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Visio 2010

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MVP Sessions wheel

I wasn’t sure whether to call it a wheel or a clock-face, but since there are 24 MVP Visio 2010 sessions (see http://visio.microsoft.com/mvpsessions )  I decided on a wheel … so in this blog I present my alternative interface into these sessions, created in Visio of course!

I created an Excel workbook in which I listed all of the sessions, their descriptions, and links to the video and any supporting files. I then created the wheel diagram, and used Link Data to Shapes to automatically add Shape Data rows and hyperlinks to each shape, and Data Graphics to automatically colour each shape.

Finally, I saved the Visio page as web pages (VML, XAML and SVG format output), and as pdf.

MVPSessions

Open the VML web output : http://www.bvisual.net/resources/mvpsessionsIE.htm

Open the SVG web output : http://www.bvisual.net/resources/mvpsessions.htm

Open the XAML web output : http://www.bvisual.net/resources/mvpsessionsX.htm

Open the Visio file : http://sdrv.ms/NYHH8V

Open the Excel file : http://sdrv.ms/OI3EKU

Open the pdf : http://sdrv.ms/OI2i2I

UPDATE : see http://blog.bvisual.net/2013/07/08/mvp-sessions-for-getting-started-with-visio-2010/

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Creating a Custom Org Chart Template with Extra Properties

A Visio user recently asked how to add a salary amount for an Org Chart person automatically, based on their selected Level. I thought it was a bit long to answer in the forum, so I have written my answer below. It demonstrates how you can have your own custom template that works with the Organization Chart add-on in Visio.

My approach to creating a custom template that still uses the Organization Chart Add-On is to create a new drawing from the built-in template, and then to add extra properties to it.

First, select Show Document Stencil to view all of the local copies of the built-in master shapes. If they are not there, then simply drag and drop them from the built-in stencil on to the first page, and then delete the shapes on the page. This will not delete the local copies of the masters.

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Adding the Sixth Legend Icon in Visio 2010

In my previous two articles, I described how to have 6 icons in a Data Graphic Icon Set, and provided some VBA code to make your own icons sets from existing Visio shapes or images. One thing that I overlooked was the Insert Legend command in Visio 2010, because it does not add the sixth icon automatically, so this blog describes how to add it. As a side effect, the code also enables the legend labels of icon and CBV (Color By Value) items to be edited.

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When you use the Insert Legend command, it examines the Data Graphics used on the active page, to create legends for each Icon Set or Color By Value settings that it finds. Closer examination of the legend shapes, shows that an instance of the Icon Set master shape is added for each of the icons found.

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Make Your Own Visio Data Graphic Icons Sets … automatically

In my last post, I showed how you can actually have up to six icons in a Visio Data Graphics Icon Set ( see http://davidjpp.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/how-to-have-six-icons-in-a-visio-data-graphic-icon-set/ ), and I finished by saying that I would now show how to create new icon sets from existing shapes … automatically. In fact, I will show you how to do it with existing SmartShapes or with images.

I was asked to make KPI icons from six weather images:

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How to have six icons in a Visio Data Graphic Icon Set

I was recently asked to represent the values of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in Visio. Great, I thought, this is just what Visio’s Data Graphic Icon Sets are for! Only trouble was, that there were six possible values for the KPI, but all the example Icon Sets have a maximum of five icons in them. So, I had to come up with a way of displaying six icons …

In the following example, I have defined a Shape Data row with a Fixed List type that can have a value from the list “3;2;1;-1;-2;-3”

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I applied the Faces Icon Set, and set icons for each value, except for –1:

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Making Timelines with Dates Earlier than 1900 in Visio

I was asked recently about making Visio timelines with dates earlier than 1900, which is the start of time as far as Microsoft Office products are concerned, so I thought I’d try to adapt one of my approaches used on other projects. In this case, I am assuming that the data is coming from an Excel worksheet, and I will use the Link Data to Shapes feature in Visio Professional/Premium. Visio Standard users can still make the timelines manually, or could attempt to use the older Database Wizard.

Create the data source in Excel

The first decision I made was not to use date fields in Excel or Visio because of the 1st Jan 1900 is the start of everything issue. Therefore I created a table in a worksheet that splits the Start and End dates in Year, Month and Day columns:

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