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Once you’ve placed shapes
onto the drawing page, you will probably need to move or resize some of
them. Visio provides a variety of techniques for doing so. You can
alter shapes using your mouse or keyboard, or a combination of the two.
You can also use the Size & Position window.
Not all properties of all shapes can be modified through the user
interface, and you may not know which attributes are locked until you
attempt to make a change. You may even find that seemingly identical
shapes have been designed with very different capabilities and,
therefore, behave differently. Sometimes the locked attributes are very
simple, like the examples that you will encounter in this exercise.
Other times, shape attributes are locked in more complex ways.
Regardless of which attributes are locked, the shape designer’s goal is
typically the same: to ensure that shapes behave in particular ways for
particular drawing types.
In this exercise, you will change the characteristics of several
shapes by using the mouse, the keyboard, and the Size & Position
window. Note that the Visio grid lines have been turned on for this
diagram to make the actions in some steps more apparent.
Note
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Click once (don’t double-click) to select shape A.
The white squares that appear on a selected shape are referred to as selection handles, resize handles, or just handles, and allow you to alter the shape in the following ways:
You will use both types of handles in the exercise steps that follow. -
Drag the middle handle on the right edge of shape A to the right to increase the width of shape A. When you first begin to drag to the right, notice that green, double-headed arrows appear under shapes A and C. If fact, if you look at the lower part of the page, you’ll notice the same arrows under shapes D and E. Do not release the shape handle yet.
Important
The green, double-headed arrows are an important new dynamic
feedback feature in Visio 2013. They call attention to the fact that
the width of the shape you are modifying matches the width of other
shapes on the page. Although this example compares shape widths, the
same feedback is provided when shape heights match.
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Continue to drag the right handle of shape A further to the right until the Dynamic Grid feedback informs you that shape A is now the same width as shape B.
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Continue to drag the handle until shape A is wider than either B or C, and then release the resize handle.
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Drag the upper-right handle of shape A away from the shape to increase the size of the shape proportionally in both dimensions.
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Click once (don’t double-click) to select shape B,
and then try to drag either of the height resize handles (top center
and bottom center). You will not be able to adjust the height of the
shape. -
With shape B
still selected, drag the upper-right resize handle toward the upper
right. Notice that the shape gets wider but the height doesn’t change.
You aren’t able to change the height of shape B because the designer
of the shape chose to lock that shape property. You are allowed to
adjust the width but not the height.
Tip
Previous versions of Visio displayed locked handles with a different
color than unlocked handles. Visio 2013 does not make any visual
distinction.
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With shape B still selected, point to the circular arrow above the shape.
The circular arrow is the rotation handle.
When you point to it, the cursor changes to a curved arrow and an
additional selection handle appears in the center of the shape (it’s on
top of the letter B in the preceding graphic and is connected to the rotation handle by a thin, gray line). The new handle is the Center Of Rotation handle, commonly referred to in Visio as the pin.
Tip
When you rotate a shape, it rotates around the pin. To envision the
purpose of the pin, imagine that shape B is a piece of paper you’ve
stuck on your wall with a pin. If you rotate the piece of paper, it
will rotate around the pin.
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Drag the rotation handle clockwise approximately 90 degrees.
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Click once to select shape C and then try to rotate it.
You are not able to rotate it because that property has been locked for this shape. -
Select shape C
and reposition it by dragging it up and down; it behaves quite
normally. Then try dragging it side to side and you’ll discover that
you can’t do it, because the horizontal position is locked.
Tip
A shape designer might lock a few simple attributes as you’ve
observed in this exercise, or the designer might lock any of dozens of
other attributes, in order to make shapes behave as required for a particular type of drawing.
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Click once to select shape D, which is a subprocess shape from the Basic Flowchart Shapes stencil. All of the usual handles are available, as shown on the left in the following graphic, but there is a new style of control handle in the lower-left corner of the shape. Drag the yellow
control handle to the right and you’ll create the variation shown in
the right-hand image. As you drag the control handle in either
direction, notice that the shape was designed with movement limits for
the lines: you can only drag them a certain distance.
In the subprocess shape, the yellow control handle moves the
interior lines. If you drag the control handle far enough back to the
left, the interior lines effectively disappear. Even though they aren’t
visible, the continuing presence of the yellow square suggests that
they still exist; if you drag the square back to the right, the lines
will reappear.
Tip
You will find yellow control handles on a variety of the shapes in Visio stencils. Whenever you select a shape and notice a yellow
handle, it’s worth experimenting with it to learn how you can use it to
alter the shape’s appearance. If you make a change that you don’t like,
simply press Ctrl+Z to undo the modification.
In the remaining steps of this exercise, you will learn to use the
Size & Position window as another method for altering shape
appearance and location. -
Click once to select Shape E. Then on the View tab, in the Show group, click the Task Panes button, and then click Size & Position to open the Size & Position window. Position the new window to the left of Shape E.
Tip
Whenever you have selected one or more shapes, you can also open the
Size & Position window by clicking Width, Height, or Angle in the
status bar at the bottom of the Visio window.
The Size & Position window displays current values for six shape
attributes, but it also allows you to change those attributes. -
Click in the Width cell, type 2, and then press Enter.
The width of the cell changes to reflect the new value. Notice that you
didn’t need to type a value for units, because Visio uses the units
displayed in the cell as the default. By comparing the width of shape E with the ruler shown at the top of the following graphic, you can confirm that the shape is, indeed, 2 inches wide.
The X and Y cells in the Size & Position window reflect the
location of the pin of the shape on the page with respect to the
lower-left corner of the page. By comparing the values in the X and Y
cells in the preceding graphic with the rulers at the edge of the
drawing page, you can verify that the center of shape E is at X=7
inches and Y=3 inches. -
Click in the Y cell, type 4, and then press Enter.
By changing the Y value from 3 inches to 4 inches, you have moved the
shape higher on the page. You can confirm the new position of the shape
on the page by looking at the ruler shown on the left side of the
following graphic.
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Click in the Pin Pos cell, click Center-Left, and then press Enter.
Changing this setting moves the pin for the selected shape. The
following graphic shows the result of changing the pin to Center-Left.
Notice two things:
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The rotation handle is now on the left edge of the shape. -
The shape has shifted to the right on the page. This is because the
X and Y coordinates of the shape specify the location of the pin.
Because you have moved the pin within the shape, the location of the
shape on the page changes.
Tip
Using the Pin Pos
menu, you can relocate the pin based on a fixed set of pin positions.
You can also make freeform changes to the pin location by dragging the
Center Of Rotation handle described in step 8.
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Click in the Angle cell, type -90, and then press Enter. Typing -90 degrees is equivalent to dragging the rotation handle clockwise 90 degrees. The following graphic shows that shape E rotated around the new pin.
Note
CLEAN UP Close the Size & Position drawing. It is not necessary to save changes unless you want to.
Tip
If you select more than one shape before dragging a resize handle or making changes in the Size & Position window, the changes you make will affect all selected shapes.
In this exercise, you typed numbers into Size & Position window
fields to change the physical characteristics of a shape. However, you
can also use the Size & Position window in the opposite way—you can
move or alter a shape by dragging the control handles and then use the
window to observe the new dimensions or position values.
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