Visio® 2007 For Dummies®
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Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2006934833
ISBN-13: 978-0-470-08983-5
ISBN-10: 0-470-08983-0
Manufactured in the United States of America
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1B/SY/RR/QW/IN
John Mueller is a freelance author and technical editor. He has writing in his blood, having produced 70 books and over 300 articles to date. The topics range from networking to artificial intelligence and from database management to heads-down programming. Some of his current books include a Windows power optimization book, a book on .NET security, and books on Amazon Web Services, Google Web Services, and eBay Web Services. His technical editing skills have helped more than 51 authors refine the content of their manuscripts. John has provided technical editing services to both Data Based Advisor and Coast Compute magazines. He’s also contributed articles to magazines like DevSource, InformIT, Informant, DevX, SQL Server Professional, Visual C++ Developer, Hard Core Visual Basic, asp.netPRO, Software Test and Performance, and Visual Basic Developer.
When John isn’t working at the computer, you can find him in his workshop. He’s an avid woodworker and candle maker. On any given afternoon, you can find him working at a lathe or putting the finishing touches on a bookcase. He also likes making glycerin soap and candles, which comes in handy for gift baskets. You can reach John on the Internet at JMueller@mwt.net. John is also setting up a Web site at http://www.mwt.net/~jmueller/; feel free to look and make suggestions on how he can improve it. Check out his weekly blog at http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/id/AQOA2QP4X1YWP.
Debbie Walkowski has worked in the computer industry for more than 20 years in a variety of positions from sales and marketing to teaching and training. For the last 14 years, she has made writing her primary focus. Her company, the Writing Works, specializes in writing computer self-help books and providing writing services to companies such as Microsoft Corporation, Hewlett-Packard (formerly Digital Equipment Corporation), and AT&T Wireless Communications. She has authored 18 books on popular computer software, including Microsoft Office, Microsoft Works, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Windows, Visio, Quicken, WordPerfect, and Lotus 1-2-3.
This book is dedicated to those purveyors of the medicinal latte, Muhammad and Marilyn Kharbush.
From John Mueller: Thanks to my wife, Rebecca, for working with me to get this book completed. I really don’t know what I would have done without her help in researching and compiling some of the information that appears in this book. She also did a fine job of proofreading my rough draft and page-proofing the result. She also had to do without my help in the garden this summer, which made things mighty tough on her.
Russ Mullen deserves thanks for his technical edit of this book. He greatly added to the accuracy and depth of the material you see here. Russ is always providing me with great URLs for new products and ideas. I really appreciated Russ’ input on several of the new Visio 2007 features. They were helpful in rounding out the information you find in this book.
Matt Wagner, my agent, deserves credit for helping me get the contract in the first place and taking care of all the details that most authors don’t really consider. I always appreciate his assistance. It’s good to know that someone wants to help.
A number of people read all or part of this book to help me refine the approach, test the examples, and generally provide input that every reader wishes they could have. These unpaid volunteers helped in ways too numerous to mention here. I especially appreciate the efforts of Eva Beattie who read the entire book and selflessly devoted herself to this project. Members of various newsgroups and the support staff from Microsoft were instrumental in helping me overcome obstacles. A number of other people helped me in ways too numerous to mention.
Finally, I would like to thank Kyle Looper, Nicole Sholly, John Edwards, Jennifer Theriot, and the rest of the editorial and production staff for their assistance in bringing this book to print. It’s always nice to work with such a great group of professionals.
