Chapter 4: Adding Text to Shapes and Diagrams

Overview

Microsoft Office Visio 2003 was designed with the idea that any shape can have text, and all you do to insert that text is click and type. Text appears attractively formatted exactly where you need it. In theory, you should never have to think much about text in Visio except to consider what you want to say. Visio takes care of the rest.

In practice, most people spend a lot of time formatting and positioning text in their diagrams, because most diagrams contain a lot of text. In this chapter, text refers to lists, labels, notes, callouts, legends, tables, titles or title blocks, and so on. Visio includes many shapes that are specifically intended for adding formatted text to a diagram. For example, title block shapes on the Borders And Titles stencil make it easy to add preformatted titles to a diagram, and callout shapes are great for annotating a diagram.

Still, you’ll probably find yourself wanting to adjust the built-in formatting of a shape’s text, or maybe you can’t find an existing shape to use for your purpose. Maybe you just want to understand why Visio doesn’t work like Microsoft Word, or why some shapes don’t obey the usual click-and-type rule. This chapter provides the details you need to work with text in Visio.