Visio® 2007 For Dummies®

Chapter 8. Creating and Customizing Shapes

In This Chapter

• Customizing shapes by using fun Visio tools

• Creating your own shapes

• Manipulating shapes

• Adding character to your shapes

• Grouping and stacking shapes

Because Visio provides so many shapes in its stencils, you can use the program successfully without ever needing to customize shapes. However, sometimes you need to create your own shapes. For example, you might need a new shape for a floor plan that isn't included in the standard stencil. Developers might need to add new shapes when describing an application's structure. Because Visio is so flexible, you might decide to create specialized stencils for your own diagram types. For example, imagine you work in a store and want to organize products on shelves to see how they fit best. A special stencil that has all of the standard product sizes would help you perform this task.

In this chapter, you discover how to get creative with Visio by changing existing shapes and drawing your own shapes. Although this chapter uses a diagram to hold the new shapes, you'll eventually discover how to add these shapes to a stencil in Chapter 11. It's also important to realize that you don't have to be a draftsperson or budding artist to create new shapes. Many shapes are combinations of existing shapes and perhaps a few well‐placed lines. Generally, you can let the professionals do all of the heavy lifting for you and concentrate on a few tweaks.

Creating Unique Shapes the Fun Way

In many cases, you ...