There are times, in Visio, when you just need to ensure that the text in a primary shape is synchronised with the text in different secondary shapes … even if they are on different pages of a Visio document. My previous article, Forcing Display Update of Inherited Data Values , describes a method of synchronising the values in Shape Data rows from a central data source in the document, and that allows for the values to be viewed and edited in multiple pages or shapes. However, the text of a Visio shape is different because it is not stored in a single ShapeSheet cell, so how can you display the text of one shape in another?
In this example, I have a primary rectangle which I can edit the text of. I then have other secondary shapes that need to display the text of that primary shape.
First, you need to get the name of the of the primary shape. This can be read on the Shape Name dialog from the Developer tab.
Select the secondary shape, then click Insert \ Field \ Custom Formula.
If the primary shape is on the same page, then can be:
=SHAPETEXT(Sheet.1!TheText)
However, if the primary shape is on a different page, then a reference to that page must be included:
=SHAPETEXT(Pages[Page-1]!Sheet.1!TheText)
This short video shows this process…
When is a Visio Callout not a Callout?
I have been a Visio user/developer since the mid-1990’s and seen the word “callout” used as part of the name of many master shapes in Visio. The images below show five ways that the term “callout” has been applied to the name of Visio master shapes. Generally, each evolution has been an advance on the…
Using Visio Color by Value on Connectors
Data Graphics in Visio Plan 2 and Visio Professional is great, but it only enables us to use them with 2D shapes in Visio, i.e. not on connectors. So, what if you want to change the line colour of the connectors between the 2D shapes because of the data flowing between them? Well, it is…
Using Notepad++ to Edit Visio ShapeSheet formulas
Visio shapes get their smartness from the formulas that are entered into the ShapeSheet, but editing these formulas can be extremely tricky and prone to error because of the lack of a modern programmer’s interface. Formulas can be quite long (up to 64k characters) but even medium size ones like the one in User.GetWorkdays cell…
Adding a second Function header bar to Visio swimlanes
I was recently asked if a second function header bar can be added to the swimlanes in the cross-functional flowchart templates in Visio. Some swimlanes can get quite wide, so it can be useful to have a duplicate function header shape on the far-side too. It is quite simple to duplicate the existing function header…
More Parsing XML Data in Visio Shapes
My last article looked at parsing an XML string with a known structure and order of elements and attributes. This can be acceptable in some scenarios, but what if the elements or attributes are in a different order? Then it is necessary to use the element and attribute names rather than their index position. This…
Parsing XML data in Visio Shapes
One of my current projects uses XML data, and some of the values in the XML data control the display and content of Visio shapes. Therefore, I looked deeper into how the XML data can be used directly to control parts of the graphics. Although the external data linking feature in Visio Professional and Visio…
I design electrical control systems for many types of facilities. I need to link the sheet number to the page description. Right now when a customer calls I have to count through the page descriptions to guess at what the sheet number is. Can you provide a solution?
Hi !
I prepare simple tool for create reference to cells in shapes.
Brief decription you can find at my site:
https://surrogate-tm.github.io/snippets/shapesheet_en.html
There also you can find video in Russian, but you can watch
with English sub-titles.
Thanks Alex!