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ShapeSheet Functions

Published on October 20, 2021 by David Parker

Forcing Display Update of Inherited Data Values

I was going to title this “When is a truth not a truth?” because I have found that Visio can sometimes refuse to apparently update the displayed value in a cell, even though it has been changed. However, this was, in this instance, down to a misunderstanding of the formula evaluation events on my part. Take the scenario where you have some data that you want to be available to all pages and all shapes in the Visio document. There are some built-in Document Properties in Visio that are accessible to all pages and shapes using ShapeSheet functions ( eg TITLE(), SUBJECT(), COMPANY(), Categories / CATEGORY(), Tags / KEYWORDS(), Comments / DESCRIPTION(), Author / CREATOR(), MANAGER() and HYPERLINKBASE()). However, Visio does not have custom Document Properties like the other Office applications. Instead, Visio allows for the addition of User-Defined Cells and Shape Data rows in the DocumentSheet of the document. These can be uniquely named, and Shape Data rows can be given a data type (of sorts), a label, prompt and format.

These values can be accessed via a ShapeSheet function from anywhere within the document, which ensures that you only have one version of the truth. However, there is no non-developer user-interface to edit these DocumentSheet Shape Data values in Visio, so what do you do? And how can you be sure that you are always seeing these centralised values correctly?

I created the following master shape to test how this can be done. It is a group shape that contains a single StartDate Shape Data row, which is used to edit or view the date in the similarly named Shape Data row in the DocumentSheet. For good measure, I also added a similarly named Shape Data row to the page, so the Shape Data window in the page could also be used. I then used Insert / Field to display the values in the ShapeSheet, PageSheet and DocumentSheet:

[Read more…] about Forcing Display Update of Inherited Data Values

Filed Under: Shape Data, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio Tagged With: Shape Data, Shape Design, ShapeSheet Functions, Visio

Published on October 19, 2021 by David Parker

Using Custom Fill Patterns from a List

A reader asked how to fill a shape with a custom fill pattern from a fixed list in of a shape. They had no trouble with the first 25 standard fill patterns, but couldn’t figure out how to apply a custom pattern. So, I shall try to explain how this can be done …

[Read more…] about Using Custom Fill Patterns from a List

Filed Under: FillPattern, Shape Data, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio Tagged With: FillPatterns, ShapeSheet Functions, Visio

Published on September 6, 2021 by David Parker

Keeping Visio Data Graphic Items Level

My good friend Scott Helmers, Visio author and trainer, of Harvard Computing Group , recently asked for some help in keeping data graphic items level when their target shape is rotated. Fortunately, I was able to assist, so I thought I would explain how this can be done, and also update my Icon Maker macro from a few years ago. The updated macro is available to download for free and includes the extra ability of sizing the icons. I chose to use some bee stickers from the Insert / Illustrations / Icons tool in Visio Plan 2, and the Status options from the Process shape in the Basic Flowchart Shapes stencil to demonstrate.

[Read more…] about Keeping Visio Data Graphic Items Level

Filed Under: Data Graphics, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio for Desktop Tagged With: Data Graphics, Icon Sets, ShapeSheet Functions, Visio

Published on August 16, 2021 by David Parker

Visio ShapeSheet Functions T – Z

The seventh, and final, 25 of the Visio ShapeSheet functions that start with the letters T – Z are visually described in the Visio document below that is available for download.

Please see the general introduction to this series at ShapeSheet Functions A-Z for more information.

[Read more…] about Visio ShapeSheet Functions T – Z

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

Published on July 1, 2021 by David Parker

Visio ShapeSheet Functions S

The sixth 19 of the Visio ShapeSheet functions that start with the letter S are visually described in the Visio document below that is available for download.

Please see the general introduction to this series at ShapeSheet Functions A-Z for more information.

[Read more…] about Visio ShapeSheet Functions S

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

Published on May 21, 2021 by David Parker

Testing Regional Settings in Visio

There are times that I have been caught out by assuming that everyone speaks “proper” English, like what I do (sic), and forgetting that there are other languages with their own formatting conventions. I think most of the world is bemused at the USA date format where they put the month before the day and the year. So illogical to everyone else, and I can’t help thinking that it was done on purpose just to catch us Brits out, like when they decided to drive on the wrong side of the road just to make it more difficult to sell cars across the border. It seems that some parts of Visio get confused if I enter the dates in the correct “dd/mm/yyyy” format, so I now type dates in the “d mmm yyyy” format in the Shape Data window calendar control because, at least, that always works. Also Visio‘s internal units are inches, and every time I see it referred to as US Units, rather than the Imperial Units that I grew up with, makes me think “so, this is what it has come to!”.

So today I was embarrassed by a Norwegian client because I forgot (again) to take extra care when using the RGB(…) function. The result was that the displayed colours were appearing black in Norwegian (and doubtless many other languages), but correctly grey (gray if you are in the USA), blue, green and yellow in English (both UK and US).

[Read more…] about Testing Regional Settings in Visio

Filed Under: Color, Shape Data, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio Tagged With: ShapeSheet Functions, Visio

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