Bi-directional Labels on Off-Page Grid References

I have previously written about using off-page references and labelled page grids in Visio, see A Page Grid with Labels and Page Grids and Off Page References, however a reader pointed out that the label on the Off-Page Reference shape is duplicated on both ends. This is not always ideal, however it is all I could do using just ShapeSheet formulas alone. So, in this article, I show how a VBA macro can enhance the reciprocal labels on the twin Off-Page Reference shapes, and they automatically update if either end is moved between grids. This is especially useful in electrical wiring diagrams, but the principal can be adapted for other purposes.

My previous articles explain that the Off-page reference shape uses the OPC add-on, and contains a slightly modified version in of this master, along with a custom GridLabel and GridLines masters. I have created a more up-to-date version as Page Grid With OPC.vsdx for downloading.

If this document is placed in OneDrive or SharePoint Online, then it can be edited. The Off-page reference shapes can be moved, and the label of twin shapes will be automatically updated with the grid reference of its destination. The hyperlinks can be followed with the CTRL-Click on each Off-page Reference shape.

In Visio desktop, the Off-page reference shapes can be double-clicked, and the destination twin shape will also be selected. This is because the OPC add-on is built-in to Visio desktop, whereas currently the hyperlink navigation only opens the target page.

Running the Enhance OPCs macro

All of the VBA code is in the Enhanced OPC.vssm macro-enabled stencil, which can be downloaded and placed into the My Shapes folder. It will then be available to open in the Visio UI. It contains just one master, Enhance OPCs, which can be dragged and dropped on to any page in the above Visio document. This can be done anytime after adding more of the Off-page reference shapes available from the Document Stencil or the Basic Flowchart stencil, as it will enhance each of the instances.

The code iterates through each page, and selects all instances of the Off-page reference shape. It then checks that the User.OPCDPageID cell exists because this contains the unique ID of the destination page. This is automatically entered by the Microsoft OPC add-on, as is the unique ID of the destination shape in the User.OPCDShapeID cell.

This existing ShapeSheet formula, =RUNADDONWARGS(“OPC”,”/CMD=3″), in the TheText cell calls this OPC add-on and updates the text of the twin shape whenever the text is changed. This is why the existing functionality has identical text in each of the twin shapes, so the macro removes this, and instead, inserts a a formula into the User.visEquivTitle.Prompt cell. The previous articles used the User.visEquivTitle.Value cell to store the row and column label text, so all that this macro does is create a reference to this call in the twin shape:

"=Pages[" & trgtPage & "]!Sheet." & trgtShape.ID & "!User.visEquivTitle"

This cell reference can then be inserted into the text block of the shape, and it will thus be automatically updated if the destination shape is moved within its page to a different grid reference.

I needed two helper functions, GetShape and GetMasterU, before using them in the EnhanceTheOPCs function.

GetShape function

This function returns the shape specified with the unique IDs of the destination page and shape, or nothing if it does not exist.

Private Function GetShape(ByVal pageUID As String, ByVal shapeUID As String) As Visio.Shape
On Error GoTo errHandler
Dim pag As Visio.Page
Dim shp As Visio.Shape
    For Each pag In ActiveDocument.Pages
        If pag.PageSheet.UniqueID(Visio.VisUniqueIDArgs.visGetOrMakeGUID) = pageUID Then
            Set shp = pag.Shapes(shapeUID)
            Set GetShape = shp
            GoTo exitHere
        End If
    Next pag

exitHere:
    Exit Function
errHandler:
    'Not found
    Resume exitHere
End Function

GetMasterU function

This function returns the master in the active document of the passed in master name, or nothing if it does not exist.

Public Function GetMasterU(ByVal masterName As String) As Visio.Master
    If Len(masterName) = 0 Then
        Exit Function
    End If
Dim mst As Visio.Master

    For Each mst In Visio.ActiveDocument.Masters
        If UCase(mst.NameU) = UCase(masterName) Then
            Set GetMasterU = mst
            Exit Function
        End If
    Next

    Set GetMasterU = Nothing
End Function

EnhanceTheOPCs function

This sub-function enhances all of the instances of the specified master

Public Sub EnhanceTheOPCs()
On Error GoTo errHandler
    Const MSTR As String = "Off-page reference"

Dim mst As Visio.Master
    Set mst = GetMasterU(MSTR)
    If mst Is Nothing Then
        GoTo exitHere
    End If
Dim pag As Visio.Page
Dim sel As Visio.Selection
Dim shp As Visio.Shape

Dim trgtPageUID As String
Dim trgtShapeUID As String

Dim trgtPage As Visio.Page
Dim trgtShape As Visio.Shape

Dim chars As Visio.Characters

    For Each pag In ActiveDocument.Pages
        Set sel = pag.CreateSelection(visSelTypeByMaster, 0, mst)
        For Each shp In sel
            If shp.CellExistsU("User.OPCDPageID", Visio.VisExistsFlags.visExistsAnywhere) <> 0 Then
                trgtPageUID = shp.CellsU("User.OPCDPageID").ResultStr("")
                trgtShapeUID = shp.CellsU("User.OPCDShapeID").ResultStr("")
                If Len(trgtPageUID) = 38 And Len(trgtShapeUID) = 38 Then
                    Set trgtShape = GetShape(trgtPageUID, trgtShapeUID)
                    If Not trgtShape Is Nothing Then
                        Set trgtPage = trgtShape.ContainingPage
                        If shp.CellExistsU("User.visEquivTitle", Visio.VisExistsFlags.visExistsAnywhere) Then

                            shp.CellsU("Hyperlink.OffPageConnector.SubAddress").FormulaU = "=""" & trgtPage.Name & "/" & trgtShape.Name & """"
                            shp.CellsU("Hyperlink.OffPageConnector.Description").FormulaU = "=User.visEquivTitle"
                            'Remove the existing formula =RUNADDONWARGS("OPC","/CMD=3")
                            shp.CellsU("TheText").FormulaU = "=0"
                            
                            shp.CellsU("User.visEquivTitle.Prompt").FormulaU = "=Pages[" & trgtPage & "]!Sheet." & trgtShape.ID & "!User.visEquivTitle"
                            
                            Set chars = shp.Characters
                            chars.Delete
                            chars.Begin = 0
                            chars.End = 1
                            chars.AddCustomFieldU "User.visEquivTitle.Prompt", visFmtNumGenNoUnits
                        End If
                    End If
                End If
            End If
            
        Next shp
    Next pag
    

exitHere:
    Exit Sub
errHandler:
    MsgBox Err.description, vbExclamation, "EnhanceTheOPCs"
    Resume exitHere
End Sub

Further reading

Taking Visio Actions Rows to the limit

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There are literally thousands of master shapes in the stencils supplied with Microsoft Visio, so I guess that mistakes can creep in. One error that I have noticed is the inability of the default text control handle of many of the network shapes to actually move the text block horizontally. (more…)