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09 557246 ch07.qxd 4/2/04 10:05 AM Page 127 CHAPTER Formatting Visio 7 7 Elements ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ F ormatting can make the difference between dreary draw- ings that go unread and attractive documents that make everyone take notice. You can achieve the best formatting results in the shortest amount of time with a two-step process. First, you can quickly obtain professional-looking results by using predefined formatting tools. These tools ensure consis- tency throughout each drawing and reduce the amount of time you spend choosing individual formatting options. For example, you can drag backgrounds and borders onto your drawing page to frame its contents. You can apply color schemes so that shape fills and shadows use consistent and harmonious colors. You can also use predefined styles, similar to the ones you’ve probably used in Microsoft Word, to apply sets of formatting options for lines, text, and fill. When you use these features, you might discover that no additional for- matting is required. However, if you do find a few shapes that need tweaking, such as those with large amounts of text or shapes that you want to emphasize, you can take a second step to apply specific for- matting options to shapes, lines, or text blocks. Applying Formats It’s much easier to apply styles than to specify several for- mats, but the reality is that from time to time you will end up applying specific formatting options to shapes, connectors, and text. Visio provides several methods for applying format- ting to your drawing elements so that you can format just one item or several shapes at once. Whether you decide to use styles or apply formatting options individually, the options you use most frequently are available on the Formatting, Format Text, and Format Shape toolbars, shown in Figure 7-1. In This Chapter Formatting lines Highlighting drawing elements Formatting text Formatting text blocks and paragraphs Creating bulleted and numbered lists Applying fill to shapes Formatting shapes Adding shadows to shapes Protecting shapes Using styles to apply formatting Applying color formatting Using color palettes and color schemes Color-coding shapes based on custom property values ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ 09 557246 ch07.qxd 4/2/04 10:05 AM Page 128 128 Part I ✦ Understanding Visio Fundamentals Formatting toolbar Format Text toolbar Format Shape toolbar Figure 7-1: The Formatting, Format Text, and Format Shape toolbars include common formatting options. Note Most templates include the Backgrounds and Borders and Titles stencils, so you can easily add backgrounds and borders to your drawing. If you start a drawing from scratch, you can open these stencils by choosing File ➪ Shapes ➪ Visio Extras and then clicking the stencil name that you want. When you drag a background shape onto your foreground page, Visio automatically creates a background page for you and assigns the background page to the current foreground page. Applying Formats to Lines You can alter the weight, pattern, color, and end options for lines. The Formatting toolbar includes buttons to change weight, pattern, color, and ends. To select a weight, pattern, color, or end, click the option arrow and choose the format you want. If you don’t see a suitable format, you can choose the More command at the bottom of any formatting list to open the associated format dialog box, such as the Line dialog box, which contains all the line formatting options. To learn how to use styles to specify formatting, see the “Formatting with Styles” section later in this chapter. To format lines, choose one or more of the following format options: ✦ Line Weight — The thickness of the line, no matter what pattern you use ✦ Pattern — Patterns of dotted or otherwise broken lines. Visio includes 23 pat- terns in addition to a solid line, but you can also define your own. Cross- Reference To learn how to define your own patterns, see Chapter 34. Tip When you produce drawings for a wide audience, use patterns instead of line color so that your drawings convey all the information, even when printed on grayscale printers. 09 557246 ch07.qxd 4/2/04 10:05 AM Page 129 Chapter 7 ✦ Formatting Visio Elements 129 Highlighting Elements emphasize a shape on your drawing, you can change the fill color to one brighter than the ones used in the color scheme. — for instance, to show the redundant paths in ➪ be able to remove these highlight lines easily at a later time, you can add them to a sepa- Visio doesn’t provide a highlighting feature like the one in Microsoft Word, but you can use formatting to highlight different elements of your drawings. For example, if you want to You can also highlight lines and connectors a high-availability network. To do this, click the Line tool on the Drawing toolbar. Choose Format Line, select a wide line weight and a bright color, and click OK. Draw lines using the same vertices as the paths you want to highlight. If you can’t see the