• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

bVisual

  • Home
  • Services
    • How Visio smartness can help your business
    • Visio visual in Power BI
    • Visio Consulting Services
    • Visio Bureau Services
    • Visio Training and Support Services
  • Products
    • SS Plus
    • LayerManager
    • visViewer
    • Metro Icons
    • Rules Tools for Visio
    • The Visio 2010 Sessions App
    • Multi-Language Text for Visio
    • Document Imager for Visio
    • multiSelect for Visio
    • pdSelect for Visio
  • Case Studies
    • Case studies overview
    • Visualizing Construction Project Schedules
    • Visio Online Business Process Mapping
    • Nexans Visio Template
    • VRA makes the case for Prudential
    • CNEE Projects, WorldCom
    • Chase Manhattan Bank
  • News
    • Recent news
    • News archive
  • Resources
    • Articles➡
      • ShapeSheet Functions A-Z
      • Comparing Visio for the Web and Desktop
      • Customising Visio Shapes for the Web App
      • Key differences between the Visio desktop and web apps
      • Key differences between the Visio desktop and web apps
      • Using the Visio Data Visualizer in Excel
      • Using Visio in Teams
      • Creating Visio Tabs and Apps for Teams with SharePoint Framework (SPFx)
      • Designing Power Automate Flows with Microsoft Visio
      • Innovative uses of Visio Lists
    • Webcasts ➡
      • Visio in Organizations
      • My session and other Visio sessions at MSIgnite 2019
      • Power up your Visio diagrams
      • Vision up your Visio diagrams
      • The Visio 2010 MVP Sessions
    • Visio Web Learning Resources
    • Books➡
      • Mastering Data Visualization with Microsoft Visio
      • Microsoft Visio Business Process Diagramming and Validation
      • Visualizing Information with Microsoft Visio
  • Blog
    • Browse blog articles
    • Visio Power BI articles
    • Visio for Web articles
    • Visio blog on Orbus website
    • A history of messaging and encryption
  • About us
    • About bVisual
    • Testimonials
    • Bio of David Parker
    • Contact Us
    • Website Privacy Policy
    • Website terms and conditions
    • Ariba Network

Visio

Published on February 22, 2021 by David Parker

Using the CALLTHIS function in Visio

Visio was the first non-Microsoft application to include VBA within it back in the mid-nineties. All of the desktop Microsoft Office applications currently include VBA, although Microsoft have been rumoured to want to replace it for many years, and now there is an alternative scripting option becoming available that is suitable for the web too.

Visio was acquired by Microsoft in 2000, and there are still many scenarios when it is useful to have VBA procedures available in Visio for the Desktop. These procedures can be created using the recorder, and then edited, or just created manually. Every Visio document can contain a VBA project, but it must be saved with the .vsdm extension for documents, .vssm extension for stencils, or .vstm extension for templates. The last letter, m, informs Windows that this file could contain macros, as opposed to the normal last letter x, which cannot. Even with this extension, users, or their IT department, may not enable the macros in Visio documents.

The CALLTHIS function in Visio can be used to run a procedure (sub-function) in a Visio Visual Basic document and pass through a reference to the shape that the function is called from. The Microsoft Docs provide an explanation of this useful technique, and it does describe some examples, but it does not show the VBA code that these examples need, nor does it show them working. It also does not make it clear that these procedures do not need to be in the Visio diagram document, but can be in a stencil that is open in the active Visio session. This is important because it means that VBA code can be centralised and distributed for use use on many other documents.

  • Using CALLTHIS with code in a document
  • Using CALLTHIS with code in a stencil
  • The VBA code behind
[Read more…] about Using the CALLTHIS function in Visio

Filed Under: ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio for Desktop Tagged With: ShapeSheet, Visio

Published on January 2, 2021 by David Parker

Referencing Visio Shapes

Every Visio shape must have a unique name in the collection that it belongs to, and to ensure this, Visio automatically one using the master name or just “Sheet”, if not an instance of a master, followed by a period (“.”) and the ID. However, a user can rename a shape, and Visio will then also update the universal name (NameU) to be the same as the Name. If a user chooses to re-name a shape a second time, then thee universal name is not updated … it remains as the original name.

