Visio® 2007 Bible

Chapter 5. Connecting Shapes

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Working with AutoConnect

• Using connectors to link shapes

• Gluing shapes

• Specifying points to use for glue

• Working with connection points

Some shapes stand on their own, such as title blocks or legends, but, in most diagrams, the relationships between shapes constitute much of what you're trying to communicate. Imagine an organization chart without reporting relationships between managers and employees, or a data flow diagram without flows between processes. In Visio, connectors show the relationships between shapes.

One of the great new features in Visio 2007 is AutoConnect—it takes care of adding shapes to drawings, connecting them to other shapes, and aligning the connected shapes all at once. For example, you can click one of the blue arrows on shapes on the drawing to add, connect, and align another shape to the shape you clicked.

AutoConnect also speeds up adding several copies of the same shape to a drawing. When you select a shape in the Shapes window, you don't have to drag and drop it to add it to your drawing. Simply click a blue arrow on the drawing and AutoConnect adds the shape to the page. AutoConnect can even simplify connecting shapes already on a drawing page. Suppose you added shapes to a drawing before you discovered AutoConnect. As long as the shapes are next to each other, you can connect two adjacent shapes by clicking one of the blue AutoConnect arrows on the side that faces the other shape.

In this chapter, you'll learn ...