Datasheet

New Homes for Features in Visio 2007

Microsoft loves to move things around. Here’s how to find some of your old but relocated favorites:

The Color Schemes add-on appears only when you right-click the page in an old drawing

created in an earlier version of Visio, because Color Schemes have been replaced by

Themes.

Custom Properties Sets, now called Shape Data Sets, are available only when you right-

click the Shape Data window.

The Shared Workspace task pane has been renamed to Document Management.

Export to Database is available only by choosing Tools ➪ Add-ons ➪ Visio Extras.

Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Flip Vertical, and Flip Horizontal are available only on the main

Shape menu.

Format ➪ Special appears only if you run Visio in developer mode.

The option to save the drawing workspace with a Visio document is available by choosing

File

➪ Properties.

What Visio Is and Isn’t

Visio can be many things to many people. Applied properly, Visio can help you produce simple

diagrams as well as complex models. However, Visio’s far-reaching capabilities can be confusing if

you don’t understand how they differ. Even worse, Visio can be downright diabolical if you try to

use it for tasks too far afield from what it’s designed for.

Many drawings are simple diagrams with some basic connections and little or no associated data.

For these drawings, dragging and dropping shapes and gluing connectors are about all you need to

know. If you use the new AutoConnect feature, you don’t even have to align shapes after you con-

nect them. The remaining chapters in Part I, Understanding Visio Fundamentals, describe the basic

tools you need to diagram with Visio.

However, Visio Professional can also produce intelligent models and specialized documentation for

numerous fields, including software engineering, architecture, mechanical and electrical engineer-

ing, and business process modeling. Templates for these purposes often contain specialized tools.

However, the real stars are usually the shapes in the stencils for these templates, which have smart

features — built-in behaviors and attributes that fit the shapes to their roles. For example, intersect-

ing walls in building plans are smart enough to clean up their overlapping lines. Cubicle shapes

might contain shape data for identifying the people who occupy the space for occupancy reports.

These features are time-savers when you know how to use them but can make Visio seem to have a

mind of its own when you don’t. Parts III, IV, and V of this book teach you the ins and outs of