Microsoft Visio 2010 : Working Around the Diagram - Getting Started with a New Drawing

Navigating the Template Gallery

When you start a new Visio drawing, the first place to go is the Backstage area. Click File and then select New from the list on the left, and you see Visio’s template gallery, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Home view of Visio 2010 Premium’s template gallery.

Right away, you notice the major areas of this screen. From top to bottom in the middle panel are: Recently Used Templates, Template Categories, and Other Ways to Get Started. On the right, there’s a big preview area, with a Create button underneath that screams “Click Me!”

Templates that you frequently access will appear in the Recently Used Templates at the top, but all templates can be found using Template Categories in the middle.

One thing can be a bit confusing at first. When you are at the top level, the icons in Template Categories appear blue and have a “sheet of paper” look. These icons serve as folders that contain more templates. Click one, and you drill down into the folder and see a list of templates for that category.

Figure 2 shows the template icons inside the Maps and Floor Plans category for Visio Premium. If you have the Standard edition, you see only three templates.

Figure 2. Diving into Visio 2010 Premium’s Maps and Floor Plans template category gallery.

Inside a category, the blue icons and the Template Categories bar disappear. In roughly the same place, you now see larger, more-detailed, full-color icons that represent actual templates. It can take a bit of time to get used to this difference: Big, colored icons represent actual templates; smaller blue icons with document motifs represent template categories at the higher level. Take a moment to contrast Figures 1 and 2.

When you click on a template icon, the preview area shows a zoomed view of the icon, along with a description of the template. This gives you a clear idea of what you can create with the template. To start, just click the Create button or double-click the template icon itself. A new, unsaved copy of a drawing based on that template then appears in the Visio drawing window.

If the category doesn’t have the template you need, you can go back one level by clicking the Back button near the top of the page or by clicking the Home button. From there you can dive into a different category of templates.

What Happens When You Start from a Template?

When you start a drawing from a template, a few things happen:

• You get a new, “blank” document that is an unsaved copy of the original template.

• The document’s rulers, grid, measuring system, and page size are appropriate to the drawing type and unit system you’ve chosen.

• Several stencils are opened that present you with palettes of shapes for completing the drawing. Stencils are separate files in themselves but are conveniently displayed in the Shapes area in docked, stacked panels.

• A custom add-in Ribbon tab might be loaded. Some templates require extra functionality from add-in modules. These modules often add an extra tab on the far right of the Ribbon for accessing their functions. For example, the Organization Chart and Cross-Functional Flowchart templates open with custom Ribbon tabs that give you access to special features.
  

Creating a Blank Drawing

Sometimes you need to sketch a quick concept with simple rectangles, circles, ellipses, and text. For these quick rough-diagram situations, I often start with a blank drawing and simply use the Rectangle and Ellipse tools in the Tools group on the Home tab. No templates, no stencils!

Creating a Quick Sketch in a Blank Drawing

1.	Click the File tab to get to the Backstage area (refer to Figure 2.1).
2.	Click New in the left column.
3.	Double-click Blank Drawing at the bottom of the screen, under Other Ways to Get Started. You should see a new, blank drawing, which is unsaved and has no stencils open.
4.	Locate the Drawing Tools in the Tools group on the Home tab, as shown in Figure 3. The drop-down to the right of the Pointer Tool contains six drawing tools: Rectangle, Ellipse, Line, Freeform, Arc, and Pencil. Figure 3. The beginning of an idea. Drawing tools on the Home tab enable you to quickly scratch out an informal diagram. The connectors were changed to the straight style by right-clicking them. The Freeform tool created the sketchy outline around coal and oil.
5.	Create shapes using the Rectangle and Ellipse tools. You use these tools by clicking on the page and then holding down the mouse button while you drag. When you release the mouse button, you’ve created a shape.
6.	To constrain rectangles to squares and ellipses to circles, hold down the Shift key while dragging with the corresponding tool.
7.	Select some of your shapes and then type some text on them.
8.	Use the Connector Tool in the Tools group to connect your shapes together. Notice the red highlighting around a shape when you mouse over it with the Connector tool. This indicates that your connector will be glued to the shape, so that the connector stays attached to the shape automatically. To change a connector’s style, just right-click it. You see choices for right-angled, straight, and curved.
9.	Experiment with line, fill, and text formatting by right-clicking your shapes and using the mini formatting toolbar. There are also plenty of formatting options on the Home tab. The lines are also shapes, and you can change the format of the line, including adding different line ends.
10.	Try creating shapes using the Pencil and Line tools. These tools also work with clicking and dragging. Repeatedly clicking and dragging adds more line or curve segments to the shape. If you release the mouse button near the starting point, Visio closes the shape so you can give it a fill color
11.	Switch back to the Pointer tool as a matter of habit. This makes it easier to select shapes, move them and edit text.

