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bVisual Blog by David Parker

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Enhancing the Built-In Containers in Visio

The concept of Structured Diagrams was introduced in Visio 2010 to provide core functionality for a variety of the templates in Visio, such as the Cross-Functional Flowchart, BPMN Diagram and Wireframe Diagram. This is primarily evident as Containers, Lists and Callouts and they can be customized (see Custom Containers, List and Callouts ), as shown in some of my previous articles ( see https://blog.bvisual.net/?s=container). One example of this extension can be found in all of the flowchart shapes that placed into a swimlane in a cross-functional flowchart. They have a Shape Data row, Function, that automatically inherits the text entered into the header of the swimlane. In another example, a Visio user can use Insert / Diagram Parts / Container to visually group other shapes together, and update the header text of the container. Well, I often do want my custom shapes to inherit the text of a container, so, in this article, I show how the built-in containers can be enhanced to provide this ability.

InheritingContainerText

You should be aware that I often exploit the fact that Visio creates a local copy of each master shape that it uses within a document. This can be modified and set to match master by name on drop, to ensure that it is the one to use, even if the original Microsoft provided version is used. In this case, I use this trick to create hidden, enhanced versions of the containers that are available in the gallery of containers. Microsoft also do this with the Dynamic connector shape in a number of their own templates.
If you examine the Function Shape Data row of any of the flowchart shapes, then you will find the formula:

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Visio 2010 Container Problems

Update : I have received a corrected response from my friends at Microsoft regarding the use of Spatial Neighbors and Containers, so I have to revise this post from its original. The changes are marked in Red.

The Structured Diagramming API in Visio 2010 is really neat, but there are a couple of problems that I think you should be aware of. The first one is about how shapes can appear to be in a container, but aren’t really; and the second is how the Container type prevents SpatialNeighbors from working … unless you use a new constant.

Let’s start with an example diagram that contains three Process shapes on a Cross Functional Flowchart. Notice that I have select the Process shape labelled A and this has caused the swimlane Function 2 to display a brown highlight … this is a good indication that the Structured Diagramming

API is working, and that Function 2 is a container shape. I have placed two more Process shapes below the swimlanes, and one of them (C) is on top of a SubProcess shape.


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Displaying Visio Number Shapes data clearly

Visio has had a Number Shapes add-on for many years, even since before Microsoft bought the application in 2000. The add-on autmatically creates three Shape Data rows to hold the number, any prefix text, and a value to indicate whether the shape number text should be shown. It is useful, but it can also be very annoying if you also want to label your shapes, such as with process flow shapes, or you want the shape number to be displayed outside of the main shape. Fortunately, there is a solution….

  • No Numbers
  • Visio Extras / Number Shapes
  • Number Shapes / General
  • Number Shapes / Advanced
  • Hidden Numbered Shapes

The View / Macros / Add-Ons / Visio Extras / Number Shapes… tool will provide the General options to set which shapes should be numbered, and with what. The Advanced tab has more options such as the direction of auto numbering, the position of the shape number relative to the shape text. The Hide shape numbers option should be ticked because we want to display it outside the shape.

The solution is to use the Data Graphic capabilities of Visio Professional and Visio Online Plan 2.

Now create a new Data Graphic, add a New Item and choose the More Fields... option at the bottom of the Data field drop-down list. Then select the Custom Fomula Category and enter:

 ={Shape Number Text}&{Shape Number}

Then choose a suitable Text Callout, such as the Circle callout, and edit the values to suit. Then apply this to all of the shapes that have been numbered.

  • Create a new Data Graphic
  • Enter a Custom Formula
  • Edit the Text Callout
  • Shape Numbers displayed

The shape number is displayed, but there is an annoying empty line where the hidden shape number is.

So, we need to add an extra Text Callout Data Graphic item to display the shapes’s text, but to remove the surplus carriage return and line feed characters.

So, edit the existing Data Graphic, select New Item and choose another More Fields…. This time, enter the following Custom Formula:

 =SUBSTITUTE(SHAPETEXT(TheText),CHAR(13)&CHAR(10),"")

This will remove the new line characters and display the text as desired. Ensure that the Hide shape text when data graphic is applied option is ticked.

  • Another Custom Formula
  • EDit the Text Callout
  • Hide the shape text
  • QED

You can still edit the text of the shapes, and you can number or renumber them, as required.

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Using Visio Org Chart Wizard to work with Exchange Online

I have used the Microsoft Visio Organization Chart Wizard many, many times over the years, but I usually use it from text files, and I had been aware that I was not getting good results from the Microsoft Exchange Server directory option, now that I use Office 365. I was always getting just the first Personnel record (Admin). Well, I was prompted to find out why, and was amazed to find the answer by Winnie Liang in Creating Organizational Chart from AD Information.

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Visio news from MS Ignite 2019

Daniel, Scott, me and Michel at the Veeam party

Microsoft Ignite 2019 at the huge Orange County Conference Conference Center in Orlando is over for another year. 30,000 attendees over 6 days, and I have seen my first sunlight today since I arrived in Florida last Saturday! So, it is time to review just what was announced about Visio, and how much Visio is appreciated.

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Testing Visio shape text for WCAG 2.0 pass

The Web Content Access Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 provides the current recommendations for making web content accessible to users with vision impairment, but how do you test if your Visio shapes pass? There are several web sites out there that provide this capability, but all of them require the HEX values, rather than the RGB or HSL that Visio provides natively. Therefore, I have created a Visio callout shape that can be associated with a target shape to report on the values of each of its main color elements, and provides hyperlinks to automatically check the contrast ratio on WebAIM.

Color Values Shape


The colour formats that can be selected from either the Shape Data window or the right mouse menu are:

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