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Shape Reports

Published on January 9, 2023 by David Parker

Pushing Data Visualizer in Visio beyond its limits

My last post was about some of the lessons learnt when trying to push Data Visualizer to its limits, but this one has some ways of overcoming these limitations. The main lesson learnt is that DV binds the shapes within the DV container shape, CFF Data Visualizer, and controls some of the ShapeSheet cells that are normally available for customization. The label of the connector is bound to the respective column in the Excel table, and that, combined with the ability to modify the Dynamic connector master shape provides a way of overcoming some of the limitations discovered.

So, given that we want to use DV, and we need to have multiple flows between the same shapes, then they cannot be separate connectors. We need to combine multiple flows onto the same connector, and then find a way to selectively display different flows somehow by controlling the visibility of the connectors. However, we cannot make them invisible because they will be deleted by DV, so we need to control their transparency instead. We can do this by interpreting the label somehow, and we are going to modify the Dynamic connector to react to the text of the label, and we can also change the colour and line pattern too.

The following screenshots show the Excel table with the multiple flows between the same shapes concatenated with pipe characters, and the diagram created by Data Visualizer when this table is imported into a custom template using Data \ Create from Data \ Create:

[Read more…] about Pushing Data Visualizer in Visio beyond its limits

Filed Under: Connectors, Data Visualizer, Shape Data, Shape Reports, ShapeSheet Formulas, Uncategorized, Visio Plan 2 Tagged With: Connectors, Data Visualizer, ShapeSheet Functions

Published on January 3, 2023 by David Parker

Pushing Data Visualizer in Visio to the limits!

Regular readers of my blog will know that I like to use the Data Visualizer (DV) in Visio Plan 2, but I recently tried to help a user who really decided to push it to the limits. In this scenario, there were multiple connections, but with different labels, being created between the same flowchart shapes, and the plea was how to make it work! Well, I experimented with this, and found that DV does not really work well in this way, and then proposed an alternative approach, which I will explain in this article.

First, I will show how it fails by setting up an Excel table that does contains multiple connections, but fails to update the labels consistently.

Excel Table with Multiple Links
[Read more…] about Pushing Data Visualizer in Visio to the limits!

Filed Under: Connectors, Data Visualizer, External Data, Layers, Shape Data, Shape Reports, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio Plan 2 Tagged With: Data Visualizer, Visio

Published on August 30, 2022 by David Parker

Visio Shape Report Converter Excel add-in available

I am delighted to announce that I have just had my first Excel add-in accepted in the Office Add-ins Store! It is called Shape Report Converter because all it does is convert a Shape Report converted from Visio for Desktop to a modern Excel table with one click!

It isn’t a complicated add-in, and it doesn’t do anything that you can’t do manually, but it does save time, and ensures consistency … and it is free!

[Read more…] about Visio Shape Report Converter Excel add-in available

Filed Under: Excel, Products, Shape Data, Shape Report Converter, Shape Reports, Visio Tagged With: Excel, Shape Reports, Visio

Published on July 6, 2022 by David Parker

A Visio List Shape is also a Container

Structured diagrams have been around in Microsoft Visio since 2010 and I have always known that list shapes are a specialized container shape, however it still came as a surprise to me recently that a list shape can simultaneously act as a container shape!

There are a few examples of both container and list shapes in the Microsoft provided content in all versions of Visio desktop, and even in the subscription Visio for web. The most popular of these is the Cross-Functional Flowchart template which contains container shapes (the Swimlane and Separator shapes) within list shapes (Swimlane List and Phase List), which are within another container shape (CFF Container).

In Visio desktop, the Insert / Diagram Parts / Container allows you to choose from a number of pre-built container shapes. There is no button to insert a list shape, but you can create your own or easily modify one of the pre-built ones to behave as a list shape.

[Read more…] about A Visio List Shape is also a Container

Filed Under: Containers, Lists, Shape Design, Shape Reports, Uncategorized, VBA, Visio Tagged With: Containers, Lists, ShapeSheet Functions, Structured Diagrams, 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 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

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