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It has been almost two years since I blogged, so it is time to dust off the blog. Today in the newsgroups someone asked about using the Polar Array VBA sample from the Visio MVP website, but rather than place a specific shapes multiple times, arrange the shapes that are selected. As usual, the original credit goes to Chris Sub PolarArray()‘ by Chris RothDim shp As Visio.Shape, shpObj As Visio.Shape, celObj As Visio.CellDim iNum As Integer, i As IntegerDim dRad As Double, dAngStart As Double, dAng As DoubleDim x As Double, y As DoubleDim VsoSelect As Visio.SelectionDim VsoShape As Visio.Shape … Continue reading Polar Array – Part 2

About a week ago I was asked if it was possible to save the information from a hand drawing Orgchart (one done without the wizard). The simple answer was yes, but with a few caveats. It would not be an easy task to extract all the information from the diagram. Visio allows the user two views of their diagram; the one most people are familiar with is the one that appears on the screen or the printed page; the second is what a program can “see” of the drawing through automation. What may appear logical in the diagram, may not … Continue reading Creating Automation Friendly Visio diagrams

During my usual weekend hunt for Visio items on the net I came across an article by Dan Brown on how to create a simple custom line pattern that indicates direction. The line pattern tapers in the direction of travel. This is accomplished by choosing a behaviour that stretches rather than repeats the line pattern. Dan’s detailed directions are at: http://www.greenonions.com/archives/2005/01/14/stupid-visio-tricks-narrowings-lines/ John… Visio MVP

In several online tutorials (non Microsoft), it is usually mentioned that you can only have one background page. This is partially true. A page can only have one background page. This is often interpreted as meaning only foreground pages, but background pages can also have background pages. So it is possible, that a foreground page can have a series of background pages attached to it. Why would you want to do it? The advantage of a background page is that you can place objects in consistent locations on all pages that print. (foreground pages print, background pages do not print.) … Continue reading Only one background page?

Anyone new to Visio may not be aware of why Visio has both Headers/Footers and background pages or know that there is such a thing as a background page. In Visio 1, the developers created the concept of type basic types of pages; foreground and background. The foreground pages were the pages that were actually printed and the background pages contained information that was to appear in a fixed position on the foreground page. So the concept of Headers/Footers common in other product like Word and Excel was implemented by creating a background. Anything that can be placed on a … Continue reading Headers/Footers or Background Pages?

Note: This post is a lot funnier if you try to read it out loud! Visio solution developer’s will be excited to learn that Visio has a Document ShapeSheet. This ShapeSheet looks similar to a page’s ShapeSheet, which in turn is similar to any old shape’s ShapeSheet. While said ShapeSheet has fewer sections than a stock shape’s, it does support the User-defined Cells section. This is a great place to store variables and values that apply to all shapes and pages in the document. There are two ways to access the Document ShapeSheet. Guess which one isn’t documented: Hold the Shift key, then click: Window > Show … Continue reading Document ShapeSheet: Where? What? Why?

The purpose of this blog is to provide the community with information about Visio. We will try to provide both technical information as well as trivia. Visio has been around for thirteen years and gone through almost as many versions. Five years ago it was aquired by Microsoft and is now member of Microsoft’s Office family. For more information on Visio’s history.  http://www.mvps.org/visio/History.htm The Visio MVPs; Al Edlund, Senaj Lelic, John Marshall, David Parker, Chris Roth and Graham Wideman