Where is bracket shape in visio

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The Quick Access Toolbar allows you to easily add often-used commands so that they are always available within reach. Apart from the standard Undo, Redo, and Save commands, you can add additional buttons, such as a toggle between Touch and Mouse mode depending on your display by clicking the arrow icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.

You can also add more commands by clicking the option More Commands The Ribbon can be collapsed to allow more real estate for the canvas. You can reduce or expand the Shapes pane by clicking and dragging the edge of the pane inwards or outwards respectively. The Ribbon can be customized just like the Quick Access Toolbar but to do so, you need to navigate to the File menu and click Options.

Then click Customize Ribbon. You can select the tabs that you wish to display on the workspace. You can also create a new tab or group by clicking New Tab or New Group to accommodate the commands that you use frequently. Visio has a few options for changing how you view the drawing. The View tab lists all the possible view options that you can use on the canvas. We will look at some of the commands that are useful in changing view modes. Basically, slide snippets allow you to directly export a Visio diagram as a PowerPoint slide.

To take a slide snippet, click the Slide Snippets Pane in the View tab to open it. Then, select an area of the drawing that you want to export to a PowerPoint slide and click the Add button in the Slide Snippets Pane. Add a title in the Enter title here The Presentation Mode shows a full screen view of the drawing without any distractions. This mode can also be toggled by pressing F5 on the keyboard.

You can toggle between showing the vertical and horizontal rulers, the grid, and the guides by toggling the corresponding checkboxes in the Show area of the View tab. The scaling of the rulers and grid can also be adjusted. The grid allows to easily snap objects so that they are placed correctly on the canvas. The Zoom section comprises of commands that allow you to change the zoom levels of the canvas.

You can also fit the contents to window or adjust the contents to fill the page width. The Window section lists commands that allow to arrange multiple windows on your screen. You can directly open a new window or arrange windows side by side. You can also cascade windows for easy switching between them. SmartShapes provide contextual shapes which relate to the selected shape. SmartShapes are connected to the original shape and the connector also moves whenever the SmartShape is moved.

Start with a blank document in this case a flowchart diagram. You will notice that the Shapes pane has different shapes that are applicable to flowcharts.

Click and drag a shape onto the empty canvas. You can resize or rotate the shape as desired. You can even align the shape with the help of the alignment guides. When you drag a shape onto the canvas, you will notice that there are four arrows along the shape. Hovering over any of these arrows will show possible shapes that can be created and linked to this shape. Click the desired shape to create the shape.

You will also notice that the shape is automatically connected to the initial shape. If you were to drag the shape manually, you will need to connect it manually as well. The connections between the shapes are dynamic and they will move in relation to the placement of the shape.

The SmartShape arrow lists the first four shapes for the diagram that are seen in the Shapes pane. You might want to customize which shapes appear in the four SmartShape options depending on your workflow. To set the shapes that you prefer as SmartShapes, first select the desired shape in the Shapes pane and drag it to one of the first four shapes within the pane. In this example, let us assume that the Database shape needs to be in the first four.

Click and drag the Database shape into one of the first four positions. SmartShapes allows to automatically connect shapes. If you want to connect shapes that are not directly related, you can manually connect them. To manually connect shapes, click the Connector tool in the Tools section of the Home tab.

The mouse pointer now changes into a connector. Draw a connecting line from the originating shape to the destination. You will notice a dotted line representing the connector. You can either glue this connector to the connection point or glue it to the destination shape. Gluing it to the shape will enable you to move the shape to a different location on the canvas along with the connector.

Click the Pointer Tool in the Tools section of the Home tab to return the mouse pointer back to normal. Newer versions of Visio have built-in intelligence to help you place shapes between other shapes. Visio automatically adds the required spacing and connectors to ensure that the new shape is inserted in the correct position.

To insert a shape between two shapes, drag the new shape in between the desired shapes, till you see green squares on the connectors and release the mouse. The new shape will be inserted with equal spacing and appropriate connections.

Often, inserting and deleting shapes can disturb the alignment of the diagram. It can also make the elements of the diagram space out unevenly. To get around this, Visio provides tools that automatically align and space the shapes in your diagram so that it looks perfect.

