In previous versions of Visio, you could add a callout to a page
from the Callouts stencil in the Visio Extras group. The Callouts
stencil still exists: in the Shapes window, click More Shapes, click
Visio Extras, and then click Callouts to see more than three dozen
callout types. The following graphic shows one example.
Old-style callouts are useful for their intended purpose: you can
type text into the text box and glue the tail onto another shape. Some
even have attractive or clever designs.
The underlying problem with the older callouts, however, is that
they are just shapes. Although you can attach them to other shapes, they
aren’t associated with those shapes in any useful way. For example, look
at the printer and callout on the left in the following graphic:
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Moving the printer to the right (center image), doesn’t change
the location of the callout.
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Deleting the printer shape doesn’t affect the callout as you
can see in the rightmost graphic.
It’s also easy to accidentally detach the callout from the
printer by dragging the text box portion of the callout while trying to
relocate it.
In this exercise, you will discover that Visio 2010 callouts are
associated with the shapes to which they are attached in ways that make
sense. You will see that the callout and its attached shape act in
tandem.
Set Up
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Go to the Callouts
page.
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Click once on the printer shape to select it.
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On the Insert tab, in the
Diagram Parts group, click the
Callout button. The Callout
gallery opens.
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Move your mouse through the gallery and notice that Live
Preview shows what each callout will look like when attached to the
printer shape.
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Click Bracket pair (as
shown in the previous graphic). The callout is added to the page and
attached to the printer.
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With the callout still selected, type Located in Accounting
Department, and then press Esc to exit text
edit mode.
Tip
Notice that when the callout is selected, there is an orange
border around the printer to signal the association between the
two shapes. The reverse is not true: if you select the printer,
the callout does not have any kind of border.
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Select and drag the printer to the right (shown on the left in
the following graphic), and then release the mouse button (graphic
on right). The callout moves with the printer.
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Select and drag the callout to the left side of the
printer.
As you drag the callout, it looks like it’s been detached from
the printer (left graphic on the following page). However, as soon
as you release the mouse button, you can see that it is still
attached to the printer (right graphic).
Clean Up
Save and close your diagram if you want to keep
the changes; otherwise just close it.
Unlike containers and lists, callouts do not have a context tab on
the Visio ribbon. However, you can change the characteristics of a
callout. When you right-click a callout, you will see the cascading
menus shown in the following graphic that allow you to select a
different callout style (left), change the orientation (center), and set
the line type (right).
There are a few other useful things to know about callouts:
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If you delete a callout, it doesn’t affect the shape to which
it was attached. However, if you delete the shape, the callout is
also deleted.
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If you copy a shape that has a callout attached, both the
shape and the callout are copied.
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You can attach more than one callout to a
shape.
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If you do not have any shapes selected when you insert a
callout, Visio inserts the callout in the center of the drawing
window.
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If you select more than one shape before inserting a callout,
Visio will attach a callout to each selected shape.
