Control Handles
Control handles are little yellow diamonds that
appear when you select a shape. You use them to adjust graphical bits
of a shape. Figure 3 illustrates several ways in which shapes use control handles.
When
you move the mouse cursor over a control handle, you see a crosshairs
cursor, which indicates that you can drag the handle to a new location.
If you pause for a moment, you might also see a ToolTip that suggests
the purpose of the control handle.
Some control handles are constrained to move only
horizontally or vertically, and some can glue to connection points of
other shapes.
In Figure 3,
you see control handles for repositioning text, adjusting arrow sizes,
resizing row and column headers, and pulling extra connectors out of
the Ethernet bar.
Hyperlinks
Shapes can have hyperlinks that link to other pages,
other documents, or web pages. Visio shapes can have multiple
hyperlinks, which are accessed by right-clicking.
Figure 4
shows how the cursor changes when you mouse over a shape that contains
one or more links. It also shows how multiple links are presented in
the right-click context menu.
Adding hyperlinks to shapes is quite easy.
Adding Multiple Hyperlinks to a Shape
1. | Start a new drawing using the Basic Network Diagram template.
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2. | Rename Page 1 as Overview.
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3. | Insert a new page and rename it as Network 1.
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4. | Drop a Server or PC shape onto the Network 1 page.
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5. | Show the Shape Data window for the shape and edit the Manufacturer field to Dell.
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6. | Add
a link to the shape that jumps to the Overview page. Right-click on the
shape and choose Hyperlink. Alternatively, go to Insert, Links,
Hyperlink.
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7. | In
the Hyperlinks dialog, leave the Address field blank because this is
for linking to web pages and other external documents. Instead, click
the Browse button next to the Sub-address field. This lets you choose
other pages within the document. Select Overview and click OK.
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8. | Change
the Description field to Overview Page; then click OK. When you hover
over your shape, you should see the Globe+chain cursor that indicates
the shape has a hyperlink. Right-click the shape, and you should see
the Overview Page midway down. Click on this to verify that the link
jumps to the Overview page. For shapes that have single hyperlinks,
Ctrl+clicking jumps immediately to the link location. |
9. | Because
the equipment’s manufacturer is Dell, add a link to Dell’s home page.
Return to the Network 1 page and select your PC shape again. Edit the
hyperlinks by pressing Ctrl+K, or use the methods described in Step 6
to get there.
Click New to create a new link. Type www.dell.com in the Address field and Dell Home Page in the Description field; then click OK.
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10. | Right-click
the shape and check that you have two links: Overview Page and Dell
Home Page. Click on Dell Home Page. Your default browser should open to
Dell’s main web page.
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You can envision using links to more easily navigate
complex documents that contain many pages and to tie shapes to useful
documents such as instruction manuals and specifications.
You can also add hyperlinks to several shapes at the
same time. Just select a bunch of shapes and then use your favorite
method for inserting links. All the selected shapes receive the same
hyperlinks that you create in the dialog.
Action Tags
Action Tags are similar to custom right-click
actions except that you access them by clicking drop-down buttons that
appear on or around a shape (see Figure 5).
Double-Clicking
Most Visio shapes enter text edit mode when you
double-click them. However, you might run into shapes that do other
things when double-clicked—especially if you use shapes created for
early versions of Visio. For example imagine an electrical switch
symbol where the switch opens and closes when you double-click the
shape.
Since the advent of Shape Data fields,
right-click actions, and action tags, using double-click to alter a
shape has become unnecessary. This is good because it takes the
guesswork and surprise out of exploring shape behavior. But you will
occasionally run into fancy double-click behavior if you use old shapes
from Visio tricksters sharing their home-spun SmartShapes on the Web.