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development
Project Editor: Nicole Sholly
Acquisitions Editor: Kyle Looper
Copy Editor: John Edwards
Technical Editor: Russ Mullen
Editorial Manager: Kevin Kirschner
Media Development Specialists: Angela Denny, Kate Jenkins, Steven Kudirka, Kit Malone
Media Development Coordinator: Laura Atkinson
Media Project Supervisor: Laura Moss
Media Development Manager: Laura VanWinkle
Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Composition Services
Project Coordinator: Erin Smith
Layout and Graphics: Lavonne Cook, Stephanie D. Jumper, Clint Lahnen, Barbara Moore, Barry Offringa, Lynsey Osborn, Heather Ryan, Julie Trippetti
Proofreaders: Kevin Broccoli, Jessica Kramer, Christy Pingleton
Indexer: Techbooks
Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director
Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director
Publishing for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher
Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director
Composition Services
Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
Title
Introduction
About This Book
Conventions Used in This Book
What You’re Not to Read
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I : Starting with Visio 2007 Basics
Chapter 1: Visio 101
Getting the Scoop on Visio
Familiarizing Yourself with Visio Lingo
Understanding the Vista Difference
Jumping Head First into Visio
Getting Help When You Need It
Closing Visio
Chapter 2: Creating and Saving a Simple Visio Drawing
Creating a Drawing the Standard Way
Understanding the Visio Drawing Categories
Working with Stencils
Selecting a Pointer Tool Button
Working with Shapes
Navigating through a Drawing
Zeroing In on a Drawing
Saving Drawings
Using a Visio Wizard to Create a Drawing
Opening Drawings
Chapter 3: Printing Visio Drawings
Understanding How Visio Prints
Preparing to Print
Printing Your Drawing
Adding Headers and Footers to a Drawing
Printing Gridlines
Printing Part of a Drawing
Reducing and Enlarging Printed Drawings
Setting Shapes Not to Print
Printing Reviewers’ Comments
Printing a Background Separately
Printing Layers Separately
Part II : Creating Visio Drawings
Chapter 4: Discovering What Visio Shapes Are All About
Discovering What’s in a Shape
Working with Shapes
Controlling Shapes
Finding the Shapes You Want
Jazzing Up Your Drawings
Chapter 5: Adding Text to Your Drawings
Understanding Text Blocks
Adding Text to a Drawing
Working with Text and Text Blocks
Changing the Way Your Text Looks
Chapter 6: Connecting Shapes
Discovering Connectors
Working with Connection Points
Applying Glue (without the Mess)
Gluing Connectors to Shapes
Managing Connectors
Laying Out Shapes Automatically
Part III : Taking Your Drawings to the Next Level
Chapter 7: Perfecting Your Drawings
All about Measurements and Placement Tools
Using the Drawing Grid
Using Dynamic Grid
Setting Drawing Scale
Snapping Shapes into Place
Measuring Up with Rulers
Using Guide Lines and Guide Points
Aligning and Distributing Shapes
Chapter 8: Creating and Customizing Shapes
Creating Unique Shapes the Fun Way
Drawing Your Own Shapes
Manipulating Shapes
Adding Style to Your Shapes
Managing Shapes by Grouping
Chapter 9: Working with Pages
The Role of the Template
Reorienting a Page
Setting a Page Size
Adding and Deleting Pages in a Drawing
Working with Multiple Pages
Renaming Pages
Viewing on the Big Screen
What’s in a Background?
Rotating Pages
Chapter 10: Layering Your Drawings
Getting the Essential Facts on Layers and Layering
Working with Layers
Assigning Shapes to Layers
Using Layers on Background Pages
Protecting Layers from Changes
Assigning a Color to a Layer
Selecting Layers to Print
Snap and Glue Options for Layers
Part IV : Advancing Your Knowledge of Visio
Chapter 11: Creating Stencils, Master Shapes, and Templates
Working with Stencils
Creating a Custom Template
Chapter 12: Managing Shape Information, Behavior, and Protection
Storing Data in Visio Shapes
Reporting on Data Stored in Visio Shapes
Customizing Shape Behavior
Protecting Your Work
Chapter 13: Marking Up Drawings for Review
Discovering Markup Tools
Adding Comments to a Drawing
How Markup Tracking Works
Working with Markup
Using Digital Ink
Chapter 14: Using Visio with Other Programs
Using Files from Other Programs in Visio
Generating Drawings from Data Stored in Non-Visio Files
Incorporating Visio Shapes and Drawings in Non-Visio Documents
Using Visio Viewer to Share Visio Drawings
Saving Visio Drawings for the Web
Publishing Your Drawing in XPS Format
Creating Data Links to SQL Server and Spreadsheets
Part V : The Part of Tens
Chapter 15: Ten Common Tasks in Visio
Rotating Shapes to a Specific Angle
Centering a Drawing before Printing
Resizing a Page to Fit the Content of a Drawing
Creating a Drawing That Spans Several Pages
Saving a Company Logo as a Stencil Shape
Creating and Adding a Background Design to a Drawing
Adjusting the Transparency of Shapes and Text in a Drawing
Adding the Same Shape or Image to All Pages in a Drawing
Unlocking a Shape
Copying Formatting from One Shape to Another
Chapter 16: Ten Web Sites Devoted to Visio
VisioCafe
Microsoft Visio
Design-Drawing
Visio The Blog
Cisco Systems
Dell
Microsoft Visio Home Page
Nick Finck
ConceptDraw
ABC Amber Conversion and Merging Software
Visio is one of the most flexible and easy-to-use drawing products around. Yet, its ease of use doesn’t mean that this product lacks functionality. You can draw anything of just about any complexity you want. The whole focus of Visio is getting your ideas down on electronic paper as quickly as possible. Using this program means that you can think about your ideas, rather than how to perform the next task. Visio 2007 For Dummies introduces you to this very exciting drawing program and demonstrates the ever-growing number of features it provides.
