Group shapes are still valuable for many purposes but Visio 2010
containers offer numerous advantages for grouping, moving, and managing
a set of related shapes.
In this exercise, you will continue working with containers to
learn more about their unique properties.
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Draw a bounding box around the Branch
Office 1 network shapes.
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On the Insert tab, in the
Diagram Parts group, click the
Container button, and then click
Container 11.
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Right-click the edge or heading of the container to select
it.
Notice that whenever you select a container, the Container
Tools contextual
tab set appears and includes the Format contextual tab,
as shown in the following graphic.
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In the Container Tools
contextual tab set, click the Format contextual tab to activate
it.
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On the Format tab, in the
Membership group, click the
Select Contents button. All
contained shapes are selected.
Tip
You can also right-click the edge or heading of the
container, click Container, and then click Select Contents to
achieve the same result.
-
Draw a bounding box to select the Branch Office 2 network segment and the PCs
below it; do not select the server and printer above it.
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On the Insert tab, in the
Diagram Parts group, click the
Container button, and then click
Container 11. You have created a
container around part of the Branch Office 2 network
components.
-
Click the edge or heading of the container you just created
and drag the top resize handle up until the container surrounds the
server and printer.
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On the Format tab, in the
Membership group, click the
Select Contents button.
Notice that the server and printer are not selected.
Surrounding shapes with an existing container does not add them to
the container.
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Click once on the server shape to select it.
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Right-click the selected server, click Container, and then click Add to Underlying Container.
The server shape is now a member of the container.
Tip
When you select any shape that is a member of a container,
the orange outline appears on the border of the container.
-
Click once on the edge or heading of the Branch Office 2 container to select it, and
then press Delete.
The container and its contents are deleted.
If you want to remove the container but leave the contents,
you must use a different technique. In the next two steps you will
disband the container.
-
Click once on the edge or heading of the Branch Office 1 container to select
it.
-
On the Format tab, in the
Membership group, click the
Disband Container button.
The container is removed from the drawing but all of the
previously contained shapes remain on the page.
Tip
You can also right-click the edge or heading of the
container, click Container, and then click Disband Container to
achieve the same result.
Clean Up
Close the Container
Properties drawing without saving changes.
In this exercise and the preceding one, you selected a set of
existing objects and created a container around them. You can also
create an empty container and later add objects to it. To do so, ensure
that nothing on the drawing page is selected. On the Insert tab, in the
Diagram Parts group, click the Container button, and then click a
container style in the gallery. The new container will be added to the
center of the drawing window. You can then drop in new or existing
shapes, lists, or other containers.
Tip
You can copy a container and paste it elsewhere in the
same or a different drawing. A copy of the container and all its
members will be pasted into the new location.
The Lock Container button in the Membership group of the Format
contextual tab prevents shapes from being added or removed; it also
locks the container against deletion.
