Sizing a Label

[Trevor W]

Forgive me, I just downloaded the trial of Visio 2007 and I am curious why I
cannot resize the label? The default behavior is horrible - does anyone
actually like or prefer that some built-in formula determines height and
width and that a user cannot resize the label at all?

Seriously, why is this?

How is someone supposed to "conveniently" resize a label to fit their
drawing the way they like it?

 

[Paul Herber]

On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:48:01 -0700, Trevor W <Trevor

Forgive me, I just downloaded the trial of Visio 2007 and I am curious why I
cannot resize the label?

What label?

 

[Trevor W]

What label?

Create a new document >> Software and Database >> Enterprise Application

Add a "label", add text to the label, now try to resize it!

 

[David Parker]

I've looked at this label, and found that the width of the text block is
fixed to the height of the shape!
Strange, but true!
So, all you need to do is open the Size and Position window and edit the
Height value.
This has no effect on the line because it is a 1D shape.
By the way, you can use arithmetic expressions in the Size and Position
window.

 

[Trevor W]

Thanks for a form of "work-around", but doesn't the lack of sizing seem to be
bad design?

The label control simply needs resize handles... most users are not
programmers and do not want to calculate math constraints. Visio is supposed
to be user-friendly and with every new generation (IMO), the design is
enhanced towards programmer types and advanced users, not the far larger
audience of basic users.

I could list many defects with every major category of new drawings where
such behavor just turns off new users. At some point ,someone has got to do a
simple test with new users and isolate the features that are not intuitive.

With all the resources available, this lack of effort seems troubling.

 

[David Parker]

I'm not arguing with you.
A suitable control handle could do the trick!