Contents

Introduction: Start with a template

Create a new diagram

Open a diagram

Save a diagram

Add a shape

Add a connector between two shapes

Add text to shapes or to the page

Add data to a shape

Connect data sources to shapes

Format your diagram

Print your diagram

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What is Visio?

Visio 2010 is a graphical and drawing application that provides pre-made shapes and connectors that you arrange on a page to create flowcharts, maps, and technical diagrams. Visio provides templates for a diverse set of diagramming needs, including IT management, process modeling, building and architecture, UI design, human-resource management, project management, and more.

Data-connected Visio diagrams

Instead of static pictures, you can create data-connected Visio Professional 2010 and Visio Premium 2010 diagrams that display data. You can integrate data to shapes from a variety of real-time data sources, including Excel, Access, SQL, SharePoint lists, or any OLEDB or ODBC data source, with just a few clicks in a Data Wizard.

Web drawings with Visio Services

You can publish Visio Professional 2010 and Visio Premium 2010 web drawings using Visio Services, a feature of SharePoint Server 2010 that renders interactive and data-connected diagrams. Anyone who has access to the SharePoint site can view the diagrams, even if they don't have Visio installed. When your web diagrams are connected to a refreshable source file, viewers can see real-time data within the shapes, giving them an accurate and up-to-date picture.

Start with a template

Templates in Visio include the shapes that are used in that diagram type. For example, map templates include road, building, tree, and other landmark shapes, and network diagram templates include computer, server, router, and other shapes.

To start a diagram in Visio, do the following:

On the File tab, click New.

Under Choose a Template, do one of the following:

To use one of the built-in templates, under Template Categories, click the category that you want, and then click the template that you want and click Create.

To reuse a template that you’ve recently used, under Recently Used Templates, click the template that you want and then click Create.

To use your own template that you previously created, under Other Ways to Get Started, click New from existing, navigate to the file that you want and click Create New.

To find a template on Office.com, under Other Ways to Get Started, click Office.com templates, select the template that you want, and then click Download to download the template from Office.com to your computer.

Note You can also search for templates on Office.com from within Visio. Under Other Ways to Get Started, click Office.com templates. In the Search Office.com for templates box, type one or more search terms, and then click the arrow button to search.

Create a new diagram

Click the File tab. This opens up the Backstage view.

Note You are in the Backstage view when you first open Visio. If you have just opened Visio, proceed to the next step.

Click New.

Under Template Categories, click the category that you want, and then click the template that you want.

Click Create.

When the diagram template opens, most of the space is taken up with a blank diagramming page. Along the side is the Shapes window, which contains several stencils full of shapes. The stencils are identified by title bars at the top of the Shapes window; you might need to scroll the title bar pane to see them all. When you click a stencil title bar, the shapes appear in the pane below.

To see information about a template, select it and look in the details pane on the right. For more information, see How can I tell what each Visio template is for?.

Open a diagram

Click the File tab, and then click Open.

In the left pane of the Open dialog box, click the drive or folder that contains the drawing.

In the right pane of the Open dialog box, open the folder that contains the drawing that you want.

Click the drawing and then click Open.

Save a diagram

You can save your diagram as a standard Visio file that you can share with other people who have Visio. In addition, there are many different formats that you can save your diagram in directly from the Save As dialog box.

Click the File tab.

Click Save As, and then select a format in the Save as type list.

The different formats are useful for different ways of using or sharing your diagram.

Standard image file including JPG, PNG, and BMP formats.

Web page in HTM format Image files and other resource files are saved in a subfolder of the location where you save the HTM file.

PDF or XPS file

AutoCAD drawing in DWG or DXF format.

For more information, see Saving and printing in Visio 2010.

Add a shape

From the Shapes window, click and hold the shape that you want.

Drag the shape onto the diagram page.

For more information about how to add shapes, see Use the Shapes window to organize and find shapes and Find more shapes and stencils.

Add a connector between two shapes

AutoConnect with the mini toolbar

Drag a first shape onto the drawing page.

Hold your pointer over the shape that is already on the page. Notice that small blue arrows appear on the four sides of the shape. These are AutoConnect arrows that you can use to connect shapes. 

Move the pointer to cover one of the arrows.

A mini toolbar that contains four shapes appears, and a preview shape might also appear on the page. As you move the pointer over the shapes in the mini toolbar, previews of the shapes appear. The shapes on the toolbar are the top four shapes from the Quick Shapes area.

Click one of the shapes in the mini toolbar to add it to the page.

AutoConnect with drag and drop

Drag one shape onto the drawing page.

Drag a second shape onto the drawing page and hold it so it covers the first shape, but do not drop it yet. Notice that the AutoConnect arrows appear. 

The Analyze shape is held over the bottom AutoConnect arrow of the Service Request shape.

