Most of the smartness of Visio comes from the power of the ShapeSheet. Every shape in Visio, even if it is just text, has a ShapeSheet that most users do not see. In fact, a lot of users do not realise that there is a Developer ribbon tab that is not visible by default.
It can be made visible by ticking it in the Developer tab in the Visio Options / Customize Ribbon dialog. This can be opened from File / Options, or by using the Customize the Ribbon… right-mouse menu option in a blank area of the ribbon.
The Show ShapeSheet drop-down button in the Developer ribbon tab will open the ShapeSheet of the selected shape, active page or active document.
The ShapeSheet is divided into Sections, Rows and Cells. Some of the Sections always exist in a shape of a particular type (this also includes pages and documents), whilst others are optional. The rows in some of these optional sections can be renamed for clarity, if required. For example, the default name for the first row in the User-defined Cells section is Row_1, but it can be renamed, just like ShapeAppearance in the following image of the ShapeSheet of an Off-page reference shape from the Basic Flowchart Shapes stencil.
Notice that the ShapeSheet can display either the Formulas or the Values, and that not all of the Sections need to be visible, and individual sections can be expanded or collapsed. The ShapeSheet contains many sections, so it is usually necessary to scroll.
Each of the cells can be referenced by name within formulas in other cells. They can also be referenced by their Section, Row, Cell indices in code using the CellsSRC[…] property. However, this reference is all about formulas using the functions available in the ShapeSheet. There are currently 210 functions listed in the Microsoft Docs, but some of them do not have an example, or they are difficult to follow without a visual the examples. Most of the functions work perfectly within Visio for the Web, just as they do in Visio for the Desktop. There are some exceptions to this, and one in particular, CALLTHIS(), is unlikely to ever work in the web because it is used to run code within a Visual Basic project.
Over the next few months, each of the functions will be described more visually, and there will be similarity in the way that each page in the document demonstrates the function.
The border is a Visio container shape and contains a hyperlink to the Microsoft Docs for the specified function, and the ScreenTip is displayed in the associated Word Box callout.
The mauve circles are Off-page reference shapes that provide hyperlinks to specific pages within the Visio document.
The text of the coloured rectangle is evaluated as a Visio ShapeSheet formula by the associated Price Tag callout (using the EVALTEXT() function).
A second callout sometimes suggests how the target shape can be edited to demonstrate the ShapeSheet function. And another callout may display the value in another cell, such as the Angle in the following example,
There may be other shapes, such as the green part-filled circle above, that may further demonstrate the output of the function.
Most of these callout shapes make use of the CALLOUTREFTARGET() function. This is another example of the Structured Diagram concept in Visio, eg Containers, Lists, Callouts and Connectors.
Although the documents are viewable from my OneDriveForBusiness folder, they will need to be downloaded and placed into your ODfB or SharePoint tenant for them to be editable in the web.
You may get a warning dialog when switching from one page to another in the web, but it can be safely refreshed.
The articles will appear in the list and grid below, along with other related topics, so subscribe, or keep a look out for new ones.
- Visio ShapeSheet Functions A-C
- Using the CALLTHIS function in Visio
- Visio ShapeSheet Functions D-F
- Visio ShapeSheet Functions G-K
- Visio ShapeSheet Functions L-N
- Visio ShapeSheet Functions O-R
- Visio ShapeSheet Functions S
- Visio ShapeSheet Functions T – Z
Taking Visio Actions Rows to the limit
I recently (re-)discovered that there is a limit to the number of Actions section rows that will be evaluated for display on the right mouse menu of a Visio shape. I have not hit a limit (yet) for the number of rows that can be added to the Actions section … so why is there…
A Multi-Time Zone Clock for Visio
I wrote a post about making a clock face in Visio fifteen years ago, but a reader recently asked about displaying multiple time zones. Well, I have previously written about time zones in Visio, so I accepted the challenge to improve upon my earlier work. (more…)
Update any Visio ShapeSheet cell with External Data
When Microsoft introduced a new way of linking external data to Visio shapes in 2007, I initially bemoaned the inability to update anything but Shape Data row values, unlike the old database add-on that I had been using for 10 years. The new method, though, has many advantages over the old way, not least that…
Referencing Container Data in Visio
Microsoft Visio has a useful Structured Diagramming concept that consists of Containers, Callouts and Connectors. The first of these features make it possible for shapes to know what they are contained within, as a better option to grouping shapes together. Grouping can hide or break the grouped shapes smartness, so Visio provides two ways of…
Understanding Morse Clicks with Visio
A few years ago, I wrote an article about messaging and encryption inspired by a visit to the National Museum of Computing in the UK. I developed a Morse Click shape to demonstrate how Visio can be used to represent and learn Morse Code. However, I never published the shapes here, and my good friend…
Correcting the Text Control Handle on Visio Network Shapes
There are literally thousands of master shapes in the stencils supplied with Microsoft Visio, so I guess that mistakes can creep in. One error that I have noticed is the inability of the default text control handle of many of the network shapes to actually move the text block horizontally. (more…)