Visio has a few gaps in how they place shapes. You can align shapes on their edge or vertical/horizontal center line, but you can not stack shapes. You can use a guideline to “stack” two shapes, but anything more gets very complex. You can distribute shapes based on the first and last shape in aContinue reading “Enhanced Visio Shape Placement”
Tag Archives: Visio
Visio Background Check
Another interesting question from the Visio section of Answers. The user wanted to find the background colour of a page. He was using the Backgrounds tab on the Design ribbon. This creates a background page with a name like VBackground-1. So, what he was looking for was the colour of the first shape on theContinue reading “Visio Background Check”
The Origins of Visio
I like ending the week with an easy Visio question. It always feels good when you can help someone with one of your favourite products, which is a great way to start a weekend. A user posted in the Visio group of Answers (in the “Microsoft 365 and Office” section) about a problem with theContinue reading “The Origins of Visio”
Stacking Shapes
One thing that is missing in Visio, is the ability to stack shapes. You can align shapes on the top, bottom, left or right edges, but you can not stack. To stack two shapes, you have to drag a guideline from the top ruler and then place the bottom edge of one shape on theContinue reading “Stacking Shapes”
Visio Weather Line Patterns
I am always on the look out for new line patterns to create in Visio. So, here is a set of four weather fronts. For fun, I threw in my heartbeat line pattern. The heart beat line pattern was something I created for a Visio oscillscope shape. I did have line patterns for sine andContinue reading “Visio Weather Line Patterns”
Just cut the RED wire
I have been working on a twisted pair Line Pattern for wires in Visio and I ran into a problem. I wanted to highlight the wires by adding an ouline to it but as it stretched the Fill patterns, there appeared vertical lines every time the pattern repeated. (The horizontal lines in the below imageContinue reading “Just cut the RED wire”
Mea Culpa Graham Wideman
For several decades I have been incorrectly quoting Graham on what I thought was a neat technique with Visio line patterns. It is, but I messed up. When you create Visio Line Patterns, the areas that are black will use the shapes line colour, so if you really want black, you have to use “almostContinue reading “Mea Culpa Graham Wideman”
My Friends think I am Twisted
Recently, fellow Visio MVP Scott Helmers asked me if I had a line pattern that represented twisted pair wires. I mentioned that there was one in the collection of line patterns John GoldSmith talked about in 2008. Unfortunately, the example was a loose pair, so I decided to create my own. If you look atContinue reading “My Friends think I am Twisted”
Time to do the laundry
I am always on the look out for new candidates for Visio. More than a decade ago, I came across a series of symbols for laundry. What intrigued me was the washing shape. It had a series of dots to indicate maximum temperature going from one to six dots. Rather than two rows of three,Continue reading “Time to do the laundry”
What is in a Name?
The standard name for a Visio shape is Sheet.nnnn and most people change it to a more logical name. You can do this with the sub shapes that make up a grouped shape. So, what happens if you decide to revert back to the original Sheet.nnn style? Select the subshape from the Drawing Explorer (OpenContinue reading “What is in a Name?”
john Visio MVP 