To demonstrate this I drew a rectangle, then named, and re-named it:

  • Shape is automatically named
  • The Name and NameU are the same
  • The Name and NameU are initially the same
  • The Name U remains unchnaged when Name changed again
[Read more…] about Referencing Visio Shapes

Filed Under: ShapeSheet Formulas, VBA, Visio Tagged With: ShapeSheet, ShapeSheet Functions, Visio

Published on December 28, 2020 by David Parker

Play Backgammon with Visio

Still in lockdown on holiday, so I thought I would create a version of backgammon that can be played with Visio for the web. This was inspired by my original Visio tutor, the late David Edson, who created a Visio backgammon document which included macros. Macros are not available in Visio for the web, so I have created one where the dice can be shaken, the doubling cube changed, and the pieces reset, using nothing but ShapeSheet formulas.

[Read more…] about Play Backgammon with Visio

Filed Under: Games, ShapeSheet Formulas, SharePoint Online, Teams, Visio, Visio for Desktop, Visio for Web, Visio Online Tagged With: SharePoint, Teams, Visio

Published on December 26, 2020 by David Parker

Play Chess with Visio in Teams

Following on from my last article about playing checkers with Visio in Teams, I decided that I should also revisit my earlier Visio chessboard to make it work in Visio online. I have implemented the ability to automatically reset the positions before a new game, and I have made a single chess piece shape that can be either colour or icon.

[Read more…] about Play Chess with Visio in Teams

Filed Under: Games, SharePoint Online, Teams, Visio, Visio for Desktop, Visio for Web, Visio Online Tagged With: SharePoint, Teams, Visio for the desktop, Visio for the Web

Published on December 25, 2020 by David Parker

Play Checkers with Visio in Teams

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
[Read more…] about Play Checkers with Visio in Teams

Filed Under: Games, ShapeSheet Formulas, SharePoint Online, Teams, Visio for Desktop, Visio for Web, Visio Online Tagged With: ShapeSheet Functions, SharePoint, Teams, Visio for the desktop, Visio for the Web

Published on November 27, 2020 by David Parker

Creating PowerPoint Presentations automatically from Visio

Visio Plan 2 has a great, but flawed, feature called Slide Snippets, that can create PowerPoint presentations automatically from any number of titled rectangles, on any number of pages in a Visio document. However, it usually creates distorted images, and it does not automatically contain any descriptive text or hyperlinks. I have previously described how the distortions can be manually fixed (see Manual Fix for Slide Snippets in Visio Plan 2 ), but that is tedious, so I have written a Visio add-in, SS Plus, to not only fix the image, but also allow hyperlinks to be added to it, and to include descriptive text that can include bold, italics and hyperlinks … and can be automatically converted into SmartArt layouts!

  • Simply edit the ScreenTip in Visio
  • .. to create SmartArt with Hyperlinks in PowerPoint
  • Denote bold and italic text in Visio
  • .. to create richer text blocks in PowerPoint
  • Add a hyperlink to the Slide Snippet in Visio
  • … to become an image hyperlink in PowerPoint

If you want to read more then please go to SS Plus to learn how you can try it for free!

Filed Under: PowerPoint, SS Plus, Visio Plan 2 Tagged With: Slide Snippets, Visio

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 59
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Recent Posts

  • Visio ShapeSheet Functions G-K
  • Two Quote or Not Two Quote …
  • Visio in Organizations
  • Viewing Visio Document Changes in Git
  • Visio ShapeSheet Functions D-F

Categories

Tags

Accessibility Add-Ins Connectors Data Export Data Graphics Data Import Data Visualizer Educational Excel GraphDatabase Hyperlinks Icon Sets JavaScript Layers Legend Link Data to Shapes MSIgnite Office365 Org Chart PowerApps PowerBI PowerQuery Processes Shape Data Shape Design ShapeSheet ShapeSheet Functions SharePoint SharePoint 2013 SQL Teams Themes Validation VBA Video Visio Visio 2007 Visio 2013 Visio for the Web Visio Online Visio Pro for Office365 Visio Services Visio Viewer Web Webinar

Footer

bVisual Profile

The UK-based independent Visio consultancy with a worldwide reach. We have over 25 years experience of providing data visualization solutions to companies around the globe.

Learn more about bVisual

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Search this website

Recent posts

  • Visio ShapeSheet Functions G-K
  • Two Quote or Not Two Quote …
  • Visio in Organizations
  • Viewing Visio Document Changes in Git
  • Visio ShapeSheet Functions D-F

Copyright © 2021 · Executive Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in