Windows 10: Diagramming is much easier now in Visio for the web

Brink · Sep 16, 2020

Over the past few months, weâve addressed several major asks from our Visio for the web users. Weâre announcing some of these for this first time today, like hyperlinks and copy diagrams across files, and recapping others that were released earlier this year, like export as image and multipage operations. Each of these is available for licensed users, although certain limited capabilities are available for Visio Viewer and unlicensed users. Read on for a quick overview of each feature.

Hyperlinks

You can now add links to diagram shapes that redirect to a web page, another file stored online, or a sub process or page within same file. You can even insert an email address that prompts the shape to create a draft email when selected.

To insert links, choose the appropriate shape, select the link option from the Insert tab or from the right-click options, and pick the link type.

URL: Link shapes to a webpage or any document that has been stored online, including Visio files.

Page in this file: Link shapes to a diagram on another page within the same Visio file.

Email address: Enable shapes to create a draft email with the recipientâs pre-filled address.

Unlicensed users can still access hyperlinks but cannot insert or edit them.

Refer to our support article to learn more about how to add links to your diagrams.

Copy diagrams across files

Reusing existing diagram parts just got a lot easier. You can now copy diagrams and diagram parts from one Visio file and paste them into another. Simply select the entire diagram or a single shape and use the Copy function

from the ribbon; right click and select Copy; or, press CTRL + C on your keyboard. Pasting the copied element works the same way: Paste

from the ribbon, right-click options, or CTRL + V on your keyboard.

This functionality is available in both Visio for the web and Microsoft Teams. The copied diagrams or shapes will follow the destination theme, while any specific formatting you applied in the source file (other than the theme) will be respected and retained in the destination file.

The use cases for copy-paste in Visio for the web are endless. For example, you can copy a diagram part from one file and paste it into another to build out that part more completely. Conversely, you can merge multiple subprocesses from different files to create one final process.

Export as image

With this feature, you can save your Visio for the web diagrams as an image file locally on your device to reuse it anywhere at any time.

To export a Visio diagram as an image, go to the File menu, select Save As, then Download as Image to see the âDownload as Imageâ dialog box. From there, you can choose the pages to download from your Visio file from the âDiagram areaâ dropdown. You also have the option to pick the resolution of your image: High (300 ppi), Medium (144 ppi), or Low (72 ppi). The image file formats currently supported are JPEG, PNG, and PNG with a transparent background. The selected pages in your file will be downloaded as an individual image file (for a single page) or as a zip folder (for multiple pages).

This functionality is also available in Visio Viewerâclick on the ellipses menu (â¦) and select âDownload as Imageââwith limited customization options. The current active page will be downloaded as a PNG with medium resolution by default. The same is true for unlicensed users, who can export diagrams as an image with the aforementioned defaults.

Refer to our support article to learn more about exporting diagrams as an image.

Multipage operations

Weâve made a host of enhancements that bring the familiarity of Office, especially elements like Excel tabs, into Visio for the web.

Insert page: Right-click on an existing page in the page navigation bar to insert a blank page adjacent to it. The inserted page will have all the page-level properties of the source page.

Duplicate page: Create an exact replica of your existing page by right-clicking that page in the navigation bar.

Reorder pages: Drag pages across the navigation bar to rearrange them into a more appropriate order. This operation can also be performed using the Reorder option after right clicking a page in the navigation bar.

Page navigation list: Get a one-shot view of the pages in your Visio file by clicking on the page navigation hamburger menu. Click on any page in this list to make it active.

Scroll arrows: Scroll through the list of pages in the page navigation bar using the left and right arrows. This helps you view the pages in your diagram without making any page active.

Of the above operations, Visio Viewer and unlicensed users can use page navigation list and scroll arrows to navigate through the list of pages in the file.

You can learn more about these multipage operations on our support page. Here are the specific links: Insert page and navigate through multiple pages, Duplicate page, and Reorder pages.

All these improvements happened because of people like you leaving feedback on our UserVoice siteâso keep it up! And please continue visiting our Tech Community site for all the latest Visio news.
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Source: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/...b/ba-p/1670427

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Brink · Sep 16, 2020

Automatically create process diagrams in Visio from Excel data

Today, we’re excited to announce Data Visualizer, a new Visio feature that automatically converts process map data in Excel into data-driven Visio diagrams. This update, which is available to Visio Pro for Office 365 users, helps reduce manual steps while giving business analysts even more ways to create process diagrams in Visio.

Automatically create process diagrams from Excel data

Diagrams don’t always start in Visio. They often begin as hand-drawn sketches or—in today’s data-driven age—in Excel. Using Data Visualizer, business analysts can represent process steps and associated metadata in a structured Excel table and quickly convert that information into a visualized Visio diagram. You can do this by either using a premade Excel template or an existing spreadsheet of your own design. The premade templates—there’s one for basic and one for cross-functional flowcharts—provide a sample mapping table to populate with diagram metadata. The table includes predefined columns for process step number, description, dependencies, owner, function, phase and more. You can also customize the table with your own columns to meet specific business requirements.

