Core Training for Microsoft Visio Standard 2002

Customizing Shapes and Templates

Drawing Shapes from Scratch

1 To start a new Visio drawing without a template, click the File menu, point to New, and then click New Drawing.
2 To enlarge the drawing page, on the Standard toolbar, click the Zoom arrow, and then click 150%.
3 To begin using the Pencil tool, on the Standard toolbar, click the Line Tool arrow, and then click Pencil Tool.
4 To draw an arc, using the horizontal and vertical rulers as a guide, position the Pencil tool over the intersection of the 2" (horizontal) and 6" (vertical) gridlines, hold down the mouse button, drag diagonally up and to the right for about half an inch, then down and to the right for about half an inch, and release the mouse button.
5 To draw a second arc connected to the first, point to the right endpoint of the arc you've drawn, hold down the mouse button, drag in a curving motion to the right and down, then to the left and down, to create an arc about 1" long, and release the mouse button.
6 To connect this arc to the first arc and close the shape, point to the bottom endpoint of the arc, hold down the mouse button, drag in a curving motion to the left and upward until you reach the open endpoint of the first arc, and release the mouse button.
7 To deselect the shape you've drawn, click the blank drawing page above the shape.
8 To begin using the Ellipse tool to draw an ellipse, on the Standard toolbar, click the Rectangle Tool arrow, and then click Ellipse Tool.
9 To draw an ellipse, using the rulers as guide, position the Ellipse tool over the intersection of the 4" (horizontal) and 6" (vertical) gridlines, hold down the mouse button, drag diagonally down and to the right until you reach the 5" (horizontal) gridline, and release the mouse button.
10 To draw a circle shape, using the rulers as a guide, position the Ellipse tool over the intersection of the 6" (horizontal) and the 6" (vertical) gridlines, hold down the SHIFT key, hold down the mouse button, drag diagonally down and to the right for about 3/4 of an inch, and release the SHIFT key and mouse button.
11 To switch from the Ellipse tool to the Pointer tool so that you can begin formatting shapes, on the Standard toolbar, click the Pointer Tool button.
12 To fill the selected shape with color, on the Formatting toolbar, click the Fill Color down arrow, and click the Light Yellow box (bottom row, third from left).
13 To fill another shape with color, click the ellipse shape in the center, and then on the Formatting toolbar, click the Fill Color down arrow, and click the Light Green box (bottom row, fourth from left).
14 To select all of the shapes on the drawing page, click the Edit menu, and click Select All.
15 To remove the black border from the selected shapes, on the Formatting toolbar, click the Line Weight arrow (third from right), and then click No Line.
16 To deselect the shapes, click the blank drawing page below the shapes.

Grouping and Merging Shapes

1 To begin drawing a circle, on the Standard toolbar, click the Rectangle Tool arrow, and click the Ellipse Tool button.
2 To draw a small circle on top of the green ellipse, position the mouse pointer over the center of the green ellipse, hold down the SHIFT key, hold down the mouse button, drag diagonally down and to the right the distance of one gridline, and release the SHIFT key and mouse button.
3 To switch from the Ellipse tool to the Pointer tool, on the Standard toolbar, click the Pointer Tool.
4 To select the green ellipse along with the small circle that is already selected, hold down the SHIFT key, click the green ellipse, and release the SHIFT key.
5 To group the green ellipse and the circle, click the Shape menu, point to Grouping, and click Group.
6 To subselect a shape in the ellipse group, on the ellipse, click the circle.
7 To fill the selected shape with color, on the Formatting toolbar, click the Fill Color arrow, and then on the Fill Color palette, click the Light Yellow color box (bottom row, third from left).
8 To begin merging two shapes, click the larger yellow circle at right, hold down the SHIFT key, click the pink circle, and release the SHIFT key.
9 To merge the two circles, click the Shape menu, point to Operations, and click Union.
10 To begin changing the pattern of a shape, click the irregular blue shape, click the Format menu, and click Fill…
11 To change the pattern used to fill the shape, in the Fill dialog box, in the Fill area, click the Pattern down arrow to display a list of patterns, and click 10:
12 To change the color of the dots used in the pattern, in the Fill dialog box, click the Pattern color down arrow, click 1: (White), and then click OK.

