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If you wish, you could just create a shape out of your existing graphic files, clip art, or paper sketches, you can—by pasting a compatible image, importing a file, or scanning an image and then importing the scanned file. When you import an image, you create a Microsoft Visio graphic object. When you link or embed an image, you create an OLE object. On the drawing page, both graphic and OLE objects work on the whole like other Visio shapes, and you can use them to create masters.
Many files you import into Visio drawings as graphic or OLE objects are stored as Microsoft Windows metafiles, an exchange format used to store vector-based graphics. Raster-based graphics from BMP and DIB files are stored as bitmaps. You can edit both metafiles and bitmaps on the drawing page much like other shapes by moving, rotating, resizing, and adding text, geometry, or custom properties. And you can create a master from a metafile or bitmap. However, to provide additional editing capabilities, you can convert metafiles (but not bitmaps) to Visio shapes.
The simplest way to bring graphic images into a Visio drawing is to insert, or import, them. The result is a graphic object in either metafile or bitmap format, depending on the format of the original image.
The image is imported as a new graphic object in metafile format (if the original graphic was vector-based) or bitmap format (if the original graphic was a BMP or DIB file).
You can also open graphic files directly by clicking Open on the File menu, and then choosing the appropriate format for Files of type.
For most files you import, an import settings dialog box is displayed, where you can specify how you want the imported file to appear in a drawing. For example, if you're importing a file in PCT format, you can specify whether to retain gradients and background and how to translate colors.
Because the data can go through up to two translations before it appears in the Visio drawing—one when you export from the other program, and one when you import into the Visio drawing—the picture might not look exactly the way it does in the original program.
With some vector-based graphics, such as Adobe Illustrator (.ai) and Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) files, lines might appear jagged in the Visio drawing. You may get better results with these file formats if you convert them to Visio shapes. For details, see Converting Imported Metafiles to Shapes later in this section.
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You can work with imported metafiles and bitmaps, as well as OLE objects, in much the same way you do any Visio shape. Type to add text, use the drawing tools to rotate and resize objects, and so on. You can apply a line style to change the appearance of the object's border. If the object includes some empty space, such as a background, you can also apply a fill style, color, or pattern.
Bitmap images have additional properties that you can set via the ShapeSheets window to control brightness, contrast, and other attributes.
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For details about each cell, select the cell, and then press F1.
You can convert a graphic object in metafile format to a group or individual Visio shapes that can be formatted. Convert a metafile when you want to edit its component objects like individual shapes, apply fill color and patterns, or create intershape dependencies by writing formulas. Typically, you would convert a metafile to a group so that you could move it as a unit; however, if that's not an issue, convert it directly to shapes.
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