To automatically align and space shapes in a diagram, go to the Position dropdown menu in the Arrange section of the Home tab. You can also hover the mouse on these commands to preview how the diagram would look after alignment. Visio provides options for automatically changing the layout of the diagram with the ReLayout Page command. The Re-Layout Page command provides commonly used layouts. You can also customize some of the aspects of the layout as needed.

Open the diagram and navigate to the Design tab on the Ribbon. Click the Re-Layout Page dropdown menu and select a layout as needed. You will see that the diagram now changes to the selected layout. You can also preview the look before clicking by hovering the mouse over the layout style. This opens a dialog box in which you can configure the layout properties.

You can change the spacing between the shapes by manually changing the values in the Spacing field. You can also change the appearance of the connectors to curved by selecting Curved in the Appearance dropdown menu.

Remember to select the Apply routing style to connectors checkbox to be able to change the appearance of the connectors. Visio allows inserting text either within the shapes or in the document. You also get to do text formatting just like any other text editor. It is easy to insert text within a shape. Just double-click within a shape to type the text. Notice that Visio automatically zooms into the shape to enable typing and zooms out when you click outside the shape.

To insert a text in a document such as a heading for the chart, click the Text Box dropdown menu in the Insert tab on the Ribbon and select either horizontal or vertical text box. Backgrounds are inserted using pages called background pages. Background pages can contain graphics or text such as copyright info and other information.

Background pages are always separate but appear overlaid on the main page. You can change the background of a document by choosing from preset backgrounds or using your own background template. To insert a background, click the Background dropdown menu from the Design tab on the Ribbon and choose a background preset. This creates a new page in addition to the diagram page. You can right-click the newly created background page to rename it. The new background will be automatically applied to all newly created pages in the document.

Apart from the shapes that are part of the diagram, you can add your own images to the document. Images can come from any online or offline source. If you add an image to the background page, the image will appear on all the pages in the document. To insert your images or graphics, go to the Insert tab on the Ribbon and select from any of the commands in the Illustrations section. It can be a picture on your local drive, an online source, a chart or even a CAD drawing.

You can also replicate the picture on all the pages by inserting the picture in a background page. To do this, select the background page and insert the picture as described above. Drag and resize the picture as needed. Now, navigate to the page containing the diagram and you will find that the picture appears on that page and any other subsequent pages that are added.

Sometimes, you might want to combine two or more elements of the diagram together. You can use containers to group shapes that are dependent on each other. Callouts help in inserting more text outside the shape.

Callouts are always connected to the shape and move along with it. To insert a container, go to the Insert tab on the Ribbon and click the Container dropdown menu in the Diagram Parts section. You will see that there are many designs to choose from for the container.

Once you select a design, you can drag the container around the grouped shapes. Release the mouse to lock the container. The container also contains an area for typing text. Double-click the heading area to type the text. Select the shape for which you want to use the callout.

To insert a callout, go to the Insert tab on the Ribbon and click the Callout dropdown menu in the Diagram Parts section. You will see that there are many designs to choose from for the callout. Select a design appropriate for the callout. The callout will appear connected to the selected shape. In this example, we have added a callout for the Back to Research process called Extensive Research.

The callout is linked to the shape and can be moved about anywhere in the drawing, however it will always stay connected to the shape. Visio will zoom in when you click the callout to enable typing and will zoom out when clicked outside the callout. This text now needs to be converted into a hyperlink. To do so, select the text in the text box and in the Insert tab again. Click Link to open the Hyperlinks dialog box. You can specify the links to websites or a local file on your computer.

Click OK to convert the selected text into a hyperlink. You can directly hyperlink a text or a shape to a file. Double-clicking the text or shape opens the hyperlinked file. The procedure is similar to hyperlinking a website. Select the shape or text that you want to create a hyperlink for and click the Link button in the Insert tab of the Ribbon. In the Hyperlinks dialog box, click Browse… adjacent to the Address field and click Local File… to browse to the location of the file.

Make sure that the Use relative path for hyperlink box is selected to ensure that the file path is updated automatically when you change the file location. Visio also makes it possible to hyperlink pages in a multi-page document so that clicking the link will directly take you to the linked page. To hyperlink pages, select a text or shape to be linked to and click Links in the Insert tab in the Ribbon.