Of course, you don’t have to use all of these features. Visio 2007 For Dummies is structured like Visio — you can use as little or as much of the book as you want to achieve your level of comfort with Visio. If your only goal is to sketch out a few ideas using something better than a napkin, the first two parts of the book are all you need.
One of the most exciting things about Visio 2007 is that you gain access to a number of new productivity features. Instead of wasting time formatting shapes one at a time, you can use themes to format an entire drawing with one click. If that sounds interesting, you’ll find the whole scoop in this book. Likewise, if you’re tired of having to update the data in a drawing manually every time you open one, check out the new Data Link feature. This feature makes it possible to track changes to a system quickly and easily. Analysts will love the new PivotDiagram feature. You can drill down as far as necessary to see the interactions in your data when using Visio. These are just a few of the new features you’ll find in this book.
This book is for anyone who has an idea that he or she wants to put down on paper. It doesn’t matter who you are; somewhere, someone has a template you can use to start drawing quickly and has a set of stencils with shapes for your particular trade. The number of templates and stencils that Visio provides is nothing short of amazing (read about them in Chapter 2). However, these templates and stencils are just the tip of the iceberg. Visio is all about you. Instead of forcing you to jump through hoops, Visio helps you get that idea down on paper. This book is your guide to all of the cool features that Visio provides. If you want to get started creating drawings for your ideas quickly, this is the book to get.
With this in mind, Visio 2007 For Dummies is designed to make you productive as quickly as possible. You find basic, useful information that helps you accomplish your goals. You find real-world examples and figures that show you how to do something rather than just tell you. You find concise step-by-step instructions for accomplishing specific tasks rather than a lot of rambling text that fills space and means nothing to you.
This book doesn’t provide everything to everyone. For example, even though Visio supports Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) so you can write programs to make it do even more, this book doesn’t discuss VBA. Visio 2007 For Dummies focuses on user tasks; it makes you more productive, fast.
Here’s a summary of the conventions used in this book:
When directions indicate that you type something, for example, “Enter 13 in the size box,” the characters you type appear in bold.
When you are to click something, that means to click your left mouse button. Right-clicking is — you guessed it — clicking the right mouse button. (These terms assume that you are using the mouse with your right hand.)
When you drag something, you click and hold the left mouse button as you move the mouse. Release the mouse button when you’re finished dragging.
The term shortcut menu refers to the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click something on the screen. (Shortcut menus are not available for all elements in a drawing.)
You can select commands using toolbar buttons, menu commands, or the Alt key. Because toolbar buttons are by far the fastest method, these buttons are always listed along with the menu command. (When toolbar buttons aren’t available, only the menu command is shown.) A menu command is specified by writing, for example, Choose File
⇒Save, which means click the File menu to open it and then choose the Save option.
If you’re new to Visio and just want to know enough to create simple drawings or diagrams, you can safely skip Part IV. That section takes you deeper into customizing Visio and using some of its advanced features. Clearly, not every reader will become devoted to discovering advanced features. Browse through Part III for any features that you might find useful and have the time to work through. Also, glance through Part V, which contains many interesting tips, tricks, and trivia that you might find very useful.
On the other hand, if you’ve used Visio before, you can safely skip Parts I and II, which offer basic getting-up-and-running information.
