bVisual

Visio

Published on by

Controlling Visio layers with linked data

Readers of my blog will know that I use the layers in Visio pages to change the display for different scenarios. My macro to toggle layers on/off has been very popular, and I have written an add-in to manage layers that is widely used. However, I was recently asked if the layer settings can be controlled from linked data. Linking data in Visio has been available in all desktop editions, except Standard, since 2007, and I have written many articles and two books extolling this feature, but I haven’t so far controlled layer settings with it, so this article describes how this can be done … as shown in the following screen recording!

UpdatingLayersFromData
[Read more…] about Controlling Visio layers with linked data

Published on by

Reading the registry for Visio settings

I love writing Visio automation code, but I really don’t like writing setup & deployment scripts. There are so many variables : What Visio version, which edition? Which bitness (x86 or x64)? What are the user settings for the paths of stencils or templates?
So, I decided to write myself some C# functions that can be used in custom actions for an installation writing application, such as Advanced Installer. I think of the methods as being in one of three phases, Installation; Functionality and Configuration. The registry has three different areas to search within, Classes Root (HKCR); Local Machine (HKLM) and Current User (HKCU). In addition, the best way to get the true file version of Visio is to use FileInfo on the executable. The following screenshots are from a Cross-Functional Flowchart of the functions that get values for variables, and use them in other functions, until, eventually, the current user settings can be read.


Each of the functions I wrote handle the part of the registry that needs to be used. By that I mean that some settings for 64bit Visio on 64bit Windows will be in a different branch than 32bit Visio on 64bit Windows.
The first function gets the current version of the application associated with Visio drawings:

[Read more…] about Reading the registry for Visio settings

Published on by

Fixing the Layers problem with Callouts in Visio

I recently re-discovered an issue with callouts in Visio for a couple of projects that I am working on, and so I had to find a fix. The problem is that the callouts become dis-associated from their target shapes if either the layer visibility of the callout or the target shape is toggled off, and then back on again. This will result in a diagram with shapes without any connected callouts, so moving any of the target shapes will not move their associated callouts with them! I initially came up with a workaround that involved some jiggery-pokery with sub-shapes and layers, but it seems that the problem could have easily been averted if Microsoft had incorporated one specific User-defined Cell from the very start…


First, I should be clear which callouts I am talking about because the word has been used and abused over the years … This article refers to the callouts that are inserted from the Insert / Diagram Parts ribbon group. These are part of the Structured Diagrams concept that was introduced with Visio 2010.

[Read more…] about Fixing the Layers problem with Callouts in Visio

Published on by

Support for the Visio JavaScript API in SharePoint Modern Framework, and more

It was the last day of the MSIgnite conference today, and the video of the final presentation about Visio was worth staying for, even though some of it was content I knew about, and have mentioned in previous posts this week ( see Dive into the world of data-driven operation intelligence with Microsoft Visio, Excel and Power BI). However, there was some content I was particularly pleased to see, and that was about support for the Visio Online JavaScript API support in Modern SharePoint Framework. I have pulled out some of the key slides below, but check out the full session for more information.

The hardworking Microsoft Visio product development team have worked hard to almost match all of the functionality of the old server-side Visio services control, but they haven’t quite got everything. So I cheered when I hear that support for html overlays are in the roadmap to be supported! All I ask for now (almost) is layer control, and I will be very happy.
They also stated that they will be enabling all this functionality for non-SharePoint web sites in the future!
Go to http://aka.ms/voapireference got more details.

Published on by

MSFlow is everywhere at MSIgnite including Visio

MSFlowInVisio

It will take me some time to review the content coming out at MSIgnite, but there is a re-occurring theme with the seemingly omni-presence of the Power Platform in all the user-facing applications that contain data. The Power Platform is PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, and Power BI ( view a session about this ) built on top of Azure. They work together, or separately, and they add an incredible amount of flexibility and democracy to applications. In the case of Visio, there is a tantalising view of what is coming shortly! Check out this video.

[Read more…] about MSFlow is everywhere at MSIgnite including Visio