Customizing Shapes

1 To select the Pencil Tool so that you can begin adjusting the contours of shapes, on the Standard toolbar, click the Line Tool arrow, and click the Pencil Tool button.
2 To select the shape you would like to modify, on the drawing page, click the blue shape.
3 To modify the blue shape, point to the left most vertex (green diamond shape), and when a four-headed arrow appears, hold down the mouse button, drag the selected vertex down by four gridlines, and release the mouse button.
4 To select a vertex so that you can delete it, on the blue shape, click the lowest vertex (diamond shape).
5 Notice that the selected vertex is changed from green to magenta. To remove the vertex and redraw the blue shape, press the DELETE key.
6 To begin changing the curvature of the of an arc segment, click the lowest control point (green circle) to select it.
7 To change the curvature of the arc segment, point to the selected control point (magenta circle), and when the pointer changes to a four-headed arrow, hold down the CTRL key and the mouse button, drag two gridlines to the left, and release the CTRL key and the mouse button.
8 To change the symmetry of the arc segment, point to the left eccentricity handle (magenta circle), hold down the mouse button, drag to the left until it touches the shape’s green dotted selection border, and release the mouse button.
9 To add a vertex to the shape, hold down the CTRL key, click the top edge of the shape between the control handle and the right vertex, and release the CTRL key.
10 To indent the shape, point to the new vertex (diamond shape), and when a four-headed arrow appears, hold down the mouse button, drag downwards until it aligns with the vertex at left, and release the mouse button.

Creating Master Shapes and Stencils

1 To create a new stencil, click the File menu, point to Stencils, and click New Stencil.
2 To add a shape to the new stencil, point to the blue shape, hold down the mouse button, drag the shape into the Stencil1 window, and release the mouse button.
3 To change the name of the master shape, double-click the Master.0 label of the shape in Stencil1, type Thyme, and then click below the master shape to deselect it.
4 To view the master properties of the Thyme shape, on the shortcut menu, click Master Properties.
5 To add a prompt that will appear when you mouse over the Thyme master shape, in the Master Properties dialog box, click in the Prompt box, type large herb, and then click OK.
6 To view the new prompt, in the Stencil1 window, hold the mouse pointer over the Thyme master shape until the prompt appears.
7 To save the new stencil with other Visio stencils, on the Stencil1 title bar, click the Stencil1 icon (with the red asterisk), and in the drop-down menu, click Save.
8 To save the stencil with a new name, in the Save As dialog box, in the File name box, type Perennials, and then click Save.
9 To accept the default properties assigned to the new stencil, in the Perennials Properties dialog box, click OK.
10 To view the new stencil in the list of stencils, on the File menu, point to Stencils, and notice that Perennials appears at the bottom of the list of folders.

Creating New Templates

1 To begin creating a new template, click the File menu, point to New, and click New Drawing.
2 To begin opening a custom stencil that you have saved with other stencils in your C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Visio10\1033\Solutions folder, on the Standard toolbar, click the Open Stencil button.
3 To open the Perennials stencil, in the Open Stencil dialog box, in the Solutions folder, double-click Perennials.
4 To begin saving the current drawing page and stencil as a template, on the Standard toolbar, click the Save button.
5 To save this template in the Solutions folder, where all your other Visio templates are stored, in the Save As dialog box, click the Save As type arrow, and click Template.
6 To name the template and finish saving, in the File name box, double-click Drawing1, type Garden Plan, and click Save.
7 To accept the default settings, in the Garden Plan Properties dialog box, click OK.
8 To close the template file, in the upper-right corner of the Visio window, click the lower of the two Close buttons.
9 To reopen the new template from the list of Visio templates, click the File menu, point to New, and click Garden Plan.