The name of a Visio shape is not unique on a page. The name is only unique in its container . Visio developers often try to identify shapes or types of shapes using the Shape.Name property. This can cause problems for two reasons: users can modify the...

Visio 2003 has two resource toolkits which have similar names. The Microsoft Office Visio 2003 Resource Kit Tools targets the IT professional who is deploying Visio 2003 in a corporate environment . This toolkit is free for download, and contains tools...

Readers of my last blog on conceptual architecture shapes asked why they couldn’t find the new networking shapes with the latest version of Visio for Enterprise Architects (10.0.5110). Releases of Visio for Enterprise Architecture (VEA) and Microsoft...

I’ve gotten multiple requests from blog readers to show how to get the same visual quality as seen in architectural diagrams posted on MSDN articles. Typically the Microsoft authors of MSDN articles use Visio to create the diagram. The diagram is then...

1. Avoid Holding onto Multiple Visio Objects : If you need to keep track of Visio, pages, documents or shapes, use IDs instead of objects. A given shape can always be associated with a tuple <document ID, page ID, shape GUID>. 2. Use AddAdvise/IVisEventSink...

We’ve put together a kit with two Visio partners, Fluke Networks and Altima Technologies, that provides an auto-discovery tool and lots of manufacturer-specific network shapes. Fluke Network’s LAN MapShot is an auto-discovery tool that crawls your network...

Alexey Nichkov, a creative and expert Visio user, put together this varient on the person shape as a post on my last blog. I love it! Especially the Batman and Robin. The JPG takes a while to download so be patient -- it's up there. Alexey has other cool...

If you type “person” or “user” in the Find Shape or Search for Shapes window in Visio, you get the following results. I’m not fond of the majority of these options. I think the best shape to use to represent a single user, customer, citizen, or person...

Visio has a depth and variety to templates that you will miss if you only use the Basic Shapes or Blocks stencils. For an overview and samples of diagram types, go to the Help menu and click on the Diagram Gallery option (in Visio 2003). This handy gallery...

If you’re new to Visio, check out the Step-by-Step with Visio 2003 book. It provides an introduction to the product and comes with a CD with exercises. If you’re somewhat familiar with Visio but interested in getting more out of the product, the Visio...

Chris Castillo, Visio’s Application Development Consultant and .NET developer extraordinaire, has started a blog on Visio solution development with a focus on .NET development: http://blogs.msdn.com/chcast . Check it out! It’s 100%-focused on developer...

The Visio XML file format, as discussed earlier , is a physical file format with all the information that Visio needs to render the diagram with the same fidelity as the binary file format. Let’s consider the case in which a developer wants to use the...