Always having to fiddle!!!

[Bill]

Hi All,

I am not a regular user or expert but occasionally need to use Viso to model
business processes. I get on pretty well and it does the job for me but I
always seem to end up with my shapes or connectors not being aligned
correctly. Sometimes to get it right takes ages, and there are occasions
when I don't bother because 90% of the work is done and it is right, its
just that it could look better.

I appreciate that what I have said here is a bit vague but I am posting in
the hope that somebody might have a suggestion because I am sure it will be
down to something that I am doing wrong.

Regards.
Bill

 

[Al Gillis]

Hi All,

I am not a regular user or expert but occasionally need to use Viso to
model business processes. I get on pretty well and it does the job for me
but I always seem to end up with my shapes or connectors not being aligned
correctly. Sometimes to get it right takes ages, and there are occasions
when I don't bother because 90% of the work is done and it is right, its
just that it could look better.

I appreciate that what I have said here is a bit vague but I am posting in
the hope that somebody might have a suggestion because I am sure it will
be down to something that I am doing wrong.

Regards.
Bill

Hi Bill...
I was frustrated by the same thing - shapes that almost - but not quite-
lined up and made drawings a little less professional looking than I wanted.

So I began to use horizontal and vertical lines as well as rectangles
against which I align the various shapes in my drawings (some shapes were
centered on the lines rather than having an edge aligned). I put all these
lines in a layer called "Guide Lines" and make that layer visible but
non-printing. The result for me was better looking drawings and easier
placement of shapes. By making the Guide Line layer not visible you can
leave the lines in place (so future changes can take advantage of them
simply by making the layer visible again) but they won't show up when
viewing the drawing (or get copied into Word or Power Point documents,
either!).

You also might experiment with the "Snap" function... I usually draw with
"Tools, Snap & Glue" set to Ruler Subdivisions and Grid only, with other
choices turned off. For me and my drawings that keeps things from plopping
down most anywhere and gives me a little better control of where they wind
up.

Try it - you'll like it!

 

[Bill]

Thanks Al, will try what you suggest.
Regards.
Bill.

 

[Daniel Rohwer]

Bill,

Non-printable Guide Lines that you can snap shapes to are fundamental to
Visio. In the "View" pull-down menu, ensure that "Guides" and "Rulers" are
checked. You can then drag out horizontal and vertical guide lines from the
rulers that you can then snap and glue shapes to so they are in perfect
alignment.

A nice bonus is that if your shapes are glued to the guides then if you move
the guide then the shapes will move with it. Notice that if you do a print
preview the guides are not shown. You can find additional info at the
following url:

http://blogs.msdn.com/mailant/archive/2004/09/29/235911.aspx

This is a feature that was also in the desktop publishing product PageMaker.
I mention it because the co-founder of Visio, Ted Johnson, also was
instrumental in the development of PageMaker, and most likely brought that
useful feature to Visio.

I hope this helps.

Daniel Rohwer