Just a reminder: If you post a comment to me through the blog's Contact form, remember to put your email ! I've gotten comments from folks who ask a question that I'd like to respond to, but the poster forgets to provide their email or gives a wrong address...

Visio shapes often host properties in which users add details about the shape. For example, a network server shape in Visio 2003 lets you store IP address, server location, MAC address, and other information about the server. (You can access Shape Properties...

As I mentioned in my last blog on the Visio XML file format , Visio documents can be saved into a native XML Visio file format (.VDX) or Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). The Visio XML file format is not a W3C standard. SVG, which is a language for describing...

Visio has a native XML file format for a Visio drawing, a Visio template, and a Visio stencil. We do not have the ability to save a Visio drawing into any other XML schema but our own (and SVG, if you are using Visio 2003). If users want Visio diagrams...

I just heard about a nifty little application that iAdmin Mobile makes to let users view Visio diagrams on the PocketPC. It’s targeted at network administrators who want to browse Visio network diagrams on the go. Here’s what it might look like on the...

Visio has a way to let you automatically color shapes by the values in the shape’s custom properties. Consider the case of an organization chart. By default, there are a number of custom properties on an organization chart shape, such as Name, Title,...

There are two ways to process the text in shape text. You can use Shape.Text, which returns a string that contains placeholders for fields. I would use Shape.Text if I just wanted to read or write a string that did not contain any fields. If you think...

Visio shape gradients provide a fast way to give your shapes a professional-looking polish, especially for flowcharts and other diagrams that will be seen by a wide audience. You can set the gradient by selecting the shape, right-clicking, choosing Format...

Visio solutions comes in three forms: Visio add-on, COM add-in, and VBA code stored in the document. This article on MSDN describes the differences between add-ons and add-ins. Most of the new solution development that I’ve seen use COM add-ins, which...

The double-click event in Visio is driven by the Shapesheet. To prototype how this works, drop a shape onto a Visio page and go into that shape’s Shapesheet. Scroll down to the Event section in the Shapesheet (it’s towards the bottom) and look for the...

Visio hotkey combinations save you time and wrist flexibility. Here are the top hotkey combinations that I use every time I use Visio. Zoom in (Ctrl + mouse left-click ) and zoom out (Ctrl + mouse right-click ) Zoom so that a selection box fills the screen...

Visio 2003 introduced mouse and keyboard events into the Visio object model. These events are not shape-specific. The events return the x and y co-ordinates (in internal Visio units) for where the event occurred on the window or drawing page. The implementation...

A common question that I’ve seen on the Visio developer newsgroups asks for more information on automating the UML or Database Modeling functionality. There is no published automation model for UML or Database Modeling, which tends to puzzle most developers...

I’m back after a week out with a cold that has now visited each family member. Thanks to blog commenters for their well wishes, that was nice of you all! I wanted to talk about a handy way to store and re-use your favorite shapes in Visio. Most of the...

I’ve got a nasty cold right now. That first few weeks after school starts is one big sick-fest with kids happily swapping bugs and then bringing them home. So this will be a short blog. I promise to spend more time on developer topics next week, I know...