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Microsoft Visio 2010 : Organizing and Annotating Diagrams - Inserting Fields into Shape Text

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11/7/2012 4:02:06 PM
Text on Visio shapes can be linked to dynamic information as well. Using the Field button on the Insert tab, you can add dynamic fields to a shape’s text block.

When you click the Field button, a dialog pops up offering several categories of information that can be inserted, as shown in Table 1. The array of choices puts the field codes in the Header & Footer dialog to shame.

Table 1. Insert Field Categories for Smartening Shape Text
Field CategoryOptions
Shape DataValues stored in shape data fields that might be attached to a shape
Date/TimeDate and time information indicating when the document was created, last edited, printed, or the current date/time
Document InfoFile and document properties information, such as creator, description, directory, filename, keywords, subject, title, manager, company, category
Page InfoName, page number, number of pages, and background page name (if any)
GeometryWidth, height, and angle of shape
Object InfoDeveloper-centric information, such as shape ID; master name; shape name; shape type; and information stored in legacy Data 1, Data 2, and Data 3 fields
User-Defined CellsValues stored in user-defined cells stored inside the shape
Custom FormulaShapeSheet

 

Inserting Text Fields in Shape Text

1.
Start a new, blank drawing.

2.
Using the Rectangle tool from the Tools group on the Home tab, draw a rectangle on the page.

3.
With the rectangle still selected, type the text I am SO big by SO wide.

4.
Now replace the “SO” text with the actual width and height of the shape.

5.
If you have deselected the shape, click the Text tool in the Tools group on the Home tab, then click your shape. You can also double-click the shape or just press F2 to get into text edit mode.

6.
Use the mouse to select the first “SO”. These characters will be replaced with a field.

7.
On the Insert tab, click the Field button in the Text group.

8.
Select the Geometry category from the list on the left.

9.
Click Width in the Field Name column on the right.

10.
Click the Data Format button if you would like to change the number format. For instance, you can show or hide the measurement units for the field and change the number of decimals displayed.

11.
Click OK until all dialogs are closed. When you stretch and shrink your shape, the field should update with the actual width of the shape. Check the status bar in the lower-left corner to compare the width values.

12.
Repeat steps 6–11, but replace the second “SO” with the height. When you resize your shape, both the width and the height should update in the shape’s text.

Inserted fields are indeed powerful, and the information that you can display has much more variety than that of headers and footers.

You can detect inserted text fields with this simple trick: Select a shape and go into text edit mode (I like to press F2, but you can use the Text tool on the Home tab). Now press the left- or right-arrow key to move the text cursor along the text. If the cursor jumps over several characters at once, you have found an inserted field.

Of course, if the inserted field’s value is only one character in length, this technique doesn’t work. For decimal numbers, file paths, and dates, it is fairly effective.


Using Shapes with Preconfigured Fields

The Title Blocks stencil, located under Visio Extras in the More Shapes menu, contains many shapes that have preconfigured text fields. You can find shapes with preinserted information such as Date, Description, Drawn by, Filename, File+path, Page number, Revised date/time, Drawing scale, and Drawing title. A real timesaver indeed!

Furthermore, these shapes have a nice feature that enables you to position the field label either above the value or to the left. Just right-click the shape, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Building a quick title block with shapes preconfigured with dynamic text information.

Inserted fields can be used as shapes placed on background pages to perform functions similar to headers and footers. Certain fields, such as page name and page number, are smart enough to update differently for each foreground page.

Even though there is only one shape sitting on the background page, the text it displays is updated for each foreground page that references the background page.

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