connectors, right- click the lines you added and choose Send to Back from the shortcut menu. If you want to rate layer and delete the entire layer to remove them. To learn more about layers, see Chapter 25. ✦ Line Ends — Symbols such as arrowheads that you can place at the end points of lines. The Formatting toolbar includes separate options for symbols at each end and both ends of a line. In the Line dialog box, you can specify the symbol and symbol size for each end of the line. Tip If an arrow points the wrong way, you can correct this problem by switching the line end to the other end of the line or by reversing the line. To reverse a line, select the line and then choose Shape ➪ Operations ➪ Reverse Ends. ✦ Color — The color of the line ✦ Cap — Only available in the Line dialog box. This option specifies whether the ends of very thick lines are squared or rounded. Applying Formats to Text Although Visio provides options for formatting every aspect of text on your draw- ings, the options you use most often are conveniently located on the Formatting and Format Text toolbars, shown in Figure 7-1. The Formatting toolbar includes familiar options for specifying font, font size, font style, horizontal alignment, and text color. The Format Text toolbar includes options to specify a text style, font size, formatting such as strikethrough and subscript, vertical alignment, indents, paragraph spacing, and bulleted lists. Visio displays the Formatting toolbar by default when you create a drawing. To display the Format Text toolbar, choose View ➪ Toolbars ➪ Format Text. 09 557246 ch07.qxd 4/2/04 10:05 AM Page 130 130 Part I ✦ Understanding Visio Fundamentals The Text dialog box is the comprehensive source for text formatting options. In addition to the text formatting options available on the toolbars, you can specify options for the language used for checking spelling, transparency of text, character spacing, paragraph spacing, indents, margins around text blocks, tabs, bullet styles, and bullet characters. You might prefer to use this dialog box for other reasons besides the abundance of formatting options. All text formatting options are avail- able within this one dialog box. In addition, the text formatting features are grouped on tabs and, in some cases, include visual clues about the results you obtain by You can use the Text Ruler to set, modify, or remove tab stops and indents. To dis- play the Text Ruler, double-click a shape, right-click the text, and choose Text Ruler from the shortcut menu. To create a tab stop, select the text you want to format and then click the position on the ruler where you want to place the tab. To insert a different type of tab stop, click the Tab icon until the tab stop you want appears. You can also drag tab stops to other positions or remove them by dragging them off the ruler. To adjust indents, drag the top or bottom of the hourglass on the Text Ruler to another position. ➪ Note choosing an option. To open the Text dialog box, choose Format Text. You can format different portions of text based on how you select it: ✦ Select a shape — Apply text formatting to all of a shape’s text by selecting a shape and then choosing text formatting options. ✦ Select text with the Text tool — Apply text formatting to selected text by acti- vating the Text tool, selecting the text you want to format, and choosing text formatting options. Tip You can also copy text formatting by using the Format Painter. Select the shape with the text formatting you want to copy with the Text tool. Select the Format Painter on the Standard toolbar and then click the shape whose text you want to format. Visio copies only the text formatting to the second shape. Formatting Text Blocks and Paragraphs The text blocks in many shapes contain no more than one paragraph, so it’s easy to assume that formatting text blocks and paragraphs means the same thing. In reality, you can specify one set of options that apply to the text block itself and other options for each paragraph within the text block. The formatting options them- selves are familiar, such as indentations, margins, and alignment. For a text block, you can specify the vertical alignment of the text within the text block, the margins between the text and the text block boundaries, and color and transparency of the background in the text block, as illustrated in Figure 7-2. To apply text block formatting, select the shape and then choose the text block for- mats you want. 09 557246 ch07.qxd 4/2/04 10:05 AM Page 131 Chapter 7 ✦ Formatting Visio Elements 131 Text block boundary Text block margins Paragraph formatting Figure 7-2: Formatting options for text blocks and paragraphs are different. Note Most Visio shapes use a transparent background color so you can see what lies behind the text. If other elements behind your text make it unreadable, you can make the text background color opaque so that other shape components don’t show through. To do this, select the shape, choose Format ➪ Text, and select the Text Block tab. Type 0% in the Transparency