Move the second shape over the AutoConnect arrow that points in the direction that you want, and drop it on the arrow.

The Analyze shape is dropped on the bottom arrow of the Service Request shape, and is connected automatically.

Connect shapes that are already on the page

Hold the pointer over the shape you want the connector to come from. 

When the AutoConnect arrows appear, move the pointer over an arrow that is pointing toward the shape that you want to connect to.

Click and hold the AutoConnect arrow, and then drag a connector from it to the center of the other shape.

When the arrow is over the center of the other shape, a red border appears around the shape. Drop the connector to attach it, or "glue" it, to the shape.

For more information about how to connect shapes, see Connect shapes by using AutoConnect or the Connector tool.

Add text to shapes or to the page

Add text to a shape

Select the shape that you want to add text to.

Type the text that you want.

When you start typing, Visio switches the selected shape to text editing mode. To add another line of text, press ENTER.

Click an empty area of the page, or press ESC when you are finished.

Select the shape again. A small yellow control handle appears in the text area. Drag the yellow control handle to move the text.

 Add text to the page

On the Home tab, in the Tools group, click the Text tool.

Click an empty area of the page. A text box appears.

Type the text that you want.

On the Home tab, in the Tools group, click Pointer Tool to stop using the Text tool.

The text box now has the characteristics of other shapes. You can select it and type to change the text, you can drag it to another part of the page, and you can format the text by using the Font and Paragraph groups on the Home tab. In addition, when you hold the pointer over the text, AutoConnect arrows appear so you can connect the text to other shapes.

For more information about how to add text blocks, see Add, edit, move, or rotate text and text blocks.

Add data to a shape

Enter data into a shape's data property

Select a shape on the drawing page.

Right-click the shape and then click Shape Data.

In the Shape Data window, in the property row that you want, enter the data that you want.

Define a new data property for a shape

Select a shape on the drawing page.

Right-click the shape and then click Define Shape Data.

In the Define Shape Data dialog box, click New.

In the Label box, delete the default text and type a name for the property.

In the Type list, select the type of data that you want to be entered into that property.

Tip If you want the property to accept text (like a person’s name) as the type of data, select String.

In the Value box, type the data that you want to store.

Click OK.

Right-click the shape again, point to Data, and this time click Shape Data.

The Shape Data window opens and displays all the data that has been defined for the shape. If all of the shapes have specific information, you can leave the Shape Data window open and click the shapes you are interested in to see the data that they contain.

For more information, see Data in diagrams.

Connect data sources to shapes

If your data is in a database or an Excel workbook, you can pull that data into your diagram automatically and connect the rows of data with specific shapes.

Use the Data Selector wizard to import your data into the External Data window.

The data that appears in the External Data window is a snapshot of your source data at the time of import. You can update the data in your drawing to match the changes in your source data by clicking Refresh All on the Data tab.

On the Data tab, in the External Data group, click Link Data to Shapes.

On the first page of the Data Selector wizard, choose which of the following types of data sources have the data you're using:

Microsoft Office Excel workbook

Microsoft Office Access database

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services list

Microsoft SQL Server database

Other OLEDB or ODBC data source

Complete the remainder of the wizard.

After you click Finish on the last page of the Data Connection wizard, the External Data window appears with your imported data shown in a grid. Drag a row of data onto a shape to add automatically the data to the Shape Data for that shape. Or, in the Shapes window, select a shape that you want to hold the data, and then drag a row of data and drop it on an empty area of the page. The selected shape is added to the page, connected to the data.

For more information, see Data in diagrams.

Format your diagram

Apply a background

Click the Design tab.

In the Backgrounds group, click Backgrounds.

Click the background that you want. A new background page is added to the diagram, which you can see in the page tabs along the bottom of the diagramming area.

Apply a border or title to your drawing

On the Design tab, click Borders & Titles.

Click the title that you want.

The title and border are added to the background page (named VBackground-1 by default). To change the title and other text, you must make the changes on the background page; you can't change the title on any other pages.

At the bottom of the diagramming area, click the VBackground-1 tab.

Click the title text and type the page title. The entire border is selected, but when you start typing it changes the default title text.

To edit other text in the border, first select the entire border, and then click the text you want to change and start typing.

Apply a unified color scheme and other formatting effects

On the Design tab, in the Themes group, hold your pointer over the various themes. A preview of the theme shows up on the page.

To see other available themes, click More.

Click the theme you want to apply to the diagram.

For more information, see Formatting diagrams.

Print your diagram

Click the File tab and then click Print.

To print the diagram, click Print.

In the Print dialog box, do the following:

In the Name box, select the printer that you want (if it is not already selected).

Under Page range, specify the pages in the drawing that you want to print.

Under Copies, specify the number of copies that you want to print.

Click OK when you are ready to print.

For more information, see Saving and printing in Visio 2010.

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