Mobile and Wireless Computing World

When you have a Visio 2010 drawing open, you now have a number of choices for saving and sharing it. To determine these options, click the File tab and navigate to the Save and Send button within the left hand task pane. The first option at the top of your window is Send Using E-mail, and this is selected automatically. In the third column a number of icons are displayed underneath the heading Send Using E-mail.

Send Using E-mail

The very first of these icons, Send as Attachment will open the default e-mail client on the computer — normally this will be Outlook on the Windows machine — with a brand new message window already open and also the Visio file already inserted as an attachment. The advantage in using this method is you can be working in your copy while your colleagues will work on the second copy; the disadvantage is that any changes you are making must be incorporated manually.

If you are focusing on a network drive, or have access to a web server you can use the 2nd button to transmit a hyperlink. As the name implies, this does not embed or attach the Visio diagram towards the e-mail but rather adds a link to it. This keeps the file size small , enables real-time updates across a network. The third and fourth buttons in this category are new to Visio 2010; each allows the file to become saved in a different format and attached to an e-mail in the same manner as a regular attachment. The very first option is in order to save as a PDF file and also the second would be to save being an XPS file — every time, the drawing is trapped in the brand new file format and mounted on a new message in the default e-mail client.

SharePoint and Visio Services

The second icon under Save and Send describes SharePoint. If your organisation includes a SharePoint server you’ll be able to collaborate online by saving enter to the SharePoint site. Two formats can be found when you do this; you should use the conventional Visio drawing format or else you can save enter inside a data-refreshable format utilized by Visio Services on SharePoint.

Saving in Other Formats

Beneath the Save and Send icons is really a File Types section where you can save your Visio drawing in many different formats. The first button, Change File Type, opens a sizable choice of different file types including legacy versions of Visio, template files, and Web Drawing all in the Drawing File Types section. The 2nd group allows your Visio drawing to be saved in a graphical format in one of 4 options; either a PNG or a JPEG, an enhanced metafile (EMF) or an XML-based scalable vector will graphic (SVG).

Another group from the Save Drawing column allows the Visio drawing to become saved in other formats, including XML, HTML and as an AutoCAD drawing. Selecting one of these buttons and clicking the Save As button opens the Save As dialogue box with the kind of file selected already chosen in the Save as Type window.

The ultimate selection under File Types allows a Visio drawing to become saved either as a PDF or perhaps an XPS file. If either of these alternatives is chosen the file is going to be saved in the right format, but unlike the same possibilities in the Save and Send group they will not be attached to an e-mail.

Visio 2010 introduces some new visual aids to assistance with the making of diagrams. The new Mini Toolbar comprises two different tools; the written text Toolbar, and also the Shape Toolbar.

The Visio 2010 text Toolbar looks like a pop-up each time a bit of text is selected for editing. This feature continues to be readily available for a while in other Office 2007 software, but it’s the first time that Visio 2010 has benefited from it. The Mini Toolbar includes a quantity of formatting tools that are offered in the Home tab of the Ribbon, but as they are contextual and just appear once the text is selected they can be an extremely useful formatting feature, particularly on the large or complicated diagram.

Editing using the MiniToolbar in Visio 2010
The font face and point size are both editable from the Mini Toolbar, either simply by entering a value into the window or using the decrease menu. Buttons for growing and shrinking font sizes can also be found, as are the common formatting tools to make text bold or italic. Admittedly, forms of available as keyboard shortcuts, but for quite a few users they’ll represent a significant time-saving.

The Toolbar also includes alignment buttons for text alignment, although the justification command is missing, and also the colour of the font may also be altered again from a drop down button that opens a gallery of colour options. The same applies to the fill colour and the line colour – both of these can be changed quickly by selecting colour in the palette, and there will options for choosing more colours, developing a custom colour, and in the situation of film and line colours, for a number of fill options.

