1. Interaction Design: Visio

2. About MS Visio
MS Visio is a tool that allows you map user workflows, website sitemaps, website pages, software screens, forms, charts, database models etc

3. Launching Visio Click the Start button Point to Programs
Click Microsoft Visio

4. Open a new drawing file without basing it on a template
On the File menu, point to New, and then click New Drawing
An unscaled drawing page opens without stencils

5. Drawing Shapes Select either rectangle or ellipse tools
Move cursor to drawing page
Draw shape
Selected shape is displayed

6. Selecting a Shape Select Pointer Tool Select Shape
Outline appears on shape..
You can now format the shape etc..

7. Formatting Shapes Select shape Right click on mouse and select Format
View Format menu and select option

8. Changing Colour Select shape Right click on mouse and select Format
Select Fill and choose options
Alternatively, select fill shortcut from menu bar

9. Changing Outline Style
Select shape
Right click on mouse and select Format
Select Line and choose options

10. Adding Text to Shape
Select shape
Double click on shape and write text

11. Inserting Text
Select Text tool
Draw text box
Write Text

12. Moving Shape Select shape
Move shape around using up and down keys on keypad or by dragging

13. Drawing Lines Select Line Tool type from tool bar
Options include Line tool, Arc Tool, Freeform Tool & Pencil Tool - To draw a straight line, use Line Tool - To draw curved line, select Arc Tool

14. Drawing Straight Lines
Select Line Tool
Move cursor to page and draw line in specific direction
Line appear on page
Now you can format your line e.g. change style, colour etc

15. Drawing Types & Templates
MS provides a range of drawing types
For example …Block Diagram, Building Plans, Database, Electrical Engineering, Flowcharts, Forms and Charts, Map, Mechanical Engineering, Network, Organization Chart, Process Engineering, Project Schedule, Software, Web Diagram
Each drawing type contains a range of templates

16. Templates
A template includes everything you need to create a drawing, from the drawing page to shapes and styles
Using a template ensures consistency across your drawing files, so you can focus on what goes on the page while the template provides a consistent starting point
But you don’t have to use templates, you can create drawings from scratch…

17. Templates
When you start a drawing based on a template, a Microsoft Visio file opens that contains the following:
One or more stencils containing related shapes.
A blank drawing page that has a grid and measurement system appropriate for the type of drawing you are creating.
For scaled drawing types, a drawing page set up with the correct scale and page size.
Styles for text, lines, and fills appropriate to the type of drawing you are creating.

18. Create a new drawing based on a template
Click the Start button, point to Programs, and then click Microsoft Visio
On the File menu, point to New, and then click Choose Drawing Type
In the Category list, click the category of drawing you want to create
Under Template, click the specific type of drawing you want to create

19. Templates of Interest to Us
You can use a number of templates, if wish
Browse through templates in the following drawing types: - Software e.g. Windows User Interface - Web Diagram - Workflow

20. Sample Drawings Visio provides sample drawings for each drawing type
On the File menu, point to New, and then click Browse Sample Drawings.
Locate the drawing you want to open, and then double-click the name of the drawing

21. Open existing drawing files
On the File menu, click Open
In the Look In list, open the folder that contains the file or files you want to open
To open a single drawing file, select it.
To open multiple drawing files, press CTRL and then click the files you want to open.
Click Open

22. About stencils and masters
When you start a new drawing by opening a template, one or more task-related stencils open next to the drawing page
Stencils store masters, which you can drag onto a page to add shapes to your drawing
To find masters that do not appear on an open stencil, open additional stencils

23. Open additional stencils
On the File menu, point to Stencils, and then click Open Stencil
Double-click the solution folder that contains the stencil or stencils you want to open
To open a single stencil, select it
To open multiple stencils, press CTRL and click the stencils you want to open
Click Open

24. Close a stencil
Right-click the stencil title bar
Click Close

25. Change how shapes are displayed on a stencil
Right-click a stencil title bar, and then do one of the following
To display icons and names, click Icons and Names
To display icons only, click Icons Only
To display shape names only, click Names Only
To display icons, names, and shape descriptions, click Icons and Details

26. About Microsoft Visio drawing file summary properties
You can assign summary properties, such as title, subject, author, and description, to Microsoft Visio drawing files to help you and other users search for and identify the files
For example, if you create a file and enter "Company Picnic" for the subject, you can later locate the file by searching for that term
After you save a file for the first time, the Drawing Properties dialog box appears by default

27. About Microsoft Visio drawing file summary properties
On the Summary tab, you can type the title, subject, author, the author's manager, and a company name. You also can assign a category and keywords and describe the file, and you can specify whether to save a preview of the first page of the drawing file or of all pages in the file

28. Saving Your Work
As you work on a drawing, save the drawing file frequently
When you change a stencil or template, save these files too
How you save a Microsoft Visio drawing file (*.vsd) or XML drawing file (*.vdx) affects what happens the next time you open it

29. Saving Your Work
The first time you save a file, you are prompted to save property information e.g. author, title etc
If you enter this information, it appears in the Open Dialog box, to help you identify the file
You can save a drawing as a template (*.vst), an XML template (*.vtx), that you can use as a model for other drawings
To prevent someone from editing your drawing, you can save it as read-only

30. Save a drawing file for the first time
On the File menu, click Save As
In the Save in list, open the folder in which you want to save the file
In the File name box, type a name for the drawing file, and then click Save
On the Summary tab of the Drawing Properties dialog box, enter any information you want to associate with the file, and then click OK

