Visio® 2007 For Dummies®

Chapter 4. Discovering What Visio Shapes Are All About

In This Chapter

• Getting comfortable with shapes

• Adding a wide assortment of shapes to your drawing

• Manipulating shapes within a drawing

• Controlling shapes by working with handles

• Finding that perfect shape

• Enhancing your drawings

• Working with themes

Shapes are the most important elements of Visio; they're the building blocks you use to create diagrams, drawings, charts, and graphs. Regardless of the type of drawing you create — a flowchart, a network diagram, an architectural drawing, a project timeline — you create each drawing by using shapes. Visio includes many types of shapes that not only look different but also behave differently. In this chapter, you discover many different types of shapes, what makes them different, and how to work with them in your drawings and diagrams.

Performing tasks quickly and efficiently is important to everyone. Some people work better with a mouse, others the keyboard. The important issue is to use whichever input device works best for you. Although this chapter emphasizes keyboard input, you'll find that every command also has a menu and sometimes a toolbar equivalent. In some cases, you can issue the required command by right‐clicking the object and choosing the correct option from the context menu. You can combine input techniques by becoming familiar with the input device of your choice. Many people associate context menus with the mouse, but most keyboards include a context menu button between ...