I like Power BI, and the latest update features the ability to set a custom web url onto another column. So, I couldn’t resist trying it in the example below. Notice that the Country or Area values are hyperlinks to the url of the country page in the CIA World Factbook.
[Read more…] about Countries of the World in Power BI with FlagsGeographic
Replacing Images in Visio Shapes by Changing Data
I wrote an article last year about Swapping Images in a #Visio Shape manually, but I want to be able to do this whenever a Shape Data value changes. This is because I use I invariably use shapes linked to data. I also want to be able to have multiple images within a single grouped shape, and all of them changing when their referenced Shape Data values change. I believe that this will be more adaptable for a lot of scenarios than trying to repurpose Data Graphic Icon Sets ( see Make Your Own Visio Data Graphic Icons Sets … automatically). I also discovered that the Shape.ChangePicture(…) function can just as easily work with urls as it can with network file paths, so even more possibilities are opened up! For example, the Visio Online JavaScript API has the ability to overlay an image (see ShapeView.addOverlay(…)).
So, I have created some macros to provide quick and easy selection, positioning and updating of images within a group shape.
I decided to present this article with VBA code rather than my preferred C# so that a stencil could be downloaded to provide instant usability, rather than having to install an add-in. It can be download from Image Utils.vssm, and should then be placed in to My Shapes folder, so that it becomes available to open in Visio. When it is opened, then the macros will need to be enabled.
There are just five public macros:
US State Flags for Visio
I am working on a project where I thought the US State flags might be useful, so I quickly created a new master shape from the images in Wikipedia. The shape simply provides a selection of one of the states from the Shape Data window (plus one extra for the reverse of Oregon’s flag!).
The flag shape has a couple of Shape Data rows:
Distributing Data Points Automatically on Maps in Visio
In my last article, I described how to calibrate a map in Visio ( see http://blog.bvisual.net/2015/05/26/calibrating-a-map-in-visio/ ), and in this article I use a calibrated map to distribute data points from a linked data source automatically.
For this example, I drew a simple shape at the size that I want, but you could add this smartness to any shape. All you need is an external data recordset that contains the Latitude and Longitude values that need to be linked to each data point.
Union Jacked?
I am in Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, today. All talk is of the vote on Scottish independence next week … so, I thought I would make a Union Jack Visio shape that can be automatically changed, using Shape Data values, to represent the countries left in the union!
The Union Jack is comprised of the flags of England, Scotland and Ireland … sorry Wales, you are only a principality. Yes, I know that Northern Ireland is a province, but it was decided that St Patrick’s Saltire should be kept even after Eire got independence.
Note that a single country flag has an aspect ratio of 5:3, but a multi-country union flag has an aspect ratio of 2:1.
Visio and Bing Maps for Travel Photos
I am not sure how to categorise this article because it covers Visio, Bing Maps and travel. I went to Pisa and Florence for a weekend break this month, and took many photos that I stitched together with Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor). Well, I wanted to show-off these photos as I have done on previous articles, but I wasn’t satisfied with how I presented them before. so I re-used and adapted some of my previous work (see http://bvisual.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!3350D61BC93733A9!1005.entry), and some of John Goldsmith’s (see http://visualsignals.typepad.co.uk/vislog/2007/12/escaping-from-s.html#more), and one of Chris Roth’s blogs (see http://www.visguy.com/2007/07/13/map-distance-dimension-line/).
Firstly, I couldn’t resist taking this photo of a bollard, on the Lungarno Amerigo Vesspucci in Florence, that has been used over and over again to lock-up locals motorbikes:
I created a series of panoramic images using Microsoft ICE, and then located them on Bing Maps. I created two Bing Maps Collections (we flew into Pisa airport on the way to Florence for the weekend) :
Florence : http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=43.7227~10.3944&lvl=17&sty=h&cid=3350D61BC93733A9!2115
I created a Camera Position master in Visio, and adapted my previous code to import the KML files from the above Bing Map collections into Visio.
I can adjust the splay and angle of the camera to approximate the vista covered by the panoramic views.
I then saved the Visio 2010 document (two pages) as web pages, and altered the frameset.js file, as shown by John, so that the PhotoUrl is displayed as a thumbnail, and the MoreInfoUrl and Bing Maps Url links are available in the Details panel.
In addition, clicking on a Camera Position shape opens the Deep Zoom web page for that view.
Here is the final output: http://www.bvisual.net/views/PisaAndFlorenceMarch2010.htm
Enjoy (I hope).