field. The opaque background only blocks out components when the shape contains text because the background color only fills the area around text. For each paragraph within a text block, you can specify the horizontal alignment of the paragraph, the indentation for the first line of the paragraph, the indentation on each side of the paragraph, the spacing before and after the paragraph, and the spacing between the lines in the paragraph, also shown in Figure 7-2. To format a paragraph, activate the Text tool, select the paragraph you want to format, and apply the paragraph formatting you want. Creating Bulleted and Numbered Lists You can create bulleted lists easily by selecting a shape and then clicking Bullets on the Format Text toolbar. This applies default formatting that adds a bullet before each line that ends with a soft or hard return in the shape text block. If you want to create bullets with only some of the text in the shape, use the Text tool to select the text you want to format before you click the Bullets button. 09 557246 ch07.qxd 4/2/04 10:05 AM Page 132 132 Part I ✦ Understanding Visio Fundamentals Note You can change the font for a bulleted list without affecting the appearance of the bullet when you use Visio’s built-in bullets. However, when you change font size, bullet size adjusts to match. If you want to create a bulleted list using formatting other than the default settings, follow these steps: 1. Select the text block or the portion of the text block that you want to format as a bulleted list. Tip If you want to build a bulleted list as you enter text, select the shape, click Bullets on the Format Text toolbar, and then type text into the shape text block. 2. Choose Format ➪ Text and select the Bullets tab. 3. To choose a different bullet symbol, click a bullet option or type the character that you want to use as a bullet in the Custom box. 4. To adjust the font size and list spacing at the same time, increase or decrease the value in the Font Size list. 5. To change the hanging indent between the bullet and the list text, type the distance you want in the Text position box. 6. To preview the formatting you have chosen, click Apply. If the list is formatted the way you want, click OK. You build numbered lists differently in Visio than you would in other applications, such as Word. In Visio, you have to add numbers, tabs, and indentation manually. If you plan to include a long numbered list in a Visio diagram, it might be easier to use Word to automatically create the numbered list and then create a link from your Visio drawing to the list in the Word document. Cross- To learn how to create a link to a Word document, see Chapter 8. Reference To create a numbered list in Visio, follow these steps: 1. Make sure that text justification is left-justified by clicking Align Left on the Formatting toolbar. 2. Double-click the shape in which you want to create the numbered list. 3. Type the number 1, press Tab, and then type the text for the first entry. 4. Repeat step 3 for each entry in the numbered list (change the number accord- ingly). 5. To modify the alignment of the numbered list, select all the entries and click one of the alignment options on the Formatting toolbar. 6. To align the numbers and text, first display the Text Ruler. To do this, select the text, right-click the text, and choose Text Ruler from the shortcut menu. 09 557246 ch07.qxd 4/2/04 10:05 AM Page 133 Chapter 7 ✦ Formatting Visio Elements 133 Tip To display the Text Ruler when text is not selected, double-click the shape, right- click the selected text, and choose Text Ruler from the shortcut menu. 7. Drag the bottom of the hourglass in the Text Ruler to the position to which you want the text to align. 8. Drag the top of the hourglass in the Text Ruler to the position to which you want the numbers to align. 9. Press Esc or click outside the shape to close the text block. Applying Fill Formats When a shape is closed, you can specify its fill formatting, which is the color and pattern applied to the interior of the shape. You can choose fill colors by clicking the Fill Color button on the Standard toolbar. However, if you want to specify patterns, transparencies, or shadow formatting, select the shape you want to format and then choose Format ➪ Fill. You can specify the following options for fill formatting: Caution ✦ Color — The color for the interior of the closed shape Colors preceded by a number in the color list are index colors and refer to the col- ors defined in the current color palette. If you choose an index color, your fill might change to another index color when you modify the color palette. ✦ Pattern — Visio provides 40 patterns, including cross-hatching, stippling, and gradients. You can also define your own custom patterns. ✦ Pattern Color — The second color used if you select a pattern other than None or Solid. This color is used for cross-hatching lines and patterns. ✦ Transparency — By default, fill is opaque (0%). Drag the transparency slider to the right to increase the transparency of