16. Additional Visio Resources

This book has considered many aspects of Visio with the intention of providing you with a solid understanding of the tools and features of Visio 2013. As you progress from an absolute beginner to an experienced user, it is natural to ask, “What’s next?”

This chapter is offered as a reference to reliable online resources that you can consult and rely on for tips, suggestions, and help with problems. Besides valuable built-in help tools, Visio provides online resources. Microsoft has created many resources for end users such as yourself that you should be aware of. Additionally, Microsoft has officially recognized experts in the Visio community; you can trust them to provide solutions that work.

FIGURE 16.1 Visio Viewer allows people without Visio to view drawings in their web browsers.

→ To learn more about installing and setting up Visio Viewer, see page 229.

FIGURE 16.2 The Visio Help dialog box is an abundant source for additional information.

As you work with tools in the ribbon tabs, you occasionally see commands that have a prominent Tell Me More help link like the one shown in Figure 16.3. Click the link to open the Visio Help dialog box for information specific to that command or tool, as shown in Figure 16.4.

FIGURE 16.3 Visio offers Tell Me More links to view additional help information for some commands.

FIGURE 16.4 Visio Help provides detailed information and helps you understand better how and when to use tools.

Figure 16.5 shows a recent blog post recapping dozens of posts related to the new Visio 2013. This is a site worth visiting from time to time, just to get insights into the features you use now and information on features that you may not have tried yet.

FIGURE 16.5 The official Visio blog provides great background information from the Visio development team.

How could you use this? Follow these steps to download and open a template:

1. Open your web browser and navigate to the path provided in the previous paragraph, or type office.com into the address field and select the Templates link.

2. In the search field, type in the keywords event planner and press Enter. Figure 16.6 shows several results for various Office applications. The third result shown is for Visio 2003.

FIGURE 16.6 Office.com has many older templates that can still be used in Office 2013.

3. Select the Event planner for Visio 2003 and notice the detailed information shown in Figure 16.7. Select Download and accept the Microsoft Service Agreement that appears. Save the file to your computer, and follow the directions to save and extract the template file.

FIGURE 16.7 Additional information and thumbnails are offered before downloading a template.

4. Navigate to the template file you extracted, and double-click it to open it in Visio.

5. As shown in Figure 16.8, this template includes its own document stencil and shapes that you select, such as the chair shown that has shape data fields ready to accept seating assignments and other details that have been thoughtfully included in the shape.

FIGURE 16.8 Visio 2013 can make good use of older stencils and shapes in your drawings.

Microsoft makes available more great online resources for Visio users:

• Forums like answers.microsoft.com (http://answers.microsoft.com) enable you to ask questions regarding Visio 2013 and read through questions and answers provided by other users.

• Training is offered through the Office.com (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/) website for Visio and other Office products.

• Downloads can be found in the Download Center website. Search using keywords like Visio 2013 to find additional gems. For example, a recently added stencil is shown in Figure 16.9 that includes hundreds of new icons related to Office and new server technologies and server roles. The stencil name is FLEX_Stencil_121412.vss (the download link is http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35772).

FIGURE 16.9 Shapes from the FLEX stencil that include many new icons.

• Using Visio 2010 (Chris Roth; Visio MVP, Que Publishing) provides more detailed information that you can refer to when working with shape data concepts and a brief introduction into developing for Visio with a chapter devoted to creating a custom SmartShape. Still a great read, and the concepts presented are very compatible with tools present in Visio 2013.

• Visio 2010 Step by Step (Scott Helmers; Visio MVP, Microsoft Press) focuses on basic to advanced concepts, with emphasis on flowcharting, network diagrams, and business process diagrams. Scott also introduces some deeper information by introducing you to Visual Basic for Applications. It includes good examples presented by an expert in the field.

• Microsoft Visio 2010 Business Process Diagramming and Validation (David J. Parker; Visio MVP) is a much deeper dive into concepts that guide the development of validation rules and Business Process Management. This feature is built into Visio Professional 2013, and the principles and examples used here are still practical for aspiring developers.

• Developing Microsoft Visio Solutions (Microsoft Press) has long been considered a solid book that lays the groundwork for advanced Visio concepts and programming. Although it’s out-of print, the content can be found online and still makes for good reading.

Although many individuals offer advice and suggestions for Visio, the following is a list of established and active websites devoted to Visio and maintained by individuals and groups with a proven track record of supporting end users such as yourself.

• Chris Roth is a Visio MVP and his Visio Guy blog provides lots of tips and how-to information. Chris worked for Visio Corp, and he created many of the shapes. While the site is aimed more at developers and those that want to find out what is possible when working with Visio, look around on his website to find additional shapes and stencils as well as detailed information related to practical uses of Visio: http://www.visguy.com/.

Searches on this website include the forum, which is another great source for Visio know-how. This public forum (http://visguy.com/vgforum) is available to you as well, and it has a lot of users—so don’t be surprised to get a quick response to your questions. This site has been here for several years, and there is a lot of information, as shown in Figure 16.10, so be specific when searching. If you ask for help in the forum, provide as much information as you can to get prompt results.

FIGURE 16.10 Search for tips and suggestions using keywords. Shown here, “print” reveals a lot of content, so be prepared to add keywords related to version or year.

• John Marshall is a Visio MVP—the first person to be singled out with this honor, in fact. John continues to be very active in supporting the Visio community. He runs Visio.MVPS.org which is a great website for third-party shapes and help on managing Visio with VBA. His blog provides in-depth information on a variety of topics. To see his latest comments on Visio, use this link: http://johnvisiomvp.wordpress.com/category/visio/.

• David Parker is a Visio MVP, and his website contains information related to additional training and resources that have been developed for businesses and customers: http://www.bvisual.net/.

• John Goldsmith is a Visio MVP, and his website includes many insightful blogs that help you dig deeper into Visio. A recent blog shown in Figure 16.11 deals with modifying a Visio master shape. The topic is nicely explained and includes easy-to-follow steps and several screenshots. His website can be found at http://visualsignals.typepad.co.uk/.

FIGURE 16.11 John Goldsmith’s visLog has plenty of useful information, such as this blog post on modifying a master shape.

• Another website worth checking out is the MVP website, which has content and information compiled by Visio MVPs. The site can be found at http://visio.mvps.org/.

• Chris Hopkins is part of the Visio development team, and his blog is aimed more at developers. It is a great source for SharePoint administrators who want to use Visio Services and need a concise explanation of what works and what doesn’t. Check out his blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chhopkin/.

• VisioCafe has been around for many years. Their site provides free third-party stencil collections and does a good job of keeping updated content. Figure 16.12 shows the VisioCafe home page. News and updates are provided, and suggestions are given for creating network and rack diagrams. Stencils created for rack diagrams by manufacturers of servers and networking equipment can be downloaded for free. They also have a considerable collection of unofficial stencils that have been made available for free download. Their website can be found here: http://www.visiocafe.com/.

FIGURE 16.12 VisioCafe is a nonprofit website with up-to-date stencils focused on rack diagrams.