Creating your own stencils in Visio

When you start creating drawings with MS Visio you very quickly learn that there is always certain number of shapes you use. Often you ssearch for those again and again waisting time. Why not create your own stencils containing only the shapes you need:

1. Go to File- Shapes- new stencils

2. The new stencil opens in Edit mode (marked by the red asterisk)

3. right click on the name of the stensil and select Save option. Visio will automatically save it in My Shapes folder.

4. Open the stencil containing your favourite shapes and add those to your own stencil by right clicking.

Visio 2010

So the new MS Office 2010 is just around the corner!

I must say that when I started using Visio 2007 I could not help but feel a little disapointed. It seemed like the Microsoft had run out of time when redesigning the software and decided to concentrate only on the basic package. When Word, Excel and Power Point got the new, modern design, Visio was left behind.

Visio 2010 however seems to be catching up with the rest of the Microsoft package.

I haven't had a time to test it properly yet, but the first signs are promissing. I am quite interested what other people think of this version, so if you had tried the Visio 2010 Beta, let me know how you got on.

I have also come across the The official blog of the Microsoft Visio product team which answered some of my questions. Maby it will also be useful to you.

Create you own shapes in Visio

When using Visio you can get very creative and make up your own shapes to complement the lonh list of those already in existence. One of the options you could use is Shape - Operations.

Below you can se some of the shapes made from the same two overlapping circles:

Union:

Combine

Fragment

you can downoad this free MS Visio 2003 manual to find out more about working with Visio

Need help using Visio

It never stops to amaze me how easy and quick it is to find answers to software problems that seem imposible to resolve. One day, wen I was stugling with particulaly complicated task one of my colleagues suggested looking for help on the online forums. I did not believe those websites a reliable source of information, prefering to do the work myself. After a short debate we decided to have a contest at who would solve the problem quicker: me using my own knowledge or my friend using the assistance of the internet.

Not suprisingly, what took me two hours to solve, it took my friend about 10 minutes to get the answer to from one of the websites.

It seems whatever your question is there is someone out there who will be happy to answer it. However unique the problem, someone knows the solution alteady.

with a little help from Google you can find websites that offer free advice and training materials, training manuals or simply an option to ask your question and post it online for someone to answer.

with internet we are always a click away from getting what we need.

My list of MS Visio resources

Being an IT trainer I am often asked for help with specific problems that users experience while using Visio. Althought I have a very good knowledge of the software, trying to help someone create a unique drawing or resolve a problem they encountered is often a great chalenge and a brilliant learning experience.

It is also useful to have resources where you can find answers to those unique questions not usually explained in the books available in the shops.

those are some of the sites I use myself:

slideshare

Yahoo answers

Free visio manual

Visio Timelines

Visio timelines are an excellent visual help in presentation of task and project progress. This simple bar, divided into intervals will be easy to interpret by any one. Timelines can be created directly in MS Visio using Visio stencils, but it is also possible to Import the information from already existing MS Project file. The timescales of the intervals in Timeline as well as the display formats can be easily manipulated to the specific needs of the project.

To find out more about creating Visio timelines click here