the fill color. Note You can also specify fill in a shape’s ShapeSheet. To do this, select the shape and then choose Window ➪ Show ShapeSheet. Scroll to the Fill Format section and type the values for the fill you want. For more information on specifying color val- ues in a ShapeSheet, see Chapter 33. Formatting Shapes You can apply different formatting options to shapes depending on what they com- prise. For example, you can apply line formats to any shape containing lines whether they are open or closed shapes. When you format closed shapes, such as rectangles and circles, you can also specify the fill formatting for those shapes. If you format text-only shapes created with the Text tool or other shapes containing text, you can format the text in those shapes. 09 557246 ch07.qxd 4/2/04 10:05 AM Page 134 134 Part I ✦ Understanding Visio Fundamentals Applying Formatting to Shapes If you want to modify the formatting on only one shape, it’s easy enough to select that shape and then apply the formatting options you want from those listed in Table 7-1. However, you can easily format several shapes or groups of shapes, and you can copy formatting from one shape to another. You can remove a shape’s bor- der, but you don’t use a formatting tool to accomplish this. To hide a shape’s bor- der, select the shape, click the Line Formatting arrow on the Formatting toolbar, and select No Line in the Line Style list. Tip If you can’t apply formatting options to a shape, the shape could be protected against formatting or it could belong to a group. See the “Protecting Shapes” sec- tion later in this chapter to learn more about shape protection. To format a shape in a group, subselect the shape (click the shape within the group until Visio dis- plays the shape’s alignment box) and then apply the formatting you want. Table 7-1 Applying Formatting to Shapes Formatting Task How to Accomplish It Format a shape Select a shape and then choose the formatting options you want. Format several shapes at once Select all the shapes and then choose the formatting options you want. Format a group of shapes Select the group and then choose the formatting options you want. Copy formatting from one shape to another Select a formatted shape, click the Format Painter button on the Standard toolbar, and click the shape to which you want to copy the formatting. Copy formatting from one shape to several others each shape to which you want to copy the Select a formatted shape, double-click the Format Painter button on the Standard toolbar, and click formatting. To stop copying formatting, click the Format Painter button or press Esc. For instructions on formatting only the text in shapes, refer to the “Applying Formats to Text” section earlier in this chapter. Applying Shadows to Shapes You can add punch to your presentations by applying shadows to your shapes. You can use Visio 3-D shapes to add shapes that already have shadows set up. Shadows are not separate shapes; they are formatting that you can apply to add shadows to any shape you want. 09 557246 ch07.qxd 4/2/04 10:05 AM Page 135 Chapter 7 ✦ Formatting Visio Elements 135 Note You can define a default shadow for a drawing page. To do this, display the page, choose File ➪ Page Setup, and select the Shadows tab. Specify the shadow style, offset dimensions, magnification, and direction for the shadow, and then click OK. To format and apply shadows, follow these steps: 1. Right-click a shape and choose Format ➪ Fill from the shortcut menu or select several shapes and then choose Format ➪ Fill. 2. Choose the shadow style you want in the Style list. Each shadow style includes offset dimensions, magnification, and direction for the shadow. Tip To use the default shadow specified in Page Setup, choose Page Default in the Style list. 3. To change the shadow color from the one assigned by the current color scheme, choose a color in the Color list. 4. To change the shadow pattern, choose the pattern you want in the Pattern list. If you choose a pattern other than None or Solid, choose a color in the Pattern Color list. 5. To specify the transparency of the shadow, drag the Transparency slider to the right. By default, the shadow is opaque. Protecting Shapes You can protect shapes from inadvertent changes. The Formatting menu is an unlikely place for this tool, but you can use it to protect shapes against resizing, moving, rotation, text editing, and formatting. You can also prevent someone from selecting or deleting shapes. To protect shapes, select the shapes you want to pro- tect and choose Format ➪ Protection. The Protection dialog box enables you to protect a shape in the following ways: ✦ Resizing — Check the Width, Height, or Aspect Ratio check boxes to prevent users from changing the width or height of shapes or from modifying the pro- portions of a shape. ✦ Moving — Check the X Position and Y position check boxes to prevent users from moving a shape to a new location. ✦ Rotation — Check this check box to prevent users from rotating a shape. ✦ Moving Endpoints — Check the Begin Point and End Point check boxes to lock the end points of 1D shapes in place. ✦ Editing Text — Check the Text check box to prevent users from editing shape text. ✦ Formatting — Check the Format check box to prevent users from modifying the formatting of a shape. ✦ Selection — Check this check box to prevent users from selecting a shape. ✦ Deletion — Check this check box to prevent users from deleting a shape. [...]