Once the table is populated, Visio’s wizard helps you complete the remaining steps to transform your Excel data into a Visio process diagram. If you customize the premade template or create one of your own, the wizard helps you map certain flowchart parts, like swim lanes and connectors. The resulting diagram is linked to the Excel table, so if the underlying process data is modified, the diagram updates accordingly. Likewise, shape modifications in Visio are preserved if the Excel data changes.

Additionally, analysts can save their Visio diagrams and the underlying Excel mapping table as a single package using the “Export as a Template Package” feature. These packages can be shared and reused by others, eliminating the need to recreate the same diagram from scratch while encouraging process consistency across the organization.

No matter your preference—whether creating diagrams from a template or your own spreadsheet—the underlying Excel data travels with the related Visio Pro for Office 365 file, helping ensure your team always has the latest diagram version.

Start a free trial of Visio Pro for Office 365 to try Data Visualizer today, and visit our support page for step-by-step instructions to create your first process diagram from Excel data.

Please visit our UserVoice page to submit suggestions for new capabilities, and follow us on Facebook, https://www.youtube.com/user/msftvisio and Twitter for the latest Visio news.

—The Visio team
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Source: Automatically create process diagrams in Visio from Excel data - Office Blogs

Brink · Sep 16, 2020

Visio Online - anywhere, anytime access to your diagrams

Mobility is paramount in today’s business environment. That’s why we’re excited to announce Microsoft Visio Online, which enables users to share and view Visio diagrams in high fidelity from almost any device using their favorite browser. Today, Visio Online opens the online viewing experience to almost all Office 365 commercial users, boosting productivity for everyone on your team, no matter where they’re working. In addition to Visio Online, we’ve released JavaScript APIs for IT professionals to extend Visio capabilities to meet specific user needs.

The Visio team has steadily released more and more features to increase mobility across your organization. In November 2016, we brought Visio Online Public Preview for a group of Office 365 users—and their feedback was fantastic! Since then, we’ve enabled Visio Online for VSD file format and for users who are using email through Exchange Online, Outlook.com and Hotmail. In addition to online viewing, we’re excited to announce commenting for Visio Online, giving you and your team a place to review and discuss process flows, shape data and more without switching windows.

Get started today! For more information, visit our FAQ page.

Add comments to Visio diagrams from your browser.

Create custom Visio Online solutions to meet your needs

We are also releasing Visio JavaScript APIs that extend the capabilities of Visio Online for developers. Using these APIs, IT professionals can now build rich mashup solutions to meet their organization’s specific needs.

The APIs enable programmatic access to the embedded Visio Online diagrams in a SharePoint Online page. Developers can use them to interact with Visio diagram elements—like pages and shapes—expose diagram data, write custom handlers for mouse events, create visual mark-ups on the diagram canvas and more. As a mashup example, developers can create a custom overlay, such as a list of steps required to complete before moving forward in a process, that appears when users select or hover over a diagram shape.

Embed Visio Online diagrams into SharePoint Online using JavaScript APIs.

Please visit the Office Dev Center and read the related blog for detailed instructions and more information on how to use JavaScript APIs with Visio Online.

You can also visit our UserVoice page to submit suggestions for new products, and follow us on Facebook, https://www.youtube.com/user/msftvisio and Twitter for the latest Visio news.

—The Visio team
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Source: https://blogs.office.com/2017/03/01/...your-diagrams/

See also: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...0-fd0263c75b62

Brink · Sep 16, 2020

Introducing Smart Diagrams from Visio for Windows

Greetings from Team Visio!

We are pleased to announce an **early preview** of data-driven smart diagrams for the first time in Visio, brought to you exclusively by the Office Insider Program.

Do you currently spend hours connecting shapes, placing them into the correct Swim lanes and to create the perfect layout? Are you looking to save time when creating your process diagrams from data every day?

With Visio’s data-driven smart diagramsfeature, now you can automatically create a Basic Flowchart or Cross-Functional Flowchart from your process map in Excel, in no time.

The process meta data or metric data that you capture in Excel columns gets stored in Visio shapes as shape data.

How does the preview work?

The preview will be open to all Office Insiders. If you are not a part of the Office Insider Program, you can still get access to the early preview by signing up. Once you sign up, we can help you with onboard with the rest.

Note: The feature preview scope is *limited*. We are always working to improve our feature to make it the best version possible, and greatly appreciate your comments and feedback...
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Read more: INTRODUCING SMART DIAGRAMS FROM VISIO FOR WINDOWS

See also:

Introducing early preview of Smart Diagrams from Visio for Windows - Microsoft Community

Introducing early preview of Smart Diagrams from Visio for Windows - Microsoft Community

Windows 10: Diagramming is much easier now in Visio for the web

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