Microsoft Visio 2010 : Introducing Data Graphics (part 2) - Creating Data Graphics,Applying Data Graphics to Shapes

Creating Data Graphics

Creating your own Data Graphics is a simple process that involves mapping Shape Data fields to Data Graphic items. One issue to keep in mind is which types of data work best with which types of items. Data bars and color by value are best used with numerical values. Text callouts obviously are best for textual descriptions and names. Icon sets work well for data that fits a small number of distinct regions such as “pass” and “fail” or “low,”“medium,” and “high.”

To get you up and running, Visio provides you with the premade text callouts, data bars, and icon sets shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Visio comes with several built-in styles of text callouts, data bars, and icon sets.

Creating a Custom Data Graphic

1.	Continue with Ch7 Shape Data.vsd.
2.	Create a new, blank page called DG and drop a few Light Bulb shapes on it. Make sure they have different information either by manually editing the Shape Data fields or using Link Data methods described in the previous section.
3.	Go to the Data tab, expand the Data Graphics gallery, and then click Create New Data Graphic. The New Data Graphic dialog appears, with no items in it.
4.	Click New Item. The New Item dialog appears.
5.	For the Data field, choose Power (Watts), and for Displayed As, choose Data Bar. Pick any style of bar you would like from the Style drop-down.
6.	Notice the Details section, which allows you to fine-tune the look and behavior of the data bar. For now, focus on the minimum and maximum values. In this case, 0 and 100 are good choices for light bulbs, but make sure that your bulbs fall within this range and use it fully. If your maximum Wattage is only 30, you might change the maximum value to that number instead.
7.	Leave the default settings for Position, which governs where on the shape the Data Graphic Item will be located. You can come back and experiment with this later.
8.	Click OK to exit the New Item dialog. You see your new item displayed in the list, summarizing that Power (Watts) is being displayed as a data bar.
9.	Click New Item again; then choose to display Bulb Type as an icon set. Pick any style from the drop-down and then look at the Rules for Showing Each Icon section. This section allows you to specify when to show each icon from the set.
10.	Icon sets can display up to five icons, representing five different values. Amazingly, you have exactly five different types of Bulb Types: CF, Halogen, Incandescent, LED, and Other. Unfortunately, Visio doesn’t pick up on the fact that Bulb Type is a fixed list and offer a convenient drop-down list for the conditions. You have to type CF, Halogen, Incandescent, LED, and Other into the far-right field for each icon. Do this now and make sure that the condition is “equals” in the middle drop-down for each icon. Figure 4 shows how it should look. Figure 4. Pausing over an item displays a Data Graphic’s name. Here, you apply the Mega Light Bulb Data graphic to a Light Bulb shape. Click OK twice to exit the dialogs for creating your new Data Graphic. You see your new item in the Data Graphics drop-down gallery on the Data tab.
11.	Rename your Data Graphic. The Data Graphics drop-down is purely visual, but the icons you see aren’t always clear enough—especially if you define several similar Data Graphics. If you pause the mouse pointer over an item, a ToolTip appears showing the name. Visio gives Data Graphics odd default names, but you can choose your own. Figure 5 shows the application of the Mega Light Bulb Data Graphic, which loudly hints that I created and named it myself! Figure 5. Setting conditions for a smiley face Icon Set that visually depicts bulb types. Rename your new Data Graphic by right-clicking it and choosing Rename. If you’ve just added the Data Graphic, it should be the last one in the list.
12.	Save the drawing, as usual.

Applying Data Graphics to Shapes

Applying Data Graphics to shapes is simply a matter of selecting the shapes you want and then picking Data Graphics from the Data Graphics drop-down list. You probably figured this out from Figure 5, where you renamed the Data Graphic.

The Data Graphics gallery is wired with Live Preview, so you can pause over an item, and Visio shows you how it will look in the drawing window before you click. This capability is especially helpful if you’ve created several similar Data Graphics. You can use Live Preview to help in choosing the right one.

Of course, you can remove Data Graphics at any time by selecting shapes and choosing the top item in the gallery, just under No Data Graphic. All Data Graphics are removed from the selected shapes.

Another helpful feature enables you to find the shapes that are using a particular Data Graphic. Just right-click on any item in the gallery and click Select Shapes That Use This Data Graphic. Any shapes on the page that use that particular Data Graphic are selected. You can now easily apply a different Data Graphic to just these shapes or clear the Data Graphic by applying No Data Graphic.