I start blank drawings quite often—whenever I need to sketch out some rough ideas and need a few boxes, a circle or two, and some text. If my ideas solidify and a more formal diagram is needed, I then move to a template to create a more formal and structured diagram. If you bought Visio for a specific purpose requiring a specific drawing type, you will probably start templates. But it’s good to know how to create basic shapes using the drawing tools.

Creating a New Drawing from an Existing Drawing

An alternative to starting from a template is to use an existing drawing as a basis. Visio 2010 offers several ways to start new drawings from existing drawings, creating new, unsaved copies for you and saving you the trouble of copying files in Explorer.

Starting a New Drawing from an Existing Drawing

At the bottom of the New screen, just below Other Ways to Get Started, is the New From Existing icon, also shown in Figure 2.1.

Click it to open a file open dialog in which you can browse for an existing Visio drawing on which to base your new drawing. When you find a base file, double-click it, or select and click the Open button.

Visio opens an unsaved copy of your original drawing. You can modify it as you like, without fear of overwriting the original drawing.

Starting a New Drawing from a Sample

The standard installation of Visio comes with several sample drawings that you can use. You can start new drawings from these samples, just as you can from existing files.

Starting a New Drawing from a Sample Drawing

You should now see an unsaved copy of the Contoso Pharmaceuticals sample timeline. You can safely play around with this drawing and experiment with the shapes without damaging the original.

Starting a New Drawing from a Recent Drawing

Another convenient way of starting new drawings is to use the Recent feature. Instead of going to the New page, click Recent in the Backstage area. You see a list of files that you have previously opened.

If one of these files would make a good starting point for your next drawing, just right-click the item and choose Open a Copy, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Creating a new drawing from an existing drawing using Recent Documents.

Using Templates Online

A great feature in Visio 2010 is the web-integrated template-finding feature that enables you to pull templates straight from Office.com.

Under the Other Ways to Get Started area you will also find the Office.com templates icon, also visible in Figure 1. Clicking this button drills down into a hierarchy of templates stored and organized on Microsoft’s servers.

In contrast with the content installed on your PC, the levels of online folders can be several levels deep. The Back and Forward buttons at the top of the window help you to retrace your steps and back out of subfolders. If you get totally lost, click the Home button and just start over.

Figure 5 shows an online template that is several layers deep in the hierarchy. The clickable breadcrumbs show the path you’ve followed: Office.com Templates, More Templates, Case Inserts. At the end of the trail, you find a template for creating inserts for CD jewel cases (created by some joker named Visio Guy!).

Figure 5. Creating a new CD jewel case insert by starting from an Office.com template, via the Internet. Note that the path to the template is shown as “breadcrumb” buttons to the right of the Home button.

If you can’t find what you want by browsing, there’s a handy search bar just right of the Office.com Templates heading. Figure 6 shows the template search in action.

Figure 6. The Office.com offerings resulting from a search on “Visio Guy.”

Starting a New Drawing from an Office.com Template