Four Visio 2010
templates include predefined validation rule sets. Their existence
raises a number of questions, such as the following:
-
Is it possible to use those rule sets with other
documents?
-
Is it possible for a diagram to have more than one rule
set?
-
How do you find out what rules comprise an existing rule
set?
-
Is it possible to modify an existing rule set?
-
Is it possible to create new rules?
In this exercise, you will learn the answer to the first two
questions by importing a rule set into a flowchart created with Visio
2007. You will learn the answer to the third question in the text at the
end of this section, and will learn about modifying and creating rule
sets in the next section.
Set Up
-
On the Process tab, in the
Diagram Validation group, click
the Check Diagram button.
Visio tells you that the document does not contain any rule
sets and also tells you what to do about it. Because you’ve opened a
flowchart created in an older version of Visio, you will import the
flowchart rule set.
-
On the Process tab, in the
Diagram Validation group, click
the Check Diagram arrow (not the
button), and then point to Rules to
Check. The submenu confirms that there are no rules in
this document.
-
Point to Import Rules From,
and click Flowchart Rule Set.
Visio displays a dialog box confirming that one rule set was copied
to the current document.
Tip
The flowchart rule set is available to import into any
diagram. In addition, if you have other diagrams open that contain
rule sets, you will see them listed and can import their
rules.
-
On the Process tab, in the
Diagram Validation group, click
the Check Diagram button. Visio
runs the imported rule set against your diagram and reports the
results in the Issues window.
Clean Up
Save your changes to the Visio 2010
Flowchart drawing but leave it open if you are continuing
with the next exercise.
Now that you know you can import a rule set into a
diagram, you have probably guessed the answer to the second question in
the list at the beginning of this section: you can have more than one
rule set attached to a Visio diagram.
The following graphic indicates that the current diagram uses two
rule sets. The check marks in front of both Contoso Business Rules and
Flowchart indicate that both rule sets are active. Consequently, when
you click the Check Diagram button, the diagram will be validated
against both of them.
Tip
You can clear the check box for any rule set to remove it from
the active list.
The answer to the third question posed at the beginning of this
section is a bit trickier because the Visio 2010 user interface does not
provide a way to list the rules in a rule set. However, an experienced
Microsoft Visual
Basic for Applications (VBA) programmer can write a short
program to list the rules contained in a rule set. Even better, Visio
MVP David Parker has already done the work for you by including code
samples for this and other diagram validation purposes in an article he
wrote for MSDN.
