Introduction to Visio

• The strengths of Visio
• The role of Visio in the Microsoft Office suite
• Visio terminology

Visio Fundamentals

Basic drawing tools

• Rectangle
• Ellipse
• Line
• Arc
• Freeform
• Pencil
• Resizing and rotating shapes
• Aligning and distributing shapes
• Distinguishing between closed and open shapes

Navigating the drawing page

• Panning and zooming
• Viewing diagram details with multiple windows

Saving time with stencils and templates

• Maximizing reuse of drawing elements
• Creating customized shapes, stencils and templates
• Previewing built-in templates using the Diagram Gallery

Annotating diagrams

• Adding and formatting diagram text
• Moving text with the Text Block tool

Linking shapes with connectors

• Applying intelligent routing between shapes
• Connection strategies: point-to-point or shape-to-shape

Developing Business Process Diagrams

Visualizing organization structure

• Illustrating enterprise hierarchies with organization charts
• Automating diagram creation with the Organization Chart Wizard

Describing workflow

• Identifying flowchart shapes and their meanings
• Capturing sequences of tasks and decisions with flowcharts

Documenting project schedules

• Importing schedule information from Microsoft Project
• Preparing project timelines for use in presentations

Incorporating Visio diagrams in Microsoft Office applications

• Linking to diagrams to enable active sharing
• Embedding diagrams to preserve their current state
• Inserting subsections of a diagram

Creating Architectural Diagrams

Visualizing workspace layouts

• Configuring Visio for scaled drawings
• Mapping out office and home floor plans

Manipulating architectural diagrams

• Converting edges to walls
• Managing space sizes with guides

Documenting IT Projects

Commonly used IT templates

• UML
• Windows XP User Interface
• Network diagrams
• Illustrating database structures

Inserting hyperlinks and the importance of shape names

• The importance of database schema
• Reverse-engineering diagrams with the Database Wizard

Interacting with External Data Sources

Defining and managing shape data

• Locating shape data in ShapeSheets
• Generating reports

Linking drawing shapes with data

• Mapping ShapeSheet entries to database fields using the Database Wizard
• Modifying the database from a drawing

Managing Data Graphics

Creating data graphics

• Defining data graphics in the context of Visio
• Advantages of using data graphics
• Displaying external data on the data graphic
• Modifying the data graphics to convey information effectively