Microsoft Visio

Here are my notes on flowcharting UML and other charts using Microsoft's Visio product, organized in a different way than Microsoft's Help files and training documents.

Take the Brainbench certification test on Visio 5.0

Cisco offers its Visio shapes for their product line here

Topics this page:
Product Versions
Product Architecture
Installation
Configuration
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Product Information

Don't have Visio? Get the Visio Viewer Web Component for IE 5+ users

• Microsoft's Office Visio Marketing Home Page
• Microsoft's Visio Assistance Center provides tips and techniques.
• Microsoft's OfficeUpdate site
• Search throughout Microsoft for Visio.
• Visio Enterprise Network Tools (VENT)

  Visio Edition	Features ( compare)	US Retail Price
  		New User	Upgrade
  Visio Standard 2002	Business diagrams	$199	$99.95
  Visio Professional 2002 (includes Standard features)	For IT pros: UML diagrams and automatic creation of web site maps. For Facilities Managers: Space Plans	$499	$249
  Visio Enterprise	Generates code from UML diagrams	$999	$749
  Visio Enterprise Network Tools add-on	Includes a library of exact-replica hardware shapes, AutoDiscovery for automatic creation of network and Active Directory services and Reporting. Before buying, register your Passport into Microsoft's Visio Network Center for free Network Diagram shapes and tools, plus get a patch to use the Visio Find Shape feature and to inoculate your SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) system against the Slammer worm.	$500	n/a
  Visio Enterprise Network Tools with Visio Professional 2002		$999	$749

  What version of Visio do you have? click menu Help, About.
  Visio for Enterprise Architects 2002 SR-1 build number appears as (10.0.2705)
  but loading the MSDN version of Visio for Enterprise Architects 2003 also appears as (10.0.2705).
  Visio 2003 Professional has build number 11.
  Microsoft Office Visio for Enterprise Architects 2005 has build number (11.4301.8132).

  To create Microsoft .NET Framework managed code solutions that integrate with Visio 2002 (10) as a Component Object Model (COM)-based application, use the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Visio.dll in the Office XP PIA (Primary Interop Assembly) installed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC), not the Visio 2002 SDK PIA (Microsoft.Visio.Interop.dll).

  Download Oxppia.exe

  Art Leo explains that

  With Visio 2003, if Add Remove/Programs show ".Net Programmability Support" will install the Visio 11 office interop.

Product Architecture/Migration

• Visio was purchased by Microsoft in 1999.

• Visio 5.0 was part of Office 2000.

• Visio 2000 flowcharts have file type of .vsd

• Visio 2000 Template files have a .vst extension

  Thank you for supporting this website by buying Visio books through this site:

  Learn to Diagram Visio is a good introductory book.

  Visio Inside Out has many tips and tricks.

If you have Visio installed in your system, click the Visio icon to edit the MS Visio 2000 files I've created in my web pages:

Microsoft Project Product Architecture
Microsoft Project Task Types
UML Use Case Diagram Format
UML Use Case diagram of the RUP Testing Discipline
Relationships Among InterNetworking Concepts
SNMP
Java Architecture
Class Diagram of Java Collections
MS SQL Indexing Architecture
UML State Diagram of Threads
UNIX Printer
Microsoft Windows 2000 Custom/Automated Installation Data Flow
Microsoft Windows Logging Architecture
Microsoft Windows 2000 Interoperability with Novell Netware
Microsoft Windows Scripting Host (WSH)
Global Groups in Local Group Resource Permissions
Security Configuration and Analysis MMC Snap-in
Microsoft Windows Installer
Microsoft Windows 2000 Volumes Logical Architecture
WinRunner data-driven script architecture
Architecture for Web Service Machines
MS Windows Management Interface (WMI) for Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) using the Common Information Model (CIM) Schema
Workflow Diagram
Use Case Diagram for Buying a Car

Installation

To avoid annoying defaults, select "Customize" during initial installation or "Add or Remove Features" from Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs.

• Download the Visio 2000 Resource Kit from the Microsoft Download Center

Get live support from experts through Keen.

Configuration

Here are the customizations I prefer after installation is complete:

• Tools, Options, General tab,
• Check "Open last file on startup"
• Input 9 in "Recently used file list"
• Right-click on one of the Stencils to select "Icons Only".

  Visio 2003 stores the list of last used files, fonts, and other setttings in Windows Registry key
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Visio\Application

.

