Embedding Visio objects

[teamplay]

Months ago, I set out to figure out what desktop publishing (DP) app would be
the best companion to Visio 2003. Here’s how I wanted to work: 1) create
diagrams in a multi-page Visio file, 2) create page layout and text in the DP
app, 3) embed Visio objects throughout the DP document, 4) make final
revisions from within the DP doc by opening and editing the Visio objects as
required, 5) end up with a document that is fully editable and is a small,
efficient file size, and 6) repurpose the Visio diagrams into Word or
PowerPoint or raster form by Copy/Paste Special from the DP document into
another program. What I especially wanted to avoid was having to create
raster images of each Visio diagram, then import each into the document, then
repeat the whole process every time a tiny edit was needed. By keeping the
diagrams in Visio vector form in a DP document, I thought I would preserve
editability and conserve file size.

That is not what’s happened. Problem #1: excessive file size. Problem #2: I
sometimes get a message that the OLE Object was no longer available (I find
this happens occasionally even between Excel and Word.) The worst problem is
that the objects and metafiles aren’t true to the original diagrams. Fill
color becomes a new rectangle behind an ellipse or an arrow.

Solutions?

Thanks,

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

You are fighting against limitations in OLE with this approach. Every
object you embed into your DP document causes the entire Visio document to
be embedded. If you embed 10 images from the Visio document, you get 10
copies of the Visio document embedded in the DP document. If you try to
embed using links, you can run into the second problem you list if something
gets screwed up.

Also note that the Visio file size is not compact, even if you did end up
with a single copy of the information. Visio shapes are very flexible and
capable objects. This power comes at the expense of size. A Visio shape
can be 5 to 50 times larger than an equivalent vector description in a
metafile.

I personally find that pasting enhanced metafile images into a document from
a separate Visio file works the best. If you dedicate the Visio document
for use exclusively with the publishing document, you avoid issues where the
original graphic has changed or is missing.

There are many users that consider Visio itself to be a viable desktop
publishing application. That is not the real purpose of Visio, but Visio
provides just enough flexibility on page layout to be valuable.