Custom Properties manipulation

[ben h]

I am new to developing in Visio 2003, current experience is Excel VBA
and ASP/VB. I'm happy to learn some .NET (be it C# or VB) to achieve the
best result.

Issue is this: creating some wizards to collect some info from the
end-user, which is then to be stored in the Custom Properties of the
Background Page's PageSheet. This info is used in various shapes and
text fields in the final Visio document. I also plan to eventually store
all this info into a database, so using the Custom properties seems to
be the best way.

However: Custom properties are specific to a shape, and I want them
available to the end-user at all times when working on the document. So
i hoped there was a good way to display the Custom Properties for a
PageSheet in a window somewhere so the end-user could modify at any time
without having to select the PageSheet.

Is there anyone who has done this who can suggest a means for me to do it?

I looked at the SDK code library, and it has an anchor bar thingy. I
thought maybe I could store the Custom Properties of the PageSheet into
a form, and then display the form in an anchor bar. What do ya reckon???

Any suggestions would be great!

Ben

 

[Bernhard Marx]

Hello Ben,

it's possible to read and write the information of userdefined properites
via VBA. So IMO it's possible to do something you want.

Values from the userdefined properties can be gathered from the so calles
shapesheet. VBA has functions to read and write information to the
shapesheet.

Another point is you have to update the information in the windows every
time a user select a shape. So the shape should have an macro which is called
when a user select the shape to update the information of the shape in the
window.

Bernhard

 

[ben h]

Thanks Bernhard.

Another general question for anyone:
Is it better to do all this through and add-on developed in .NET or VB,
or as a VBA macro?

I want to be able to distribute it as simply as possible. However, the
solution will need to include a stencil and a template document or two.

Ben

 

[David Parker [Visio MVP]]

For Visio 2003, the use Visual Studio .net after downloading the Visio SDK,
because it includes vb.net , c# and C++ Visio addin/on wizards for Visual
Studio.
Also, you will need to use the Visio Publishing Tool (in the SDK) to update
the Windows installion, that you create with Visual Studio, for the stencils
and template.
Best with .net Framework 1.1