As it is Cyber Monday, I thought I would give away a compelling checkers board for Visio! In the UK, we call it Draughts, but the rules are the same… in my last post, I showed how to create a chess/checkers/draughts board, and in this one I add some checkers that can glue to the dark squares only!
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What is the minimum number of rectangles in a Visio chessboard?
This may sound like a simple question with a definite answer, but I think it is worthy of further explanation. I wanted to make a chessboard shape with as few lines as possible, because it makes the shape more efficient and easy to work with. Some might consider grouping 64 squares together, but that would be a very heavy shape. A chessboard needs to appear to have 64 squares, but the following shape only has 9 rectangles … How is this possible?
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Scroll to Capture Visio ShapeSheets with SnagIt
Anyone who develops with Visio faces the problem of viewing the formulas and values in an often difficult to navigate ShapeSheet window. I have been a SnagIt and Camtasia user for many years thanks to the generous free license I get from TechSmith as a Microsoft MVP. I have used both products extensively for my books, articles and videos, though I am not an expert in either product. Now, SnagIt has a panoramic scrolling capture feature that is great with ShapeSheets.
The unique smartness of Visio shapes comes from the ability to program the ShapeSheet behind every single shape. This is like an Excel worksheet divided into sections, and the display can switched between formulas and values. The Visio’s ShapeSheet window does have the ability to toggle the visibility of each section, but that is often not enough to get a complete picture of the formulas involved. The following example is the partial view of the ShapeSheet window for a simple shape.
Create & edit Visio diagrams in browser
Visio Online is now generally available! You can read more about it here , but what does it mean? Well, if you have Visio Pro for Office 365 (like me) then you should find that it is now converted to Visio Online Plan 2, which includes Visio Online as well. Visio Online Plan 1 does not include Visio Pro for Office 365, but these users can view all Visio documents, and can also create and edit simple ones (see the FAQ for more details).
Selecting a New / Visio Drawing in my Office 365 tenant now opens a Basic Diagram in Visio Online. I can then choose to create a diagram from a different template using File / New.
I would also expect to be able to access Visio Online from the waffle menu in the top left of my Office 365 client. This takes me to the Visio Online Gallery, where I can open existing diagrams, or view Popular Diagram templates. At the moment, it only invites me to purchase or upgrade my subscription, but I assume that they will soon be starter diagrams for me to edit
I can also edit some existing simple diagrams that I have selected to view online.
The Shapes search feature looks pretty useful … perhaps it will provide access to third party shapes in the future too!
Visio Online is not as full-featured as Visio desktop editions, but it is really great to see this lightweight editor (at last). It works with the native Visio files, so no need for any conversion, but there are some limitations on file size and features that can be opened by the web version. There are some users who may only need this, but others will still want the desktop, especially Visio Pro for Office 365, because they have more demanding needs, such as Shape Data and links to data sources. It may even be enough for some Mac users out there too, who have long wished to be able to view and edit Visio diagrams without a Visio-clone or converter.
Keep it up Microsoft! Well done.
Installing 64-bit Visio 2016 Professional
There are times when it is necessary to install the 64 bit versions of Visio (and Office), as described at Choose between the 64-bit or 32-bit version of Office. This article does not really expand on the reasons for using 64 bit Visio, but it basically comes down to file size, especially with very large inserted CAD files. I set up a virtual machine to do some testing, and, as it has been a long time since I had to do this, I accidently installed the 32-bit version first, and so I had to start afresh. Therefore, I thought it might be useful to record the steps I took with the download of Visio Professional 2016 from my.VisualStudio.com/downloads. I have pointed to the link that should be followed.
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MSIgnite 2017 Round-Up for Visio
Well it is over for another year, and what a year it has been for Microsoft Visio! I am exhausted from making 3 presentations and being on the Visio booth for the last 4 days, but it has been worth it just to hear the love people have for Visio, and to see their faces when they see the new features and capabilities!
Key highlights of new features:
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