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ShapeSheet Formulas

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Play Checkers with Visio in Teams

[Update : a new version of this file allows Visio for M365 users to edit/play with see Making Custom Shapes for Visio for M365]

We are all spending more time in Teams or SharePoint nowadays, but not everyone knows that Visio documents can now be shared and collaborated with, and even set as a Teams tab. I was trying to think of a suitable demonstration of the co-working and collaboration possibilities, and came up with a reworking of an earlier post about playing checkers with Visio. Since this previous document was made before Visio for the web, I made some enhancements that work just as well with Visio for desktop and Visio for the web. This article explains a few ShapeSheet customisations that can be developed in Visio for the desktop, but can then be used in Visio for the web. Notice how each player can see which piece was moved by their opponent because their initials are displayed, and this is expanded to the full name if the mouse cursor is hovered over them.

Two players co-working in Visio for the web
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Bi-directional Labels on Off-Page Grid References

I have previously written about using off-page references and labelled page grids in Visio, see A Page Grid with Labels and Page Grids and Off Page References, however a reader pointed out that the label on the Off-Page Reference shape is duplicated on both ends. This is not always ideal, however it is all I could do using just ShapeSheet formulas alone. So, in this article, I show how a VBA macro can enhance the reciprocal labels on the twin Off-Page Reference shapes, and they automatically update if either end is moved between grids. This is especially useful in electrical wiring diagrams, but the principal can be adapted for other purposes.

  • Follow Link to Second Page-C7
  • Follow to Third Page-D1
  • Follow Link to First Page-A4
  • Follow Link to First Page-C3
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Maximum Size of a Visio Page and Text block

I needed to check the maximum size of Visio pages for a current project of mine, so I devised a simple test with a diamond shape with its vertices pinned automatically to the edge of the Visio page, with text fields inserted in the center. I started with a standard A0 Landscape page, then multiplied the page width and height using the Page Setup dialog…

  • A Metric A0 page
  • A0 width and height x 10
  • A0 width and height x 100
  • A0 width and height x 50
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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
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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])
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Preventing Deletion of Container Members in Visio

The concept of Structured Diagrams was introduced in Visio 2010 and is featured in many of the templates supplied with Microsoft Visio, and in some third-party solutions, like mine. Connectors, callouts, containers and lists are the key parts of a structured diagrams, and there are times when preventing the deletion of members of a container or list is desirable.

  • An example cross-functional flowchart
  • Accidental deletion of a process shape
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