can also be adjusted. The grid allows to easily snap objects so that they are placed correctly on the canvas. Zoom The Zoom section comprises of commands that allow you to change the zoom levels of the canvas. You can also fit the contents to window or adjust the contents to fill the page width. Window The Window section lists commands that allow to arrange multiple windows on your screen. You can directly open a new window or arrange windows side by side. You can also cascade windows for easy switching between them. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Creating and Arranging Smartshapes ”; Previous Next SmartShapes provide contextual shapes which relate to the selected shape. SmartShapes are connected to the original shape and the connector also moves whenever the SmartShape is moved. Creating a SmartShape Start with a blank document (in this case a flowchart diagram). You will notice that the Shapes pane has different shapes that are applicable to flowcharts. Click and drag a shape onto the empty canvas. You can resize or rotate the shape as desired. You can even align the shape with the help of the alignment guides. When you drag a shape onto the canvas, you will notice that there are four arrows along the shape. Hovering over any of these arrows will show possible shapes that can be created and linked to this shape. Click the desired shape to create the shape. You will also notice that the shape is automatically connected to the initial shape. If you were to drag the shape manually, you will need to connect it manually as well. The connections between the shapes are dynamic and they will move in relation to the placement of the shape. Arranging SmartShapes The SmartShape arrow lists the first four shapes for the diagram that are seen in the Shapes pane. You might want to customize which shapes appear in the four SmartShape options depending on your workflow. To set the shapes that you prefer as SmartShapes, first select the desired shape in the Shapes pane and drag it to one of the first four shapes within the pane. In this example, let us assume that the Database shape needs to be in the first four. Click and drag the Database shape into one of the first four positions. Now, when you create a SmartShape, you will find that the Database shape is made available. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;