Chapter 2: Quickly Formatting Shapes and Diagrams

Creating a Diagram

It's time to stop fooling around with the appetizers and start on the meat of Microsoft Office Visio 2007. In one form or another many workers use Office Visio 2007 to share thoughts, and the sharing is through the diagrams they create. Assembling a basic diagram is easy; you just drag master shapes from stencils and drop them on the page, connect them as necessary (or use the auto-connect feature in Microsoft Office 2007), and adjust the shape's position on the page. You can apply the new themes feature to enhance your diagram.

Make no mistake, not all drawings and business diagrams fall together this way, but most business diagrams do. On the other hand, if you are using Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007 to create a floor plan, process engineering diagram, database model, UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagram, or Web site map, you should refer to the chapters about those kinds of diagrams for additional guidance. What you will find in the next few thousand words are the fundamental techniques for working with Visio shapes and pages that apply to most diagram types. Let's go!