I did not have a good spring healthwise. The worst part was not having access to a Visio machine. Thanks to the prompting from a friend, I have made it to my Visio machine to write about Visio. One thing I seem to have overlooked in my quest for being able to create Visio section shapes was a description of the container shape that makes the Section shapes useable.
The impetus for this blog is Visio Master David Parker’s blog https://bvisual.net/2022/07/06/a-visio-list-shape-is-also-a-container/
I thought i had actually blogged about my container shape, but the closest I found was https://johnvisiomvp.ca/2020/08/28/shapesheet-shapes/ but I did nor delve into the container shape.
(I did mention List containers in https://johnvisiomvp.ca/2021/02/03/stacking-shapes/#:~:text=Luckily%2C%20Visio%20has%20a%20workaround%2C%20use%20a%20List,aligned%20on%20the%20center%20set%20msvSDListAlignment%20to%201.)
For the old time Visio users the containers background colour should be familiar. It was the green fill colour of the old stencils.
Other than a Geometry section, the shape only has two sections. One for the User cells, the other an Action section so the user can easily play with the User cells.
There is a good description of containers here https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/custom-containers-lists-and-callouts-in-visio-2010/ba-p/237586
The first User cell is msvStructueType which is set to “List”.
User.msvSDContainerMargin controls the distance between the container and member shapes. The Action command allows the user to set it to none (0), close (0.1) or gap (0.5)
User.msvSDListAlignment Determines how member shapes are aligned in list (0 = Left; 1 = Center; 2 = Right for vertical lists. 0 = Top; 1 = Middle; 2 = Bottom for horizontal lists.)
User.msvSDListDirection Direction that list arranges member shapes (0 = Left to Right; 1 = Right to Left; 2 = Top to Bottom; 3 = Bottom to Top)
User.msvSDListSpacing Distance between list members
Thank you David for giving me a reason to get back to my Visio machine.
John… Visio MVP in x-aisle
JohnVisioMVP.ca
john Visio MVP 