Background Page Doesn't Do Title Blocks Well

[VKY]

Title blocks are extremely important if Visio wanted to venture beyond
organizational charts, and it is my sincere hopes that Microsoft will
take note and improve on this area in the next version.

A title block can consist of any combination of the following:

a) Static graphics - logos, etc.
b) Static text - address, company names.
c) Automatic data - scale, page number, etc.
d) User data (page scope) - page titles, drawn by, etc.
e) User data (document scope) - project name, revision number, etc.

The current use of background pages only caters for static graphics,
static text, automatic data and user data with document scope, where if
you have a background page with all of these, then everything works out
fine. But if you have user data with page scope, then it becomes a problem.

Having background pages that have other background pages (background
layering) is also not a good solution as it complicates the production
of a drawing and it's maintainance.

Having a background page and leaving out user data with page scope, and
then drawing these data on the page itself is also not a solution, as a
user has to remember to add in these data manually after setting the
background page.

There has to be a more elegant solution and a centralized way of working
with title blocks. Your comments on this issue and bringing it out to
find one in this newsgroup, is the intention of this post.

Sincerely,
VKY

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

So your basic suggestion is for access to page and document level
information beyond what is currently available or the ability to add to the
current information?
I'm not sure that this can not be done with the current Custom Formula, but
I have yet to crack the secret. (Hint: Chris do you have any ideas)

John... Visio MVP

 

[VKY]

So your basic suggestion is for access to page and document level
information beyond what is currently available or the ability to add to the
current information?
I'm not sure that this can not be done with the current Custom Formula, but
I have yet to crack the secret. (Hint: Chris do you have any ideas)

John... Visio MVP

My basic suggestion is for MS to make creation and editing of page level
and document level information easy and straight forward, especially
when it relates to title blocks. Current methods are way to inflexible
for the average user to create simple title blocks with the data I mention.

Currently, I can create custom property, for both page and document
scope, but to create it on a document level, you have to resort to the
shapesheet window and pressing the shift key, or the document explorer
window. Then you have to add in the custom section manually. There is no
editor. After that, you can draw a text box, and insert the field, and
point it to your document level custom property. But if it needed
editing, there is no other way, other than to go into the shapesheet
manually again.

Page level custom properties are worse when it comes to background as
title blocks. They simply do not work as they will display data on the
background page, not the page in which the background is displayed.

It is simply not acceptable that a program like Visio can't do title
blocks well, right?

VKY