Now that you’ve seen examples showing how varied and useful data
graphics can be, it’s time to work with them.
In this exercise, you will work with the data graphics that are
built into a sample diagram that is included with Visio 2010. First, you
will learn how to turn data graphics off, then you will learn how to
apply them to selected shapes.
Set Up
Start Visio, or if it’s already running, click
the File tab and then click New. In the Other Ways To Get Started
section, click Sample Diagrams, and then double-click the IT Asset
Management thumbnail. When the drawing opens, close the External Data
window and save the drawing as Network with Data
Graphics.
-
Press Ctrl+A to select all shapes on the page.
Tip
You must select one or more shapes
before opening the data graphics gallery
because you can only apply or remove data graphics on preselected
shapes.
-
On the Data tab, in the
Display Data group, click the
Data Graphics button. The Data
Graphics gallery opens and displays available data graphics along
with several menu entries. When you point to a data graphic, popup
text will display its name.
Tip
The selected Apply After Linking Data To Shapes
check box at the bottom of the data graphics gallery causes the
currently active data graphic to be applied each time you link
data from the External Data window to one or more shapes on the
drawing page. If you do not want a data graphic to be applied
automatically, clear the check box to turn this option off.In the Data Graphics
gallery, click the thumbnail below No Data
Graphic to turn off data graphics on all shapes. The
drawing page now shows the unadorned network diagram.
-
-
Select the six servers to the left of the longer network
segment. (Do not include the network segment in your
selection.)
-
On the Data tab, in the
Display Data group, click the
Data Graphics button to open the
gallery, and then click the Topology
1 thumbnail to apply that data graphic to the six
servers.
-
Select the pair of web servers located between the two network
segments.
-
On the Data tab, in the
Display Data group, click the
Data Graphics button to open the
gallery, and then click the Topology
2 thumbnail to apply that data graphic to the two
servers.
-
Zoom in to view several servers in the center of the
diagram.
The servers on the left display a subset of the shapes’ data
using one style of presentation, whereas the servers on the right
show different data in an alternate format:
-
For the servers on the left, most of the data is displayed
as underlined text to the left of the server icon, but the
server name is displayed with a green background under the
server.
-
For the servers on the right, the name is displayed to the
left of the PC shape with a blue background and the
administrator name is displayed as plain text. In contrast with
the servers on the left, there is also a border around the data
graphic on this server.
You control all of these formatting options when you edit or
create a data graphic as you will do in the exercises that
follow.
Tip
You can only apply one data graphic to any one shape at any
one time. However, as the figure above shows, you can apply
different data graphics to different shapes on the same
page.
Clean Up
Save your changes to the Network with
Data Graphics drawing but leave it open if you are
continuing with the next exercise.
The data graphics used in this section all display text callouts
in various formats. In upcoming exercises, you will see several types of
data graphic icons.
Important
Data graphics are applied to a single page at a time. If you
want to apply the same data graphic to multiple pages, you must either
apply it to each page separately, or write a Visio macro. You will
learn about macros in the Appendix.
Tip
Visio data graphics are automatically assigned to a special
layer in a diagram. If you want to hide data graphics without removing them, you can
change the view properties for the data graphics layer.
