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Shape Data

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Smart Radio Buttons and Check Boxes in Visio

A recent project requires an interactive tutorial within Microsoft Visio desktop where a lot of the questions need a single answer using radio buttons, or multiple-choice answers using check boxes. I thought that this would be a great use of the list containers capability because the questions and answers could be part of the container shape whilst the individual questions are presented as items in the list and automatically inheriting their particular question text from the containing list shape. So, this article provides these smart master shapes, and explains how they are built.

  • In Tutor mode, the Questions, Answers, Explanation and More Info can be edited
  • In normal mode, the Questions are presented unmarked and without explanation
  • Incorrect answers are marked with a red cross. An explanation and optional more info hyperlink is available
  • Correct answers are marked with a green tick. An explanation and optional more info hyperlink is available.
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Grid Snapping Revisited

I have previously tackled the subject of snapping to grids in Visio desktop (see https://bvisual.net/2018/06/19/really-snapping-to-grids-in-visio/ ) but a recent project required me to improve the example because it did not respond to all cursor arrow keys. The problem was that the previous solution could not understand which arrow key had been clicked, therefore it did not know if to reposition to the previous or next grid. The new ShapeSheet code solution can now respond to the correct arrow key … and all without any add-in. In addition, I also show how a Control point can be made to snap to a grid spacing, and how AutoConnect can be set to add the next shape at the right offset in both the horizontal and vertical directions.

Lastly, Microsoft released the web edition of Visio since the last article, and I demonstrate the difference behaviour of grid snapping between that and the desktop edition.

  • Set the Horizontal and Vertical Grid Spacing
  • Turn OFF Snap to Ruler subdivisions and Grid ON
  • Edit Space between Shapes for AutoConnect
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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 previous ones, or have becoome specialised for their usage … until Microsoft made “callout” shapes available in Visio web editions. These are not an advance in evolution, but are a radical regression, and in my opinion, quite unnecessarily basic, and extremely frustrating.

  • The original Callout shapes
  • The Custom Callout shapes
  • The Data Graphic Text Callouts
  • The Structured Diagram Callouts
  • Visio Web Callouts
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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 possible … with a little preparation!

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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 requires a little more complexity to the ShapeSheet functions, and this can result in longer processing time, so needs to be used cautiously, but it is possible, as I demonstrate in this article.

  • Books group shape contains 20 child book shapes
  • Main functions in the document ShapeSheet
  • Called from cells in the group shape
  • Child shapes call functions in the parent shape
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Highlighting dirty text in Visio shapes

I suppose I should explain what I mean by dirty text first 🙂

I often display the value of a Shape Data row in Visio text, but sometimes the solution requires that the value is also editable. This is ok if the client accepts that all editing is done with the Shape Data window or dialog, but not if the user more naturally wants to edit the text in the shape. In my current solution, I want to pass the manually edited text to another process for checking, and then only update the Shape Data row when validated or accepted, before re-setting the text with the inserted field. My first task was to spot with text had been manually overtyped, so I decided that checking the value of a new User-defined Cell, called IsDirty, was best, and then this value can be used to change the color of the text (or it could be the LineColor or FillForegnd) to make this value visible.

When Insert / Field is used in Visio, it creates a Text Fields section which can hold the reference to the inserted field.

If the text is manually overtyped, then the rows in the Text Fields section get deleted.

  • The Prop.Name Shape Data row inserted as a Field
  • Editing the Shape Data window dislays the value in the shape too
  • Editing the text deletes the inserted field
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