31. About shapes and drawings saved in .jpg, .gif, or .png format
You can save a Microsoft Visio drawing in one of the following graphic formats
.jpg (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
.gif (Graphics Interchange Format)
.png (Portable Network Graphic)
These are all formats that you can distribute over the Internet or your intranet
Virtually all Web browsers support the .jpg and .gif formats

32. About Shapes The term shape refers to anything on a drawing page:
Shapes drawn with the drawing tools
Shapes dragged from stencils
Connector lines connecting shapes
Blocks of text
Objects from other programs that are imported, embedded, or linked
Guides

33. Shapes and Formatting
You cannot apply all types of formatting to all shapes
For example, you cannot apply a fill format to lines, text blocks, and embedded objects, and you cannot apply a line format to text blocks
A shape's appearance is determined by the formatting applied to that shape
Formatting consists of many individual settings, separated into three groups: fill, line, and text

34. Styles & Shapes
You can assign a style to a shape as a way to determine the shape's formatting
When you assign the same style to many shapes, those shapes share common, standardized formatting

35. Styles, Templates & Shapes
You can assign more than one style to a single shape
You can assign a different style for fill, line, and text to a shape
When you change styles, you change all the shapes that use that style
For this reason, changing styles is an efficient way to globally change the look of the shapes in your drawing

36. Local Formatting
You can make custom changes to any aspect of a shape's formatting
These changes become part of that shape, overriding the formatting defined by its assigned styles
This process is called local formatting

37. Local Formatting
When you apply a style to a shape, you can do one of the following:
Preserve any local formatting in the shape
Remove all local formatting and force the shape to use only the style's formatting

38. Local Formatting For example:
If a computer shape in a network diagram has the Net-Normal style assigned, you can change the shape's text from normal to italic
If a process shape in a flowchart has the Flow-Normal style assigned, you can change the fill color of the shape from white to blue

39. Default Styles
You can define default fill, line, and text styles for your drawing
When you use a drawing tool to draw a new shape, the new shape is assigned the default styles

40. Default Styles
However, if no shapes on a drawing page are selected and you change any formatting, the new formatting is applied to all new shapes you draw until you reapply the original setting
For example, if you click the Bold button, all shapes you subsequently draw will have bold text until you turn bold off

41. Related shapes often have the same formatting
Formatting for shapes you drag from stencils is defined by styles that you can edit
Frequently, the same styles are applied to all related shapes on a stencil
Therefore, you can change the formatting for all the shapes in a drawing at once by editing the styles

42. Undo
If you make formatting changes to a shape and then decide you prefer the previous formatting, undo your formatting immediately
Or, you can revert to the styles associated with the shape's master

43. Templates
When you know that you'll be creating multiple drawing files that need a consistent look, you can create a template on which to base all the drawings
Creating your own template eliminates the need to open the appropriate stencils, create styles, and establish page settings for each drawing file, because they are all contained in one place

44. How Styles become part of a Template
To make a particular style available in future drawings, you can either define or edit the current drawing in an existing template or save the drawing file as a new template
The new style becomes part of that template
When you define or edit styles in a drawing file, the changes you make are available only in the current drawing

45. How Styles become part of a Template
To make a style available in drawings you'll create later, you can define or edit it in an existing template or save the drawing file in which you created the style as a new template
The style will be included in every new drawing you create that is based upon that template
When you edit or define a style, the color palette in the template on which you base your drawing determines the colors you can choose

46. How Styles become part of a Template
All Visio templates use a default color palette
You can change the color palette a drawing uses or modify the colors within the default color palette

47. When to Create a Template
Create a template when you make drawings that consistently use the same stencils, styles, and page settings
Then you can base new drawings on this template, and you can distribute the template to other people

48. Creating a Template
The easiest way to create a template is to create a drawing file that has the settings you want, open the stencils you want, and then save the drawing as a template (.vst) file
If you simply want to change some of the settings of an existing Visio template, you can base a drawing on that template, save it with a new name, and then make your changes

49. Apply styles Select one or more shapes to format
On the Format menu, click Style, and from the Text style, Line style, and Fill style lists, click the styles you want, and then click OK
To continue working on styles, click Apply instead

50. Define a new style On the Format menu, click Define Styles
Under Style, in the Name list, click <New style>, and then type a name for the new style
To base a new style on an existing style, click that style in the Based on list
Under Includes, select the attributes that you want your style to include
A style can include any combination of text, line, and fill attributes

51. Define a new style
Under Change, click Text, Line, or Fill to change the settings for that attribute
Specify the settings you want for each attribute you selected

52. Defining a New Style
To add the new style and, if you selected shapes in your drawing, apply it to the selected shapes and close the dialog box, click Apply
To add the new style and, if you did not select any shapes in your drawing, close the dialog box, click OK
To add the new style and continue working on styles in the dialog box, click Add

53. Edit a Style On the Format menu, click Define Styles
Under Style, in the Name list, click the style you want to edit
To rename the style, click Rename, type a new name for the style, and then click OK
To change the style settings, under Change, click the attributes you want to edit

54. Edit a Style When you have finished editing, do one of the following
To add the changes to the style and close the dialog box, click OK (when no shapes are selected) or click Apply (when shapes are selected)
To add the changes and continue working in the dialog box, click Change