I am working on a Visio project where the client wants to be able to configure the font used in each document. These documents have many custom masters, but the user can add there own annotations too. Therefore, I needed to find a way to synchronise the fonts used in both cases. Visio has Themes and Variants, and some of these built-in settings use different fonts, but there is no way of editing the fonts used in each theme since Office 2010 ( see Create a custom theme). There have been many questions on the web about changing the default font used in Visio, which is currently Calibri, but there were no easy answers found. Visio used to use Styles rather than Themes, and these capabilities are still there, but the buttons are not displayed in the default ribbon. However, the Drawing Explorer window does show the Styles and their hierarchies.
In the slideshow above, the four shapes on the left have the No Style, Theme, Normal and None styles applied from bottom to top. The right-hand shape is just a freshly drawn rectangle. Applying different themes changes the appearance and font.
The Drawing Explorer window reveals how the styles are based on other styles, but you cannot see that Theme is actually based on No Style until you use the right-mouse menu option Define Styles… which opens a dialog. Here you can see that a style can include Text, Line or Fill settings. however I merely want to change the default font for the document, so the Text button opens a dialog where that can be changed.
The default formula in most cells in the ShapeSheet for these sections is =ThemeVal(), and this means that the value will be inherited from the active Design/Theme. If the Char.Font formula is replaced with just an equals sign then the value is inherited from the Theme style. Therefore, changing the values here will mean that the document version of the Theme style is customised, and the same desired font will be applied, whichever Design/Theme is applied.
One remaining issue is that a user may wish to revert to using the default font value set in the the Theme style, rather than one applied within the UI. This requires the formula in the Char.Font cell to be set to either =ThemeVal(), if the Design/Theme is required, or just =, once more. This can be done by re-applying the Theme style to a shape using the Style or Text Style buttons that can be added back into your customised ribbon.
Fixing the sub-shape layer assignments of Visio shapes
I was preparing a new update of my Layer Manager tool, and was constantly coming across a lack of quality control in the sub-shape layer assignment in a number of the master shapes in Microsoft provided stencils. I have mentioned this to Microsoft as a bug before but the problem still persists in Visio for…
Developer Mode for advanced Layer Manager actions
I have had more than one person ask me how to see the full Layer Manager panel, so I must have not made it clear enough in the help file. Visio has a Developer Mode that is simple to switch on, and provides some extra functionality, including a Developer tab in the ribbon. Layer Manager…
Keeping Visio Data Graphic Items Level
My good friend Scott Helmers, Visio author and trainer, of Harvard Computing Group , recently asked for some help in keeping data graphic items level when their target shape is rotated. Fortunately, I was able to assist, so I thought I would explain how this can be done, and also update my Icon Maker macro…
Visio ShapeSheet Functions T – Z
The seventh, and final, 25 of the Visio ShapeSheet functions that start with the letters T – Z are visually described in the Visio document below that is available for download. Please see the general introduction to this series at ShapeSheet Functions A-Z for more information. (more…)
Update of Free Rules Tools for Visio Validation
Microsoft introduced Validation Rules in Visio 2010 Premium, and I was excited enough to write a book about it. Microsoft merged the Premium into the Professional edition in 2013, so I updated my book. I wrote an interface into the Visio Validation API as a free VSTO add-in, called Rules Tools. It was normal to…
Automatic Line and Segment Lengths in Visio
Many years ago, I wrote some VBA code to calculate the length of a multi-segment line in Visio, see Automating Area and Perimeter Length Shape Data , but Microsoft have since provided a handy ShapeSheet function, PATHLENGTH(…), to do the same without any VBA. The function is described on one of the pages in Visio…
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