Alignment Options in Visio 2010
Other extremely useful shortcut buttons that show up on the Mini-Toolbar permit the stacking order to become altered with the Bring Forward and the Send Backwards commands. Probably the best of all the mini Toolbar shortcuts in my opinion may be the Format Painter button, although once more this could always be accessed by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+P. I’ve found this Format Painter button very helpful for diagrams for example organisation charts in which a specific format continues to be applied to a certain degree of shapes; where new shapes are added or rearranged within the organisation chart formatting the new shape to match existing shapes can be very quick applying this button.

Occasionally the Toolbar does not pop up readily; if this sounds like the situation, all you need to do would be to click away from the text to deselect it, then select it again either by dragging the mouse regarding this all by multiple clicking. Sometimes a button cursor has to be pushed upwards slightly before the mini Toolbar appears, also it can be made to disappear by simply clicking a button from the shape to deselect the text.

Disabling the Mini Toolbar in Visio 2010
Why many people a new comer to Visio 2010 will find this a useful feature when formatting diagrams, there are a number who will regard it as an intrusive nuisance. Fortunately, Microsoft have made it super easy to disable this feature; go to the brand new File tab to spread out Backstage View, after which click on the options link to open the dialogue box. The initial option that appears underneath the default General tab allows the Visio 2010 Mini Toolbar to become turned off.

Among the new features in Visio 2010 may be the inclusion of two Mini Toolbars that pop up based on where the mouse is located. One of these simple toolbars is provided exclusively for editing text; whenever a shape is selected and text entered, the toolbar appears to make editing the font face, size, colour and alignment very quick and easy. Another toolbar affects the form selection that is offered when one of the blue AutoConnect arrows attached to a shape is hovered over.

The Shape mini toolbar is contextual, and so the shapes presented change according to the kind of diagram that is being used. For instance, suppose a basic diagram from the General category has been drawn; when the AutoConnect arrow is selected the options have to do with the fundamental Shapes stencil and comprise Rectangle, Square, Ellipse and Circle.

However, if a flowchart is being drawn the shapes presented are Process, Decision, Sub-process and Start/End (previously referred to as a Terminator shape) all of which range from Basic Flowchart shapes stencil. Exactly the same applies to another drawing categories; Engineering, Maps, Network diagrams and so forth all have a choice of shapes on the mini toolbar taken from the “top 4″ from the main stencil every time.

In order to use this new feature the AutoConnect arrows must first be visible, which by default they are not. To turn these arrows on making them appear you have to first choose the option from the Powerpoints category of the View tab by placing tick within the checkbox. Once this is done, the arrows will appear as soon as the mouse pointer is over the shape – it does not have to be selected first – and also the mini toolbar will itself appear as the pointer is moved over one of the arrows.

The brand new Live Preview feature allows the effect to be seen in real time simply by hovering within the shape; as the mouse pointer is moved over the mini toolbar the shapes can look in preview mode. Clicking one at this time will insert the shape, automatically connect it to its predecessor and align it in one action – truly an amazing time saver.

The previous functionality of the AutoConnect arrows still works in Visio 2010. If, for example, another shape is selected from the stencil in use – in the case of the flowchart example, this could be a document shape – once the AutoConnect arrow is hovered over that shape will appear as well as the four new shapes about the mini toolbar. Live Preview allows the effect to become previewed as before, and a click will insert the shape and align it as being before.

These new features of Microsoft Visio 2010 really can streamline the entire process of diagramming making the making of a drawing extremely easy. Very little training is needed to get up to speed with these mini toolbars because they are quite intuitive; luckily for many people, they’re also easy to disable otherwise required.

Visio training improves efficiency and workflow

Microsoft Visio is one of the least-used elements of Microsoft Office, but this is a shame as it is a very flexible and versatile software program. Typically, Visio is utilized as a approach to producing flowcharts and organisation charts, but actually this is just scratching the surface of this very capable program.

