Coauthoring in Visio 2013 means that multiple people can edit the
same diagram simultaneously when the diagram is stored on SkyDrive,
SharePoint, or SharePoint Online. Nothing else is required other than
opening the drawing—coauthoring is automatic.
In the Visio 2013 implementation, shapes and pages are not locked
during a coauthoring session. The assumption is that there are so many
possible things to change in a Visio diagram that it’s unlikely two
people will be changing exactly the same thing at the same time. On the
rare occasions when that does occur, the last change wins.
To prevent possible conflicts and to help everyone working on a
diagram to understand what is happening, Visio provides several markers
on the upper-right corner of a shape during coauthoring
sessions. The markers indicate when another user is editing some aspect
of a shape (refer to the following graphic on the left), has altered a
shape (center), or has deleted a shape (right).
Important
Normally, if one coauthor deletes a shape and then saves changes,
the shape will disappear from other authors’ diagrams when they apply
updates. There is an important exception: the shape will be retained
and marked as shown in the preceding graphic on the right if one of the
coauthors has made what Visio determines to be significant changes to
the shape. If that author then saves the diagram, Visio reinstates the
shape for all authors and adds a special marker icon. The exercise that
follows includes an example of this sequence and the special icon.
The status line at the bottom of the Visio window shows important coauthoring information.
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Toward the left, an icon indicates that other users are editing the
diagram and displays how many are doing so. Each time a new coauthor
opens the diagram, he or she is announced in a text box (following
graphic on the left). At any time after the announcement box has
disappeared, clicking the icon produces a list of coauthors (right).
Pointing to one of the coauthor’s names produces a short form
contact card that indicates how the person can be contacted via a
series of icons. Additional icons are illuminated if both authors are
using Lync.
Clicking the arrow in the lower-right corner yields a full contact
card that displays as much information about the coauthor as that
person has chosen to make available.
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Toward the right end of the status bar, the words Updates Available
notify you that other users have saved changes. Clicking Updates
Available applies any pending changes to your diagram and saves your
changes to the server.
Important
Unlike commenting, coauthoring
is not possible via a web browser. All authors must use the Visio
client, either via a desktop software license or a Visio Pro for Office
365 subscription.
In this exercise, you will make changes to a diagram that you have
opened with two copies of Visio. You can start both copies of Visio on
a single PC or on two different PCs. Although you can perform all of
the steps in this exercise by yourself, it will be more interesting if
you and another person work together.
The portion of the diagram you will be using in this exercise is shown in the following graphic.
To complete this coauthoring exercise, you must save the diagram as Collaboration Brainstorm Diagram
on SkyDrive, SharePoint, or SharePoint Online. In addition, you or
another person must open the saved diagram in a second copy of Visio.
Important
Each instruction step is preceded with PC1 or PC2 to indicate where the step should be performed. All screen shots in this exercise were taken from PC1.
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PC2: Right-click the SkyDrive shape, click Styles on the Mini Toolbar, click any color other than blue in the Theme Styles section, and then click Save. Your updates are sent to the server. After a brief delay, the symbol indicating that another user is editing the SkyDrive shape will appear on PC1.
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PC1: Click Updates Available. The color change is applied to the SkyDrive shape and the icon indicating that changes have been made by another user appears.
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PC1: Select the SkyDrive, SharePoint, and SharePoint Online shapes, drag them far enough to the right so that Visio creates a new page, and then click Save.
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PC2: Click Updates Available. The relocated shapes appear in their new positions.
You have now made and saved changes on each PC and have verified
that the results appear on the other computer. In the remaining steps
of this exercise, you will make changes to a shape on PC1 while the
user on PC2 deletes the same shape.
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PC1: Right-click the SharePoint shape and click Change Topic Shape.
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PC1: In the Change Shape dialog box, click Rectangle, and then click OK.
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PC1: Double-click the SharePoint shape and change the text from SharePoint to SharePoint (corporate). Do not save your changes.
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PC2: Delete the SharePoint shape and then click Save. The Visio AutoDelete function also deletes the connector leading to the SharePoint shape.
Important
At this point, you have unsaved changes pending for the SharePoint
shape on PC1 and have just deleted that shape on PC2. After a brief
pause, deleted shape warning icons will appear on PC1 for the
SharePoint (corporate) shape and the connector leading to it.
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PC1: Wait for deleted shape icons to appear.
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PC1: Click Updates Available. Because you made multiple changes to the SharePoint (corporate) shape before the user on PC2 deleted it, Visio retained the shape and added a marker icon above the upper-right corner.
Tip
The connector leading to the SharePoint (corporate) shape, which was
deleted automatically when the primary shape was deleted on PC2, has
not been preserved—there were no changes to the connector on PC1 that
caused Visio to retain it.
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PC2: Click Updates Available. The formerly deleted SharePoint (corporate) shape reappears in the diagram.
Note
CLEAN UP Save your changes to the Collaboration Brainstorm Diagram drawing and close it on both PCs.