You probably have a reasonable working knowledge of Microsoft Windows and have at least some idea of what you want to draw. For this reason, Chapter 1 doesn’t spend any of your valuable time describing how to find your way around Windows or how to work with dialog boxes. If you need to review these concepts, see Windows Vista For Dummies, by Andy Rathbone (published by Wiley).
Although Chapter 2 does provide a basic overview of all of the templates available in Visio, this book doesn’t tell you when you need to use the Unified Modeling Language (UML) Model Diagram template. If you don’t already know what the UML Model Diagram does, you can safely skip that description. None of the examples in the book focus on a particular kind of diagram except when you need a specific diagram type to accomplish a particular task in the more advanced sections. In short, all of the procedures and techniques work for all diagram types unless the book specifically mentions that you must use a particular diagram type.
Visio 2007 For Dummies is organized into five distinct parts. Use the parts to guide you to where you want to go on your Visio journey. You don’t need to read the chapters in order. The book is designed so that you can skip around to suit your needs.
Part I lays the groundwork for your success with Visio. Every software program has its unique personality; Visio is no exception. Here you find conceptual information about Visio, get the Visio terminology down, discover how to recognize and work with what’s on the screen, start Visio, save and open files, and print drawings.
Part II is for those in a hurry because it teaches you the basics of creating a simple drawing. You find out about the basic elements of a Visio drawing and discover how to implement those elements in your drawing. You’ll also discover how to add and manipulate text, as well as how to work with margins and tabs, indentation, alignment, spacing, and more. You see how to use and manipulate a drawing’s connectors, the lines that connect one shape to another. (They’re more than just simple lines, as you’ll soon discover.)
In Part III, you move into the intermediate features of Visio. You find out how to place shapes precisely on a drawing, create your own shapes, enhance and manipulate shapes, perform complex tasks with connectors, and work with pages and layers.
Certainly not every user needs to pursue Part IV! Here you find out how to create custom templates and themes, how to store data in shapes and report on that data, and how to protect your shapes and drawings from inadvertent changes. You also see how to use Visio drawings with other programs and how to save files for publishing on the Web. Most importantly, this is the part that helps you discover the new Data Link and PivotDiagram functionality that Visio provides.
One of the most useful sections of every For Dummies book, “The Part of Tens” is a collection of a variety of information. In Visio 2007 For Dummies, you find ten “how to” pointers for useful tasks and ten pointers to online resources for Visio.
This book contains a wealth of drawing examples, a few themes, some stencils, and other helpful Visio drawing information. Trying to replicate what you see in the book precisely could be time consuming and wholly unnecessary since the work is already done. Consequently, you’ll find all of the art in this book on the Dummies Web site at www.dummies.com/go/visiofd2007. All you need to do is download it, locate the chapter you’re working with, and open the drawing you want to use. The drawings all have names that make their purpose quite clear. Using the Web site content will help you discover Visio with greater ease without having to worry about becoming an artist to do it.
The following icons are used in this text to call attention to specific types of information.
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If you’ve never used Visio before, definitely start with Part I! Work your way through Part II as well, but don’t feel that you must go beyond this point. If you’ve used Visio before, you might get crazy and start with Part V, skim Parts I and II, and go directly to Parts III and IV to look for any features you might not be familiar with. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced Visio user, be sure to look through Part V for answers, tips, and pointers to Visio-related Web sites.
In this part . . .
V isio is an amazing program! If you can imagine it, you can probably sketch it using Visio. Many people use Visio as their only drawing application because it does provide great output, but many others use it for sketching their ideas and sharing them with others. In some respects, Visio is a tool for showing your dreams to others.
Other drawing applications help you create graphics. Visio, however, is a different animal. It’s not really a drawing program, and it’s certainly not a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) program. In this part, you understand what Visio is and what it does, you discover how to “speak” and “think” Visio, you negotiate your way around the screen, and you find out how to get help when you need it. You also print a drawing, something you’ll no doubt find useful if you want to be productive!
This part of the book also provides a complete listing of the templates that Visio provides so that you better understand what comes in the package. Of course, you can always add to these basic templates. Look at the Visio offerings as a place to start.