It’s quite common that once you’ve created a network drawing, you
want to organize subsets of the shapes. Sometimes the reason is
aesthetic: you want to create visual groupings within your diagram.
Sometimes the reason is practical: you want to rearrange the drawing and
it’s easier if certain shapes are grouped.
In this exercise, you will add a background shape to each section
of your network diagram and then group the shapes in that part of the
network.
Set Up
If you completed the preceding exercise,
continue working with the Network Diagram
(Detailed) drawing.
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Save your drawing as Network Diagram
(Organized).
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On the Home tab, in the
Tools group, click the Rectangle tool.
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Draw a rectangle surrounding the equipment in Branch Office 1.
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On the Home tab, in the
Shape group, click the Fill tool and select a light-colored
background color.
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Right-click on the rectangle you’ve drawn, and then click
Send to Back to place it behind
the network shapes.
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On the Home tab, in the
Tools group, click the Pointer Tool.
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Draw a bounding box around the new rectangle and the shapes
within it.
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On the Home tab, in the
Arrange group, click the
Group button, and then click
Group.
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Repeat Steps 2–8 for Branch Office
2 but select a different fill color in Step 4.
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Repeat Steps 2–8 for Data
Center but select a different fill color in Step
4.
The approach you used in this exercise for grouping network
shapes is very common. It offers the advantages, but also the
disadvantages, of working with grouped shapes , you will learn about
a new feature of Visio 2010—containers—that offers most of the
advantages of grouping shapes but few of the disadvantages.
Clean Up
Save the changes to the Network
Diagram (Organized) drawing but leave it open if you are
continuing with the next exercise.
