T
tlonski
Hi all,
Hopefully I'm doing this right.
JUSTIFICATION
Stencils are a fundamental mechanism in Visio for organizing and managing
shapes. Stencils identify a collection of related shapes. Yet there is no
mechanism in Visio to search for a stencil. Shape search only works at the
shape level. By default, shape search results are returned alphabetically.
For a shape in the search results, there is no easy way to determine which
stencil a shape belongs to unless the user has set the search shape options
to group the results instead of alphabetize the results. Further, Visio's
shape search searches locally and on the Web, yet provides poor visiblity to
the user on where the search results came from. Since users are not always
connected to the Internet (because they have dial-up from home, are mobile,
etc.) it's important to make this easily apparent so users know when to make
a local copy of a shape. A third weakness is that shape search is based on
keywords, yet Visio does not make the keywords easily accessible. If I've
found a shape that's close to what I want, I cannot look at its keywords. I
can drag the shape to my drawing and use "Find Similar Shapes" but that
requires extra steps and doesn't give me any way to control the search.
ENHANCEMENTS
-- Keep the current "Search for Shapes" implementation but also provide an
"Advanced Shape Search" command. This approach would be similar to the
capabilities in Outlook where a simple "Find a Contact" search is provided in
the toolbar but an "Advanced Find..." is provided under the tools pull-down
and on the pop-up context menu for Contacts.
-- Provide the option in "Advanced Search Shape" to search both stencil and
shape keywords. Search results can be either a stencil or a shape.
-- A Keyword field already exists in the stencil properties. However, I
don't think it has ever been used in the past. I can think of three possible
solutions for backwards compatability: 1) provide an option to treat
stencil/shape names as keywords, 2) provide an option to search by name
rather than keyword, 3) provide a function to copy stencil names into the
keywords field of the stencil properties. I've listed these solutions in
order of my preference.
-- Stencil properties are only accessible for user-created stencils. This
isn't consistent and hides information on Visio-supplied stencils. Make
Stencil properties always accessible, but read-only for Visio-supplied
stencils.
-- Shape Master properties are only accessible for user-created stencils and
only when the stencil is being edited. This creates several unnecessary
hurdles when a user wants to see the shape master properties. Move "Master
Properties..." from the "Edit Master" sub-menu to the top level context menu.
Make "Master Properties..." always accessible. Make it read-only for
Visio-supplied stencils or stencils that are not being edited. This request
and the previous one will make keywords more visible and accessible to the
users and facilitate using this information in searches.
-- Provide an easily visible indicator to show whether a search result
(stencil or shape) is local or on the Web.
-- When a search finds a stencil, allow the user to open the stencil. For
stencils found on the Web, also allow the user to install the stencil locally.
-- For shapes in a search result, provide a command in the shape's context
menu to open the parent stencil, i.e. the stencil that contains the shape.
Sorry this is so long, but I was trying to be complete. My understanding is
that this can be voted on in the discussion group and Microsoft tries to
implement suggestions based on the number of votes. Please vote for this if
you like these enhancements.
The original thread that generated this suggestion was "How install stencils
for shapes found on web?" and was started on 11/17/2004. It's copied below
to provide the background on the specific situation that led to the
suggestions above. Have fun reading bottom up.
Thanks for reading this far.
Tom Lonski
===================================================
I believe so. I'm using Outlook Express, so I don't get the fancy newsgroup
features. You can also send e-mail to (e-mail address removed).
--
Mark Nelson
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Hopefully I'm doing this right.
JUSTIFICATION
Stencils are a fundamental mechanism in Visio for organizing and managing
shapes. Stencils identify a collection of related shapes. Yet there is no
mechanism in Visio to search for a stencil. Shape search only works at the
shape level. By default, shape search results are returned alphabetically.
For a shape in the search results, there is no easy way to determine which
stencil a shape belongs to unless the user has set the search shape options
to group the results instead of alphabetize the results. Further, Visio's
shape search searches locally and on the Web, yet provides poor visiblity to
the user on where the search results came from. Since users are not always
connected to the Internet (because they have dial-up from home, are mobile,
etc.) it's important to make this easily apparent so users know when to make
a local copy of a shape. A third weakness is that shape search is based on
keywords, yet Visio does not make the keywords easily accessible. If I've
found a shape that's close to what I want, I cannot look at its keywords. I
can drag the shape to my drawing and use "Find Similar Shapes" but that
requires extra steps and doesn't give me any way to control the search.
ENHANCEMENTS
-- Keep the current "Search for Shapes" implementation but also provide an
"Advanced Shape Search" command. This approach would be similar to the
capabilities in Outlook where a simple "Find a Contact" search is provided in
the toolbar but an "Advanced Find..." is provided under the tools pull-down
and on the pop-up context menu for Contacts.
-- Provide the option in "Advanced Search Shape" to search both stencil and
shape keywords. Search results can be either a stencil or a shape.
-- A Keyword field already exists in the stencil properties. However, I
don't think it has ever been used in the past. I can think of three possible
solutions for backwards compatability: 1) provide an option to treat
stencil/shape names as keywords, 2) provide an option to search by name
rather than keyword, 3) provide a function to copy stencil names into the
keywords field of the stencil properties. I've listed these solutions in
order of my preference.
-- Stencil properties are only accessible for user-created stencils. This
isn't consistent and hides information on Visio-supplied stencils. Make
Stencil properties always accessible, but read-only for Visio-supplied
stencils.
-- Shape Master properties are only accessible for user-created stencils and
only when the stencil is being edited. This creates several unnecessary
hurdles when a user wants to see the shape master properties. Move "Master
Properties..." from the "Edit Master" sub-menu to the top level context menu.
Make "Master Properties..." always accessible. Make it read-only for
Visio-supplied stencils or stencils that are not being edited. This request
and the previous one will make keywords more visible and accessible to the
users and facilitate using this information in searches.
-- Provide an easily visible indicator to show whether a search result
(stencil or shape) is local or on the Web.
-- When a search finds a stencil, allow the user to open the stencil. For
stencils found on the Web, also allow the user to install the stencil locally.
-- For shapes in a search result, provide a command in the shape's context
menu to open the parent stencil, i.e. the stencil that contains the shape.
Sorry this is so long, but I was trying to be complete. My understanding is
that this can be voted on in the discussion group and Microsoft tries to
implement suggestions based on the number of votes. Please vote for this if
you like these enhancements.
The original thread that generated this suggestion was "How install stencils
for shapes found on web?" and was started on 11/17/2004. It's copied below
to provide the background on the specific situation that led to the
suggestions above. Have fun reading bottom up.
Thanks for reading this far.
Tom Lonski
===================================================
I believe so. I'm using Outlook Express, so I don't get the fancy newsgroup
features. You can also send e-mail to (e-mail address removed).
--
Mark Nelson
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.