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Shape Data

Published on October 19, 2021 by David Parker

Using Custom Fill Patterns from a List

A reader asked how to fill a shape with a custom fill pattern from a fixed list in of a shape. They had no trouble with the first 25 standard fill patterns, but couldn’t figure out how to apply a custom pattern. So, I shall try to explain how this can be done …

[Read more…] about Using Custom Fill Patterns from a List

Filed Under: FillPattern, Shape Data, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio Tagged With: FillPatterns, ShapeSheet Functions, Visio

Published on July 16, 2021 by David Parker

Automatic Line and Segment Lengths in Visio

Many years ago, I wrote some VBA code to calculate the length of a multi-segment line in Visio, see Automating Area and Perimeter Length Shape Data , but Microsoft have since provided a handy ShapeSheet function, PATHLENGTH(…), to do the same without any VBA. The function is described on one of the pages in Visio ShapeSheet Functions O-R , but here is one way that it can be incorporated into a useful shape for, say, cabling or piping, and thus be available in Shape Reports. Moreover, the Shape Data can display the length of each of the segments in the line, in addition to the total length.

[Read more…] about Automatic Line and Segment Lengths in Visio

Filed Under: Shape Data, Shape Reports, ShapeSheet Formulas Tagged With: ShapeSheet, Visio

Published on May 21, 2021 by David Parker

Testing Regional Settings in Visio

There are times that I have been caught out by assuming that everyone speaks “proper” English, like what I do (sic), and forgetting that there are other languages with their own formatting conventions. I think most of the world is bemused at the USA date format where they put the month before the day and the year. So illogical to everyone else, and I can’t help thinking that it was done on purpose just to catch us Brits out, like when they decided to drive on the wrong side of the road just to make it more difficult to sell cars across the border. It seems that some parts of Visio get confused if I enter the dates in the correct “dd/mm/yyyy” format, so I now type dates in the “d mmm yyyy” format in the Shape Data window calendar control because, at least, that always works. Also Visio‘s internal units are inches, and every time I see it referred to as US Units, rather than the Imperial Units that I grew up with, makes me think “so, this is what it has come to!”.

So today I was embarrassed by a Norwegian client because I forgot (again) to take extra care when using the RGB(…) function. The result was that the displayed colours were appearing black in Norwegian (and doubtless many other languages), but correctly grey (gray if you are in the USA), blue, green and yellow in English (both UK and US).

[Read more…] about Testing Regional Settings in Visio

Filed Under: Color, Shape Data, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio Tagged With: ShapeSheet Functions, Visio

Published on April 15, 2021 by David Parker

Visio 2010 MVP Session videos reprise

Back in 2012, my fellow Visio MVPs, Scott Helmers and Chris Roth, and I recorded a series of 24 videos about Visio 2010. They were first hosted on Microsoft’s web site, then they put them up on YouTube, they they got deleted :-(. Well, we have managed to retrieve them, and put them back up on YouTube in a new list :-). Most of them are still very relevant and useful!

See Visio 2010 MVP Sessions – YouTube and The Visio 2010 MVP Sessions .

Filed Under: Callouts, Containers, Data Graphics, Database, External Data, Floor Plans, Hyperlinks, Layers, Lists, MVP, Network Diagrams, Org Charts, Process Flows, Scale, Shape Data, Shape Reports, Validation, Visio, Visio 2010, Visio for Desktop Tagged With: MVP Sessions, Visio

Published on May 18, 2020 by David Parker

Using Emojis in Visio

In the new normal of social distancing, we can easily miss the nuances of facial expressions with the the various electronic communication platforms that we utilise. In our personal communications via mobile apps, we have all started to use Emojis to express sentiment and actions, although we can sometimes convey the wrong meanings unintentionally as some Emojis get re-purposed by certain sections of society. Microsoft Windows 10 added native support for Emojis a year ago, and they can be inserted into many Microsoft applications using the onscreen keyboard 👀:

Windows 10 Onscreen Keyboard
[Read more…] about Using Emojis in Visio

Filed Under: Lists, Shape Data, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio, Visio for Desktop, Visio for Web, Visio Online Tagged With: Emojis, Shape Data, ShapeSheet, Structured Diagrams, Visio, Visio Online

Published on March 31, 2020 by David Parker

Using CODE() and UNICODE() functions in Visio

Microsoft Visio does have CHAR() and UNICHAR() ShapeSheet functions, just like Excel, but it does not have the inverse CODE() and UNICODE() functions, unlike Excel. However, there is a way to create a formula in the Visio ShapeSheet to provide these functions.

The following worksheet demonstrates how the CHAR(), CODE(), UNICHAR(), and UNICODE() functions work in Excel.

ColumnFormula
Indexn
Char=IFERROR( CHAR(INT([@Index])),””)
Code=IFERROR( CODE([@Char]),””)
Unichar=UNICHAR(INT([@Index]))
Unicode=UNICODE([@Unichar])
[Read more…] about Using CODE() and UNICODE() functions in Visio

Filed Under: Excel, Lists, Shape Data, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio Tagged With: Excel, ShapeSheet Functions, Visio

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