GUI Tips and Tricks (plus Annoyances)

1. Duplicate shapes by right clicking on that shape, selecting Copy, then pressing Ctrl-V to paste.

   The trouble is that (by default) Visio pastes shapes in the center of the window. This usually disrupts the autoflow.

   So either scroll to a blank location before pasting or use Bill Morein's suggestion of setting Visio to paste on the same location as the copied shape (as OpenOffice does by default) using a macro using these functions:

   • ActiveWindow.Selection.Copy (visCopyPasteNoTranslate)
   • ActivePage.Paste(visCopyPasteNoTranslate)

   Visio Macros (tips & tricks) for Interaction Designers provides additional macros.

2. If you have access to an (expensive) plotter, such as at Kinkos, set the paper size to E4 () and then set the page size to match the paper size.

   If you have a regular 8-1/2x11 printer, set Custom page size and select as many pages as you need. But you'll have to trim the white edges and paste sheets together.

3. When using Visio to do storyboards, press F5 to go into full screen mode. In this mode, Visio provides arrow keys so that you can navigate forward and backward through the pages. Hyperlinks still work in this mode.

Storyboarding Rich Internet Applications with Visio by Bill Scott

Right-Click Instead of ToolBar Icons

Mouse Movement	Result
Roll	vertical scroll
Shift + roll	horizontal scroll
Ctrl + roll	zoom
Click + drag	pan

Visio 2000 provides support for the Microsoft IntelliMouse. The following wheel actions are supported in a Visio drawing window:

Other mouse and keyboard shortcuts

Microsoft's Tutorial on Creating a UML Diagram uses the NeuCom UML.vsd and NeuCom DFD.vsd files installed with Visio 2000 on C:\Program Files\Visio\Samples\Software (or wherever visio is installed).

Click on tabs at the bottom to select each type of UML diagram. The default UML diagram type is a Static Structure Diagram.

To change text, select the entire item by clicking on a side. Then instead of properties, select menu item Edit > Open Interface.

Deleting a shape from the diagram does not delete it from the UML model! You must also delete it from within the UML Navigator window, displaying UML elements as icons on a hierarchical tree view.

Unlike all other Microsoft apps, select multiple Visio 2002 items by holding down the Shift key (not the Ctrl key). Visio was purchased by Microsoft. This difference was corrected in Visio 2003 onwards.

Some shapes you have to drag the arrow to the middle of an element (until its edges turn red), even though there are nodes at the edges.

Visio as UML Tool

VEA (Visual Studio Enterprise Architect) 2003 and Visio 2005 Forward engineering generates code from UML classes and their relations.

Reverse-engineering generates UML shapes from C# code, creating UML design docs: a detailed code map illustrating the classes, their properties and methods, and relationships between them.

However, VS 2003 only generates classes in the "Model Explorer" view, and doesn't show class relationships (inheritance and references).
AssemblyToVisio fixes this shortcoming.

Visual Studio for Enterprise Architects has a reverse-engineer option. Select "Database Model Diagram".

Select in Database -> Options -> Drivers the database you want.

Some prefer "Crow's Feet" instead of the default arrows and cardinality symbols.

Round-trip engineering is not supported by VEA (Visual Studio Enterprise Architect) 2003 and Visio 2005. In VEA, you must apply code changes manually to the UML model or reverse-engineer the code into a new UML model and thus lose all your documentation, use case diagrams, and so on. Any existing element that isn't reverse-engineered during the process is lost.

Get Micorosoft's Access 2000 Northwind.mdb (Nwind.exe which extracts to 1,510 KB Nwind.mdb)

Access 2000 Sample: Report Topics contains sample reports that demonstrate how to perform a variety of reporting tasks.

Access 2003/2002/2000 Sample: Summing in reports sample database

Access 2003/2002/2000 Sample: On time and how much has elapsed

Database Modeling With Microsoft Visio for Enterprise Architects (Morgan Kaufmann, August 2003) by Terry Halpin, Ken Evans, Pat Hallock, Bill Maclean

Sparx Enterprise Architect

Visio's issues have opened up an opportunity for vendors such as Sparx from Australia. Their product, Enterprise Architect costs about $300 per seat.

Altova UModel, at $139 per seat, generates web reports.

Sparx Help files exerpt from the UML specification text.

Sparx:

• Video demos
• Product Home Page
• User Forum
• EA User Group