johnvisiomvp

Who needs a Technical Editor?

Last month I had a request to review a new book on Visio. It had not been written and they were trying to line up some reviewers. Since it was a new book, I asked who the technical editor would be and was told they did not need one. Once the book was written, theyContinue reading “Who needs a Technical Editor?”

WP7 App number 2 is Live! (well it was)

This week my second app went live on the WP7 marketplace. It was a very quick process. Submitted Friday afternoon, live on Tuesday. The experience seemed different from the first app. The first app was done as a demonstration on how easy a WP7 app is to create. Last fall at a Microsoft conference, beforeContinue reading “WP7 App number 2 is Live! (well it was)”

User Groups and the PH factor

The local Microsoft office, Microsoft Evangelists and the local MVPs do an excellent job supporting the local user groups and encouraging members to step up and present. They also encourage locals to attend the user groups and support these novice speakers. Of course, in some cases, it is hard to tell a difference between theContinue reading “User Groups and the PH factor”

WP7 Device Limbo

I have finished another app and I am currently working getting the material for app submission. Unfortunately, I have been in device limbo and have been unable to send anything to my phone to test for the past week. Initially I thought it was the demo gods acting up because I wanted to do someContinue reading “WP7 Device Limbo”

WP7 Shake, Rattle and Roll

One of the nice features of the new WP7 emulator is the ability to emulate motion on the emulated device. Unfortunately, there is only one prerecorded action and no documentation on how to add your own. Thanks to one intrepid explorer, Den Delimarsky, he created an app to capture the motion http://dotnet.dzone.com/articles/custom-accelerometer-motions. In that article, heContinue reading “WP7 Shake, Rattle and Roll”

Visio – Revision Dates per Page

One of the posters in the newsgroup was asking about providing a revision date on each page of a Visio document and this is what I came up with. The only dates that are associated with a Visio drawing are done at the document level, so another approach is necessary. To create a date stampContinue reading “Visio – Revision Dates per Page”

Visio – Non Standard Timelines

One of the long time requests for the Visio Timeline is to support something other than standard dates and times. Items that are not related to the standard concept of time. This can be accomplished by NOT using date formats in the shapes. Each shape is grouped and has a top level shape that containsContinue reading “Visio – Non Standard Timelines”

Visio – How do I Change Skin Colour?

I have a few Google alerts set up to let me know if the word Visio is mentioned on the internet. I am always interested in new stencils for Visio and this has proven an effective way of finding them. Most of the time, the hit has nothing to do with the product Visio orContinue reading “Visio – How do I Change Skin Colour?”

Visio – a Percentage Ruler

When I try to create Visio shapes from a sample image, I import the image into Visio and stretch it so it matches the scale of the drawing. I can then use the dimension shapes to “measure” the image. Recently I came across a collection of shapes that had similar profiles, but the proportions varied. IContinue reading “Visio – a Percentage Ruler”

Visio’s Custom Line Ends

One interesting feature of Visio that is not well documented is that you can create your own custom fill patterns, line patterns and line ends. For now, I will review the procedure for creating a semicircular line end. Something like: (—–) Open Drawing Explorer Select New Pattern from Line Ends. Set the name. Set theContinue reading “Visio’s Custom Line Ends”