Microsoft Visio 2010 : Working with Individual Shapes - Copying and Duplicating Shapes

Whether I’m making a simple matrix of boxes, an array of servers, or a seating chart for the next concert, I copy shapes constantly. You, too, should be able to copy shapes quickly and without thinking.

Several ways exist to create copies of existing shapes, including the following:

• Ctrl+drag creates a copy of selected shapes at the point where you release the mouse button.
  
  
• Copy and paste. You probably already use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to do this. You can also use the Ribbon, where the Home tab has the Clipboard group, which contains several copy, cut, and paste-related functions.
  
  
• Duplicating via Home, Clipboard, Paste, Duplicate, or Ctrl+D. Duplicates are offset right and down from the original shape.
  
  

In Visio 2010, pasting copied or cut shapes has several subtle behaviors that can be confusing at first but can work to your advantage once you understand them.

If you copy shapes and then paste them to a new page using the Ribbon or keyboard shortcuts, they will be pasted at their original location. This is great if you have elements like title and border shapes that need to be repeated on every page in the document but can’t be placed on a background page. If the location is not in the current window, Visio pans to the location so that you aren’t left wondering where your shapes went. If you paste to the same page in this manner, the new shapes are slightly offset from the originals, just like with duplcate.

If you right-click and choose Paste, shapes will be pasted right where the mouse cursor is.

Constraining Drag and Repeating Copies

I’m a big fan of Ctrl+dragging shapes because it allows me to keep my attention on the drawing instead of looking for copy/paste commands or keys. This capability becomes even more useful when you know the constraining and repeating features.

While Ctrl+dragging a new shape, you can constrain its position to the horizontal or vertical by holding the Shift key as you drag. You start with Ctrl+drag and then press the Shift key during the drag. While Shift is pressed, you are able to move only left and right or up and down. This makes creating neat and tidy rows or columns a snap.

The Repeat button is right next to the Undo button in the Quick Access Toolbar. After you create a copy of a shape, you can click the Repeat button to make more duplicates. I use the shortcut key F4 instead of clicking the Repeat button, but the effect is the same.

Using Ctrl+drag, Shift+constraining, and the Repeat feature, you can create arrays of shapes in an instant!

Creating a Table of Boxes

Although Word and Excel are arguably better tools for creating tables, you will find yourself creating matrices of shapes in Visio from time to time. Trust me; I’ve seen it again and again. Practice your new skills and see whether you can whip out a matrix in record time.

1.	Create a new, blank drawing.
2.	On the View tab, make sure that the ruler and grid are visible and that the Dynamic Grid is turned off.
3.	Return to the Home tab and get the Rectangle tool (or press Ctrl+8).
4.	Draw a rectangle that is big enough to hold a few words of text. Notice how you can snap to the grid while drawing. Make your rectangle something like 1.0″ × 0.5″. If you’re working in metric, approximately 25mm × 10mm will work. The size doesn’t need to be exact, but it helps if the rectangle is a nice grid-fitting size.
5.	Switch back to the Pointer tool (Ctrl+1).
6.	Create a duplicate of your shape via Home, Clipboard, Paste, Duplicate or Ctrl+D.
7.	Move the new shape into position directly to the right of the original. Notice how the grid makes it easy to position the shapes right up against one another.
8.	Continue the row by creating a copy of the second box. Hold down the Ctrl key and then click+drag a new shape to the right. As you drag, press Shift to constrain the new shape in the horizontal direction. You must press Shift after you start the Ctrl+drag. If you press Shift before, the zoom-in magnifying glass cursor appears, and you are not able to select the shape.
9.	With your newest shape still selected, press F4 several times. You should see a neat row of shapes, as shown in Figure 1. Alternatively, you can repeat the copies using the Repeat button in the Quick Access Toolbar. Figure 1. A row of boxes created using duplicate, Ctrl+drag, Shift+constraining, and F4 repeating.
10.	Create a new row for your table. Select all the boxes in the row, hold down the Ctrl key, and start dragging in the downward direction. After you start dragging, press the Shift key to keep the new row aligned with the old. When you release the mouse button, you should have a new row.
11.	With the new row of boxes selected, press F4 several times. Voilà! New rows of boxes are created instantly! Hold on to this drawing for a moment, as we’ll continue modifying it in the next exercise.

Quickly Formatting a Table of Boxes

In the last exercise, you used Visio’s repeating functions and copying shortcuts to create a matrix of boxes that has several columns and several rows. Now you quickly format the table using similar shortcuts.

1.	Add some placeholder text to all the shapes in your table. Select the top-left box in the matrix and then type TODO.
2.	Select every shape in your table by using the Pointer tool to drag a rectangle around all shapes in the matrix.
3.	Press F4 to repeat the last operation, which was adding the text. Every shape in your table should now display the word TODO. See how powerful and quick F4 can be?
4.	Select the top-left box again and give it a light-gray fill color.
5.	Select the top row of boxes and the left column of boxes. To do this, hold down the Shift key and then drag two rectangles around the header row and left column.
6.	Press F4 to repeat the fill formatting operation. Your header row and column boxes should now all be gray, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. Using F4 to easily repeat text entry and fill formatting operations.
7.	Select all the boxes in your table and copy them.
8.	Add a new page to your document by clicking the Insert Page tab at the bottom of the window.
9.	Experiment with pasting a copy of the table into the new page. Right-click and choose Paste. The table appears centered where you clicked.
10.	Add another page, then paste by using Ctrl+V. The table appears in the same location where it was located on the original page.

Using Add-ons to Copy Shapes

If you are using the Pro or Premium editions of Visio 2010, you have two add-on utilities that make it easy to precisely duplicate shapes. To use them, go to the Macros group of the View tab and click the Add-ons drop-down. Expand the Visio Extras menu and then look for Move Shapes and Array Shapes.

Both add-ons have fairly simple interfaces, which you should be able to figure out. Move Shapes can move or duplicate shapes in the horizontal and vertical directions or at an angle over a distance.

Array Shapes is perfect for creating the matrix of shapes like you did in the last two exercises. The trick is to select “Between shape edges” and set the row and column spacing to zero.