Resizing in Visio

[Melonie Brown]

I'm having issues with Visio not allowing me to resize shapes. It's
been a while since I used Visio, but I don't remember it being this much
of a pain. Let me lay out the steps that I followed.

I began with trying to create an UML Activity Diagram in Visio. I
clicked on File/New/Software/UML Model Diagram. I picked UML Activity
Diagram from the shape list. Then I placed an "Action State" shape on
the grid.

When I double clicked on it (instead of being able to type text), I got
a properties dialog box. That seemed a bit strange, but I typed text in
the name field and it resized the shape to fit the text. I attempted to
resize the shape to not be so long, but the shape had little padlocks at
each connection point. I removed the height/width protection by using
Format Protection. The padlocks changed to squares. When I attempted
to click on one of the squares to drag the shape to a new size, the
shape just moved. I have the double ended arrows indicating that a
resize should be allowed, but it's not happening. Is there a global
setting somewhere that controls this? If so, what do I need to change?

I'm not quite sure which version of Visio I have (the about dialog just
says "Visio(R) for Enterprise Architects (10.0.255)"

 

[Colin]

High Melanie,
Like you I am also having trouble with resizing the
shapes within the UML templates.

I have found one way of performing this, but it is rather
long winded.

if you select <tools><options><advanced> from the toolbar
and then check the 'run in developer mode' check box, you
can gain some access to the shapes attributes and
formulae.

You will then need to edit the shapes master and do the
following:
1. Select each of the layers that make up the shape in
turn and for each layer right click and select <show
shapesheet> This will display an excel like spreadsheet
window.

2. The attributes that I changed are as follows:

In the table headed 'Shape Transform' remove the 'GUARD'
from the width and height cell. This can be done by
double clicking on the cell and then deleting the text.
When done make sure you press <enter> on your keyboard
before clicking on the next cell (you will see why if you
dont do it). You will also need to remove the 'GUARD' in
the cells PinX, PinY, LocPinX, LocPinY. Finally make sure
that the resize mode cell is set to 2.

These should be the only cells that you have to amend.

Once you have done this for all of the layers that make
up the shape, close the edit master window and say yes to
the popup dialogue box.

You should now be able to drag the shape onto the page
and change its size (note you may have to unprotect the
shape in the usual manner, before resizing).

I arrived at this solution by trial and error and it does
seem to work, but you may have to do some fiddling of
your own to get the shape to respond in the manner that
you want it to.

One more thing, the template will not be altered until
you come out of edit mode when you will be asked to save
the changes that you have made. I guess as a precaution
you should make a backup copy of the template file just
in case.

Hope all this makes sense

regards

Colin.