Most people share their Visio drawings and diagrams by printing them. Like other programs in the Microsoft Office System, Visio includes a Print Preview command that shows you how your diagram will look when it is printed, as well as a Print Page button on the Standard toolbar that you can click to print one page of your diagram. For more printing options, such as printing all the pages in a diagram or multiple copies of a diagram, you can use the Print command on the File menu.
If your drawing page is larger, smaller, or oriented differently than your printer's paper, you must make adjustments when you print. You can change the size of the drawing page and choose the size of your printer paper in the Page Setup dialog box, which you open by clicking Page Setup on the File menu. The Page Setup dialog box includes a preview area that shows you the effect of various page settings. It includes options on several tabs, but the following two tabs are most important ones to know about when you print:
The Print Setup tab is where you can specify the size and orientation of the paper in your printer.
The Page Size tab is where you can change the size and orientation of the drawing page you see on the screen.
You can also determine where Visio will break a large diagram that spans more than one page by viewing page breaks, which are represented by gray lines on the drawing page. To view page breaks, on the View menu, click Page Breaks. If your drawing page fits the size of the paper in your printer, gray lines appear around the drawing page. For the most detailed preview of page breaks and exactly how and where your shapes will be printed, use the Print Preview command. If you have a black and white printer, Visio can preview your diagram in shades of gray so that you can see how it will look when printed.
In this exercise, you practice previewing and printing a diagram that shows The Garden Company's gardening expo. You view page breaks first, and then preview the diagram in the Print Preview window. Finally, you compare the printer's paper size setting with the drawing page size in the Page Setup dialog box, and then print the diagram.
OPEN the FormatPrint file in the My DocumentsMicrosoft PressVisio 2003 SBSFormattingShapes folder.
On the View menu, click Page Breaks.
Gray lines appear around the drawing page because the diagram fits on a single page.
On the File menu, click Print Preview.
The Print Preview window opens and displays the Print Preview toolbar.
On the Print Preview toolbar, click Setup.
The Page Setup dialog box appears with the Print Setup tab displayed.
In the Printer paper area, make sure Letter is selected in the text box and that the Portrait option is selected.
Click the Page Size tab to display the settings for the drawing page.
In the Page size area, make sure Same as printer paper size option is selected, and then click OK to close the dialog box.
On the Print Preview toolbar, click Print to open the Print dialog box. Notice that
All is selected in the Print range area and Number of copies is set to 1.
Click OK to print your diagram.
On the Print Preview toolbar, click Close.
The Print Preview window closes and the drawing page is displayed.
On the Standard toolbar, click the Print Page button to print the drawing page that's currently shown in the drawing window.
On the Standard toolbar, click Save to save your changes to the diagram.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Visio.