Anybody using Visio for the first time will probably struggle as the interface is substantially not the same as other pieces of the Microsoft Office suite, although with the integration of the ribbon in the Visio 2010 version the user interface has turned into a much more standardized. Many people that need learning Visio want it for the following reasons:

it can help them in their job
It will increase their efficiency and workflow
it will increase their confidence
it can make using Visio more enjoyable for them

Taking some Visio training can make using Visio easier and much more enjoyable

Most people undergoing Visio training achieve this in order to be able to develop a specific task or number of tasks so that they can develop a job they have been assigned. Although there are not many training providers offering Visio training, those that do generally provide a selection of format. But which technique is best?

Much of the Visio training is provided inside a written format, either like a series of worksheets, in book form or perhaps in the form of an exercise manual filled with exercises. A number of providers also supply Visio learning the form of video tutorials, that have the benefit for the user to be able to watch a technique performed rather than just reading about this.

All these methods features its own merit, and current thinking shows that learning is retained best when these techniques are combined. Research has shown that watching something being done and described simultaneously provides the best understanding; when the user will be permitted to practice this method themselves inside a “hands on” fashion that knowledge is consolidated. This method is generally accepted as being the easiest way of Visio training, or indeed practicing any other kind of software.

To become successful any Visio training should:

Be specific to 1 topic per lesson
Introduce concepts progressively
Be easy to understand
Be simple to follow
Allow time for consolidation before moving forward

It is necessary that anybody going for a span of training has the capacity to start and stop their training and every time they want. It’s impossible to continue a program of training due to pressures of labor or other external forces, so having the training arranged in a way that allows people to reach a particular point and set the training on hold for a while. They are able to then return to it when time allows and get their Visio training where they left off.

In common with the rest of the programs within the Microsoft Office 2010 suite, the new File tab in Microsoft Visio 2010 opens a very different File menu from previous versions called Backstage view. If you curently have a Visio drawing open, the default in the navigation pane about the left is the Info tab. If you have just opened Visio 2010, the default tab in backstage view is New.

When Visio 2010 opens the very first time, the “Getting Started” window has now been replaced by this New tab in Backstage view, and in the top 1 / 2 of the window recently used drawings and the familiar choice of template categories are displayed. On the right of this window is a preview much like that found in Visio 2007, and beneath it is a Create button that can be used to start a brand new drawing. The underside portion of the New page contains different ways of starting a drawing including utilizing a template from Microsoft ‘office’ on the internet and basing a new applying whether sample or an existing diagram.

At the top of the left-hand navigation pane there is a commands you would expect to locate in a File menu including Save, Save As, Enter and exit. It’s the new commands beneath these, however, which are interesting; the first could well be Info. Such as the New tab, the screen is split up into three columns; about the right hand side are the properties for the drawing that’s open where a title, a category, author details along with other properties can be added. This property area now includes a thumbnail of the drawing hyperlinked to the open document.

In the middle column of this page are a number of buttons; the default is two, one of these allows you to remove any private information that could be included with the drawing, and also the other that allows the quality to become reduced by removing a number of components including any unused master shapes, data graphics along with a thumbnail picture. Both of these buttons open the same dialogue box but apply focus to individual tabs within it. Unlike other Office 2010 programs that use the XML file format, Visio 2010 does not allow a complete document inspection, however it does enable the removal of any data from external sources, comments, file paths and other properties you might not desire to share with people outside your organisation.

The Recent tab, as the name suggests allows any recently opened documents, and folders they live in to become viewed. A very useful feature in this view is the Pushpin which when clicked pins that particular document to this menu making it readily accessible. The Print tab contains shortcut icons towards the printer dialogue box and Print Preview; it also features a Quick Print button. The Save and Send tab includes a a few different commands that are discussed at length in a separate article. From backstage view, the assistance files can be accessed as possible Options dialogue box. This was previously offered by the various tools menu, and is also the subject of a separate article in this series.