Excerpts

Welcome to Visio 2007! Visio is an exceptionally powerful application, and this book is designed to cover it as much as is possible with any book. The whole Visio story is here. Visio is the premier drawing software available today. Want to set up flowchart slides for that all-important meeting? Visio's your answer. Want to specify what goes where in your office layout? Visio's your ticket. For just about any drawing you can commit to paper--electronic circuits, plumbing diagrams, data-flow drawings, website maps, Windows XP user interfaces (creating mock-ups of windows, dialog boxes, and wizards)--Visio is the way to go. And Visio 2007 is more powerful and bigger than ever before. You may be coming to this book from a previous version of Visio. If so, you're going to find that Visio 2007 has more to offer you--more capabilities and resources--than you could imagine. Who Is This Book For? This book is for you if you want to get the whole Visio story. If you're a beginner, you'll find that this book doesn't assume any Visio knowledge, and that all the steps for the tasks you'll see here are spelled out in detail. Want to drag and configure shapes onto the Visio drawing surface? You'll see everything, step by step. Want to add text to a shape, or set some data associated with a shape? It's all here. This book is also for you if you have some experience with Visio. If you have already been using Visio but want to complete your skill set, this book has been designed to give you what you want. Maybe you're ready to go beyond the basics and want to become a full-fledged expert. Want to create custom stencils? You'll find that here. Want to write your own ShapeSheet formulas? No problem. Advanced users will feel right at home as well, because this book has been written to be crammed with tips, special notes, and timesaving insights. Want to use Visio to reach out on the Internet and make a map of any website for you? Check out Chapter 14. Want to create a Gantt chart from data you have in Microsoft Project? Take a look at Chapter 13. In short, this book has been designed for anyone interested in Visio 2007--beginner, novice, intermediate user, advanced user, or power user. What's in This Book? This book was written to encompass all of Visio 2007--no easy task. Just about everything you can do in Visio 2007 is here. You'll find Visio 2007 themes; how to connect to databases, Excel, Project, Outlook, and even general websites; how to create and customize Visio 2007 data graphics and PivotDiagrams; and more. Here's a breakdown, chapter by chapter: 1 Essential Visio --This chapter welcomes you to Visio, and establishes basic Visio skills such as creating drawings, drawing with shapes, and handling stencils. 2 Working with Shapes --In this chapter you first create Visio drawings by dragging shapes from stencils to the drawing surface, then customize and print those shapes. 3 Connecting Shapes and Adding Text --Some essential skills in Visio when it comes to shapes are to connect those shapes, showing relationships, and adding text to labels shapes--as well as rotating and resizing that text. 4 Guides, Rulers, and Custom Shapes --Visio comes with a built-in grid for aligning shapes, as well as other tools, such as rulers and guides. You'll also see how to create custom shapes in this chapter. 5 Groups, Pages, and Layers --This chapter covers themes, groups, adding shapes to groups, and cutting up Visio drawings into layers. 6 Building Your Own Stencils, Templates, and Reports --This chapter covers how to make your own custom stencils, add shapes to custom stencils, and create custom templates. 7 Controlling Shape Behavior and Marking Up Drawings --This chapter is all about making 2D shapes 1D, customizing double-click behavior, locking shapes, marking up drawings, and using digital ink in Visio. 8 Linking and Embedding Objects and Publishing to the Web --You can insert objects in Visio drawings, as well as linking to those objects and embedding those objects. Also in this chapter: publishing drawings on the Web. 9 ShapeSheets and Macros --ShapeSheets are datasheets for shapes. Here, you'll find how to open ShapeSheets, work with ShapeSheets, and write ShapeSheet formulas. Also included: writing and running Visio macros. 10 Visio with Other Applications --One of Visio 2007's strong points is connecting with other applications. This chapter covers importing and exporting data, as well as using data links, data graphics, and the Visio database tools. 11 Creating Block Drawings and Charts --This chapter is all about creating block drawings, tree drawings, concentric drawings, and charts and graphs. 12 Creating Organization Charts and Flowcharts --Creating organization charts, importing and exporting data, and creating flowcharts are covered here. 13 Scheduling Projects and Handling Brainstorming Sessions --This chapter is all about scheduling projects, creating calendars, Gantt charts, scheduling timelines, and creating brainstorming drawings. 14 Creating Software Development Drawings --This chapter covers UML drawings, UML state drawings, data-flow drawings, user interfaces, and designing of websites. As you can see, there's a lot coming up in this book. Visio is a big topic, and there's plenty of in-depth coverage coming up to encompass it. Conventions Used in This Book Here's a quick look at a few structural features designed to help you get the most out of this book. To begin with, you'll find the following features: Tip - TIPS are designed to point out especially quick ways to get the job done, good ideas, or techniques you might not discover on your own. Note - NOTES offer even more insight into features or issues that may be of special interest, without distracting you from the meat-and-potatoes answers you're looking for. Caution - CAUTIONS , as you'd expect, warn you away from potential pitfalls and problems, and point out fixes for common issues. Que's Special Edition conventions are designed to be completely predictable. It's easy to understand what you're reading and what you're supposed to do. For example, whenever you should press multiple keys together, in this book they are written separated by a plus sign, like this: Ctrl+B. That means hold down the Ctrl key, press the B key, and then release both keys. Terms introduced and defined for the first time are formatted in italic. Actions that you are supposed to perform or text that you are supposed to type in are formatted in bold type, as in the following example: Select File > Page Setup. This opens the Page Setup dialog. Okay, that's it--we're ready to start. Turn to Chapter 1 now to start digging into Visio 2007. (c) Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved. Excerpted from Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Visio 2007 by Steven Holzner All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.