bVisual

Visio

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Are Master Shortcuts useful in Visio?

Many Visio users may not even understand the question, but this almost hidden feature has been available for many years. A Master Shortcut looks like a normal Master in a stencil, but it is merely holds a reference to another Master in a Stencil, not necessarily the same one, and has an option to add actions that can change properties of the target Master when it is dropped on the page. The advantage is that the shapes on the page are still instances of the target Master in the document which makes customisation and maintenance much easier. So, why would you use them?

One good reason is that you are providing a custom stencil, but you want to include some of the built-in Microsoft ones. Just including a Master Shortcut to the Microsoft Stencil and Master does not break any copyright laws that I am aware of.

Another good reason is that many users prefer to just drag’n’drop a Master from a Stencil rather than further mouse clicks to configure the dropped shape with the Shape Data window or the right mouse actions.

This article describes how to use Master Shortcuts using BPMN shapes as an example.

  • The BPMN Task has 10 types available from Shape Data window and context menu
  • Copy Master then Paste Shortcut into an editable Stencil
  • Edit Master Shortcut Properties and rename, then copy/paste as required
  • Multiple Master Shortcuts but only one Master
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Co-authoring and Commenting with Visio Documents

Microsoft Visio can be used in the web browser and on the desktop, but there are several licensing options available, so which ones can be used concurrently whilst supporting co-authoring and commenting? This article tests the various scenarios but assumes that the Visio documents are stored in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online\Teams. The Microsoft article, Work together on Visio drawings, explains most of the scenarios, but does not clearly explain the scope of the Visio web licenses with respect to diagram types or customisations.

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Fixing dimensions of 2D shapes

I am often asked what makes Visio unique and makes it stand out from the crowd, especially in today’s online world. Well, I think there are many reasons, but one of them is the ability to create scaled drawings with parametric components of specific dimensions. This was crucial for my adoption of Visio back in 1996 (see Chase Manhattan Bank – bVisual ), and since then I have created hundreds of dimensionally accurate catalogue components for use in scaled drawings for multiple manufacturers. Over the years, I have developed some patterns in ShapeSheet formulas that I re-use consistently. In this article I show the pattern that I use to provide a user with specific width and height dimensions that can be selected in any of three ways:

  1. Manual resize of the shape with the shape handles to only the specified sizes
  2. Selecting a dimension from the Shape Data panel
  3. Selecting a dimension from the right-mouse Actions context menu

All of these options are linked together so that editing the list of specific sizes are easy to maintain.

  • Resize manually
  • Select a Shape Data value
  • Select a context menu Action
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Merging Linked Data from Similar Tables

I was recently asked how to link data from different tables but with similar column names to Visio shapes. In this case, each table has the same unique identifier, but some of the column names are the same. The problem is that the data linking matches the column name with the label of a Shape Data row label, so the shared columns were updated with the values from the last linked data recordset. In this article I present a simple way that this restriction can be overcome.

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Using Button Face Ids in Visio

Microsoft Visio desktop has the ability to display icons from a built-in list of Office icons on Actions and Action Tags (nee Smart Tags). These can be set in the ShapeSheet by using the desired number from several thousand in the ButtonFace cell. Although there is the ability to add better icons using code, the quick ShapeSheet formulas are useful way of indicating the purpose of a command. This article simply lists the first 3,600 of these fas a quick and easy reference for me, and othe ShapeSheet disigners out there!

  • Face Ids from 0001 to 0360
  • Face Ids from 0361 to 0720
  • Face Ids from 0721 to 1400
  • Face Ids from 1441 to 1800
  • Face Ids from 1801 to 2160
  • FaceI ds from 2161 to 2520
  • Face Ids from 2521 to 2880
  • Face Ids from 2881 to 3240
  • Face Ids from 3241 to 3600
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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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