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Moving Phases/Separators in Visio Cross-Functional Flowcharts?

I use Visio Cross-Functional Flowcharts a lot, but there is one thing that really bugs me … you can move function bands\swimlanes around, but you can’t move the phases\separators in the same way. The phases/separators are containers just like the function bands\swimlanes, so why can’t I move them? Actually, it is quite understandable when you realise what is actually going on … both are contained within the Cross-Functional Flowchart (CFF) shape, but there are list containers between each band and the parent CFF shape.

So, my workaround is to insert an empty Phase\Separator shapes in the position that you want to move a Phase\Separator to, and then select all of the contents and move them into the empty Phase\Separator shape. Here is a short video of me doing just that…

I do have a free add-in available, multiselect, that can assist in this selection:

I hope that helps 🙂

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