In the Hyperlinks dialog box, make sure to click Browse… adjacent to the Sub-address field. Select the destination page in the Page field.

You can also set a default zoom level in the Zoom dropdown menu so that navigating to the linked page opens it at the desired zoom. You need not be content with the default theme.

Visio allows to customize the theme and overall look of the document. To apply a theme, go to the Design tab and choose from any of the many theme options available. Once you click any of the available themes, the theme will be applied to the document. You can further personalize it by selecting from one of the many options in the Variants section.

The Variants section allows you to customize theme colors as needed. Clicking the dropdown menu in the Variants section allows to customize the theme colors, effects, and connectors.

It opens the New Theme Colors dialog box, which allows to customize each of the accents in the theme. If you are familiar with Microsoft Word, you should be right at home in Visio with respect to formatting text.

You can format titles and text within shapes. You can also use the Format Painter command to copy formatting and paste it into another shape or text box. To format the text, select the text box containing the text or highlight the text itself. Then, choose from the options available in the Font and Paragraph sections of the Home tab. You can change the font, size, color, and paragraph alignment.

If you want to change the font styles in a shape, just double-click the shape to select the text within the shape and change the font styles as desired. You can also format the shapes to give them a more professional or casual look as desired. To format shapes, select the shape in the diagram and format using the options available in the Shape Styles section. You can select predefined shape styles or you can customize the shape using the Fill dropdown menu.

To adjust the color of the shape border, select a color from the Line dropdown menu. The Effects menu allows to add special effects to your shape such as drop shadows or 3D rotations.

Visio makes it easy to format the shape outlines and the connectors. You might be looking to format a shape outline to make it stand out from the rest of the shapes or to highlight something important. To format a shape outline, click the shape or hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and select multiple shapes. This will open a Format Shape flyout.

In the Line section, select the options you need to customize the shape outline. You can change the color of the shape outline, increase the width to add more weight, change the rounding, and a whole lot more. You can also create gradients for the line to suit the diagram. Like shape outlines, connectors can also be formatted as needed.

To format a connector, select the connector in the diagram and bring up the Format Shape pane by going to the Line dropdown menu and clicking Line Options In the Line section of the Format Shapes pane, select the Dash type of your choice to change the connector pattern.

You can also change the color of the connector and adjust the transparency levels as needed. Visio comes with visual aids to help align and structure the elements in the diagram so that it appears great both on-screen and in print. The main visual aids available include rulers, grids, and guides. Rulers help in providing perspective to the elements in the diagram.

They help orient the shapes to attain a consistent and clean look. Rulers can be switched off or on with a simple checkbox in the Show section of the View tab. When you move a shape, you will notice that there are 3 dotted lines shown in the following example in red rectangles on both the vertical and horizontal rulers.

These 3 dotted lines denote the left, middle, and right parts of the diagram. When you drag the shape vertically or horizontally, these 3 dotted lines help position the shape exactly at the place you need. Just like rulers, guides help in orienting different shapes of the diagram properly. You can create any number of guides from both the vertical and horizontal rulers.

To create a guide, simply drag a line from either the vertical or horizontal rulers. Guides are represented by lines, which appear thick when selected. You can delete a guide by simply selecting the guide and pressing the Delete key on the keyboard. Uncheck the Guides checkbox in the View tab to remove all the guides from view.

Dragging a shape onto a guide will enable you to snap the shape to the guide. When a shape is snapped to a guide, it moves along with the guide.

Grids not only help to align shapes within the drawing but can also be an important measurement tool. Grids comprise of square boxes of defined area, which can be adjusted. Therefore, grids help you have an estimate of the likely area occupied by the shape, which allows you to size the shapes as needed.

You can also customize the size of each grid by adjusting the spacing between the grids. To do so, click the small downward facing arrow to the bottom-right of the Show section in the View tab.

Apart from commonly used visual aids such as the ruler, guides, and grids, Visio also comes with few other visual aids to help you better organize your diagram.

One of the advantages of using SmartShapes is the ability to quickly and easily connect a shape to the top four favorite shapes. AutoConnect helps to quickly select a shape from the top four and instantly establish a connection to the new shape. Sometimes, you might not need this feature. In such cases, you can disable the AutoConnect feature by simply unchecking the AutoConnect checkbox from the Visual Aids section of the View tab. When the AutoConnect checkbox is unchecked, the SmartShapes and connecting arrows do not appear when a shape is selected.

