1. Sending Visio Files in Email
If you want to quickly zap a copy of a diagram to colleagues, the Send Using E-mail function makes it super easy.
Sending a Visio File via Email
1. | Start
with an open Visio document that you want to send. Try from File, New,
Sample Diagrams if you just want to run a quick test.
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2. | Go
to the Save & Send panel in the Backstage area.
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3. | Under
the Save & Send column in the left side of the panel, click Send
Using E-mail. The right column changes to display four large “Send
Using e-mail” buttons: Send as Attachment, Send a Link, Send as PDF,
and Send as XPS.
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4. | Choose one of the options by clicking one of the big square buttons on the right:
- a. To send a copy of the actual Visio file, click Send
as Attachment. The recipients receive a Visio file that they can open
and edit, independent of the copy on which you are working. If they
make changes that you need to re-incorporate into your drawing, you
have to do this manually. Visio has no easy way to merge different
versions of a file. To eliminate double efforts, you might suggest the
recipients use markup to note needed changes instead of editing the
document directly.
- b. Send a Link is likely
disabled, unless you are editing a file that is saved on the network.
This option not only keeps the email size down, but also ensures that
everyone is working on the same file. Use this strategy if two or more
people need to edit the drawing, and be sure to save your drawing to
the network first.
- c. To send a noneditable (or,
“not easily editable”) snapshot of your document, choose Send as PDF or
Send as XPS. PDF is Adobe’s ubiquitous portable document format with
which you are surely familiar. XPS is Microsoft’s XML Paper
Specification format that creates portable, printable files that are
similar to PDFs.
A new email window pops up, with your file (or link) attached, and the Subject field filled out with the name of the document. |
5. | Edit the To, CC, Bcc, and message body fields as you normally would and then send the email.
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Sending as PDF or XPS directly within Visio
is a great timesaver. It eliminates the traditional steps of saving the
file, browsing to it in Explorer, and then copying the file into an
email. You don’t have to manage copies of PDF or XPS files at all!
2. Saving as PDF or XPS Files
Earlier, you saw how easy it was to mail a
Visio document as a PDF or XPS document. If you want to hold on to
actual copies of these files, Save & Send helps you out again.
PDF and XPS files are high-quality documents that
are essentially read-only because most people don’t have editors for
them. They are great for distributing to folks who don’t need to edit
your content or who don’t have Visio. PDF and XPS files look the same
on most computers because, for example, they preserve font information.
Even if the recipient’s system doesn’t have a font that you used, it
appears properly in the PDF or XPS document.
Because these files are unlikely to be altered, they
offer a great way to preserve historical snapshots of documents that
you frequently edit. They can be more compact than Visio files. For
example, the IT Asset Management Visio file is around 900KB. When saved
as PDF or XPS, it’s around 360KB.
Hyperlinks are preserved in the final output—even
links that go to other pages within the document. If a shape has
multiple links, however, only the first one is used.
Saving a PDF or XPS Document
1. | Start with any drawing you want to see in PDF or XPS form.
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2. | Go to File, Save & Send.
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3. | Click Create PDF/XPS Document in the Save & Send area. The Create PDF/XPS button appears on the right.
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4. | Click Create PDF/XPS button. (Tip: You can save a step by double-clicking Create PDF/XPS Document in step 3.)
The Publish as PDF or XPS dialog appears. It’s similar to a typical Save As dialog but has a few options at the bottom. |
5. | Choose
to save either a PDF or XPS document by making a choice from the Save
as Type drop-down list. If you have time, try repeating the following
steps for both PDF and XPS.
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6. | Note
the Optimize For settings and click the Options button. The Options
dialog appears, which enables you to specify specific pages to export,
include backgrounds, remove or include document information, and
perform a few other tasks. You can make changes here and click OK, or
just click Cancel.
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7. | Browse
to a suitable location, give your PDF or XPS file a name, and then
click Publish. If you left the Open File After Publishing box checked,
the exported document opens for inspection.
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The Save & Send panel provides a friendly
interface for perusing and choosing different export options. Big, fat
buttons, colorful icons, and helpful text make for a pleasant
experience, especially when you are doing something for the first time.
The downside is that for PDF and XPS documents, it
always suggests your Documents folder as the place to save the output.
If you’re like me, you want to save the PDF or XPS file in the same
directory where the drawing is saved. Having to browse back to that
location to save is annoying.
Luckily, most of the options in Save &
Send can be accessed via File, Save As dialog. Instead of clicking
several buttons as you do via Save & Send, you just pick a Save As
type from the drop-down list. When you use Save As, the default folder
is the same as that of the current Visio drawing, so you don’t have to
do any browsing!