... Web site, and Visio and the drawing are launched You can take this concept of linking a step further by inserting Visio drawings as links in other application files, ensuring that any edits update the links A third method is to insert, or embed, separate copies of Visio drawings in other application files, where you can view the drawings and use Visio tools to edit them at will Fine-tuning Visio drawings... graphics files in Visio, and provide tips for adding Visio drawings to PowerPoint presentations to the best effect Embedding objects Inserting graphics in Visio ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ 148 Part II ✦ Integrating Visio Drawings CrossReference You can also exchange information between different applications by saving or opening files as different file formats To learn about importing and exporting with Visio, see Chapter... file system to find the Visio drawing file Select the file and then click OK 1 53 154 Part II ✦ Integrating Visio Drawings Linking Visio Drawings with Microsoft Office Files Insert an OLE link when you want to show part of the contents of the linked file, and when you want to just point to the file, rather than include it in its entirety For example, suppose you want to show a Visio drawing in a Microsoft... into a Visio drawing so you can coordinate the colors when you copy your Visio drawing into an Excel spreadsheet, or vice versa To copy the default color palette or a color palette from another source, follow these steps: 1 To copy a color palette from one Visio file to another, open both files 2 Select the drawing you want to change and choose Tools ➪ Color Palette Chapter 7 ✦ Formatting Visio Elements... change and select a new color 3 Repeat step 2 for each color you want to change Click OK in the Color Settings dialog box and then click OK to close the Options dialog box Chapter 7 ✦ Formatting Visio Elements Note The drawing window and stencil window each have two entries for background colors With adequate screen resolution and your monitor set to display 32 -bit color, Visio will grade the background... 136 Part I ✦ Understanding Visio Fundamentals You can quickly choose or remove protection by clicking the All or None buttons in the Protection dialog box Tip CrossReference Some shapes are protected against changes with the GUARD function To learn how the GUARD function works, see Chapter 33 Formatting with Styles When you use the same sets of... as well You can create hyperlinks in Visio drawings to other applications You can link or embed the contents of other application files and make changes to them without leaving Visio itself One of the most common elements embedded in Visio drawings are graphics such as clip art and digital photographs In this chapter, I show you how to create hyperlinks to and from Visio drawings as well as how to link... Style and check the Preserve Local Formatting check box 137 138 Part I ✦ Understanding Visio Fundamentals To format using styles, select a shape or shapes and choose a style from one of the following style lists: ✦ Text Style — When you choose a style from the Text style list in the Format Text toolbar and the style specifies line and fill attributes, Visio asks whether you want to apply the line and fill... application that supports hyperlinks, to launch Visio and a particular drawing It’s a similar process to creating hyperlinks in Visio To insert a hyperlink from another application to a Visio drawing, follow these steps: 1 In the host, or container, application, click the location you want for the hyperlink 2 Choose Insert ➪ Hyperlinks, or the equivalent command 3 In the Text to Show box, enter a description... darken the tint 4 Repeat step 3 to redefine other colors, and click OK when you have finished modifying the color palette Copying or Restoring a Color Palette You can replace the current color palette when you want to restore the original Visio colors or use the color palette from another source You can copy built-in Visio color palettes or color palettes from other open Visio drawings In addition, you . Text Ruler from the shortcut menu. 09 557246 ch07.qxd 4/2/04 10:05 AM Page 133 Chapter 7 ✦ Formatting Visio Elements 133 Tip To display the Text Ruler when text is not selected, double-click. 10:05 AM Page 132 132 Part I ✦ Understanding Visio Fundamentals Note You can change the font for a bulleted list without affecting the appearance of the bullet when you use Visio s built-in. settings. Figure 7 -3: View the type of formatting a style applies in the Define Styles dialog box. 09 557246 ch07.qxd 4/2/04 10:05 AM Page 137 Chapter 7 ✦ Formatting Visio Elements 137 Templates