Dynamic grid provides a relative alignment cue when you insert a new shape. When the Dynamic Grid option is turned on, you will see guides and indicators relative to the shape. Dynamic Grid can be used in conjunction with the actual Grid. The actual Grid is more of an absolute measurement and should be considered when precise measurements are of importance in deciding the placement of the shapes. The Dynamic Grid is more of a relative measurement.

In the above example, we see that turning on the Dynamic Grid allows us to see the relative distance of the new shape with respect to pre-existing shapes. Connection Points help in connecting shapes to specific points along the surface of a shape. For example, a shape can have four Connection Points along its perimeter to which connectors can attach to. Turning on Connection Points help to connect shapes precisely at defined connection points. Connection Points can be identified by green squares that appear on all sides of the shape.

If you want to connect to the shape directly rather than to a connection point on the shape, uncheck the Connection Points checkbox in the View tab of the ribbon. Task Panes provide additional functionality to the user interface. You can use task panes to customize or add parameters to an object. The Shapes pane which is there by default, is an example of a Task Pane. Task Panes can be floating or docked and can be resized as needed.

Apart from the Shapes task pane, there are quite a few other panes, which can be accessed from the Task Panes dropdown menu in the View tab of the Ribbon. The Shape Data pane allows entry of additional shape metadata. This metadata is contextual and depends on the shape being selected. This is especially useful while working with complex diagrams.

This allows to set precise measurements of a shape. You can also change the angle of orientation of the shape and the pin position from which the measurements are to be considered.

The Navigation pane is available only in the Office version of Visio. It basically lists all the elements of the diagram and makes it easy to navigate to each of them. This is especially useful if the diagram has varied shapes and you want to navigate to a specific shape type.

Selecting the name of the shape in the Navigation pane selects it in the canvas. It is easy to work with multiple windows or multiple versions of a document in Visio. You can switch between windows easily or arrange them side by side for a comparative look. The options for window rearrangement can be found in the Window section of the View tab. New Window basically allows to create a new copy of the existing window. The new copy will not show the stencils directly, however, they can be selected by clicking the More Shapes arrow in the Shapes pane.

The new window can be identified by the presence of a number in the title bar of the window. In the following example, the original file name was BlkDiagm. Using the New Window command creates a new window with BlkDiagm: 2 in the title bar. This function allows you to arrange all windows side by side. This feature is useful for comparing two windows, however, if you have a high-resolution display, you might be able to accommodate more windows beside each other.

The Shapes pane and other panes can be minimized to allow more screen real estate. This function allows cascading of windows to give an overall view of the open windows. The active window is in the foreground, while inactive windows are in the background with title bars visible.

Cascade view is useful to know which documents are open at a glance. The right side of the Print menu shows a preview of the output. You can change the orientation of the page, page size, and select only the pages that you need to print. Depending on your printer, you can also print in color or in greyscale.

Remember that printing in black and white might not produce a good output. Visio includes several ways to create a PDF of the drawing, which is extremely useful for sharing with others.

You can save the drawing as a Visio drawing. This opens the Save As dialog box. You might want to use this if you need to have fine grain control over the PDF document such as PDF version or compatibility properties.

You can also directly email the diagram to a recipient. This creates a new email in your default email client with the PDF file readily attached.

Just enter the email address of the recipient to send the attachment. Exporting image formats is useful while sharing the drawing easily with others or to put it up on a web page. To export a drawing, go to the File menu, click Save As and in the Save As type field, choose from the list of supported formats. You can choose from any of the abovementioned graphics formats. Once you choose a graphics format to export to, you will get some options to choose from depending on the capabilities of the graphic format.

The options in the Operation and Color format fields are format specific. You can leave them mostly as default. Set the Background color as white if you have a background for the drawing. Set the Quality as needed. You can also rotate the drawing or flip it horizontally or vertically. The resolution and size of the output diagram can be matched with the screen, printer, or source. What do I get with a subscription? With your subscription - you'll gain access to our exclusive IT community of thousands of IT pros.

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