johnvisiomvp

Call me Sheldon – Fun with Flags

I am always looking for new Visio shapes and I found a collection of Flags in SVG format. They are not complete and some of them lack the actual embellishments on the flags, but it is a start. Though not quite a one stop shop as this page is, I did find some more detailedContinue reading “Call me Sheldon – Fun with Flags”

Colour My World Part II

Visio does not handle rows well and lists easily in the shapesheet, you can not do basic things like sorting the rows. So I use my favourite list handling app, Excel. When I need to manage large amounts of shape data, I manage it in Excel and then use VBA to remove the old shapeContinue reading “Colour My World Part II”

Updated Pool Table

It looks like the original pool table shape had a problem with internationalization. I have updated the shape and the issue has been eliminated. In the original designed I used lists to control the colour of the cloth. One list was used to present colour options to the user by displaying names of colours. TheContinue reading “Updated Pool Table”

Security Badge update

I have taken another look at the Security Badge Visio shape I uploaded to the Technet Gallery and though it was passable, I could have done better. The shoulder and the head in the picture were two separate shapes so they were joined. As Visio Guy is always stressing the fewer shapes or groups, theContinue reading “Security Badge update”

Pool anyone? … or how to create a smart Visio Shape

One of the things I like about Visio are smart shapes. The trouble is that most of what is offered as Visio shapes is no more than clipart encapsulated in a Visio shape. For most purposes, that is fine, So time for some real Visio shapes. A pool table is a good candidate for aContinue reading “Pool anyone? … or how to create a smart Visio Shape”

Colour My World

When I was working on the Windows 7&8 phone apps I created a Visio template to help design phone apps. As usually, it was a Visio stencil that was a bit more than dragging and dropping clipart. One of the WP7 and WP8 features it replicated was accent colours that were set on the phoneContinue reading “Colour My World”

Stand up and be counted.

Last Year I joined a number of the Canadian MVPs for a day of NDA, skill improvement and general interactions. For most of the sessions, the key word was caNaDA, so the only thing I can say about those sessions is the Microsoft has some interesting announcements coming up in the near future. Of course,Continue reading “Stand up and be counted.”

Who Messed up my bed?

One of the things I love about Visio is smart shapes. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Visio shapes that are not smart. Including a number of shape collections from Microsoft that are just basic shapes. This is not the Visio team’s fault because Microsoft is a large company and not everyone really understands whatContinue reading “Who Messed up my bed?”

Visio 2016 Electrical Engineering Shapes

While researching a new PowerPoint deck on Visio 2016, I came across a supposed update to the Electrical Engineering stencil. Unfortunately, the way I learned how to draw EE shapes, long before Visio existed when I was getting my EE degree, was what was in Visio 2013. The bold lines in 2016 are distracting andContinue reading “Visio 2016 Electrical Engineering Shapes”

Friendly Visio Stencil

I am working with a stencil that contains almost 400 shapes and it is far from friendly. Normally a new stencil will show the icon for the shape and its’ name. With this project, the name is far from helpful. Undecypherable is more appropriate. If you right click the band at the top of theContinue reading “Friendly Visio Stencil”