Tutorial for Amazing Visio - Easy Merge

This tutorial shows you the process for both merging and splitting a drawing.

visio_EasyPublish_User.PNG (2176 bytes) 1. Downloading Your Sample Drawing

Use these steps to download a sample drawing as the Source (drawing pages to be merged from).  Alternatively, you can use your own drawing.

  1. Create a folder c:\My Tutorial

  2. Click your right mouse button here and then choose Save Target As to download a sample drawing Tutorial_2_Pages.vsd 

  3. Save the drawing into the folder you just created

  4. Double click the drawing to open it with Visio

visio_EasyPublish_User.PNG (2176 bytes) 2. Creating a Destination Drawing

Use these steps to create a new drawing as the destination for the drawing pages to be merged into.  Alternatively, you can use an existing drawing of your own.

  1. Create a new drawing

  2. Delete all the pages Visio created until you see Page-1 but nothing else

  3. Close all the Shape windows (i.e. the windows showing stencils)

The above steps prepared a clean start point to validate the merging results.

visio_EasyPublish_User.PNG (2176 bytes) 3. Merging the Drawing Pages

Use these steps to merge the drawing pages from the Source to the Destination.

  1. Click this icon visio_EasyPublishIcon.PNG (235 bytes) on this toolbar, this window shows:
    visio_EasyMerge_Tutorial_Window1.PNG (12753 bytes)

  2. Click the Files button, this window shows:
    visio_EasyMerge_Tutorial_Window2.PNG (7995 bytes)

  3. Click the OK button, the first window shows as:
    visio_EasyMerge_Tutorial_Window3.PNG (14420 bytes)

Where:

  • The foreground pages are displayed as-is
  • The background pages have a prefix ".bg."
  • Others: Please click here for details

visio_EasyPublish_User.PNG (2176 bytes) 4. Selecting Your Pages to Merge

  1. Click the Select button to toggle all your selection.

  2. Or click each page name to toggle the page selection.

  3. You don't have to worry about the background pages.  Easy Merge is smart enough to tell that they are used by the foreground pages and therefore will automatically merge them.

visio_EasyPublish_User.PNG (2176 bytes) 5. Merging the Drawing

  1. Click the go button

  2. Wait till the following message shows.  Click Yes to delete the default blank page.  Then click the OK and Close buttons.
    visio_EasyMerge_Tutorial_Window4.PNG (7904 bytes)

 

visio_EasyPublish_User.PNG (2176 bytes)6. Checking the Results

Now the display is exactly the same as the source drawing.  This is in fact the NEW drawing (Drawing 14 in this case) with all the pages merged from the source drawing.  Use the following steps to check the completion of the merging:

  1. Compare all the drawing pages.  They are identical.

  2. Compare the Shapes windows (stencils) opened.  They are identical.

  3. Compare the hyperlink on the Mouse shape visio_EasyPublish_Web_Mouse.PNG (1503 bytes).  It's identical: a) Click your right mouse button on the shape to view the hyperlink; b) Or click the shape with your left mouse button and then choose menu Insert > Hyperlinks.

  4. Compare the Custom Properties of the Mouse shape.  They are identical: a) Click your right mouse button on the shape; b) Choose menu Shape > Custom Properties.

  5. Compare the Data1-3 fields of the Mouse shape.  They are identical: a) Click your right mouse button on the shape; b) Choose Format > Special.

  6. Compare the ShapeSheet.   Data are identical: a) Click the shape; b) Choose menu Window > Show ShapeSheet.

  7. Compare the page / print setup.  They are identical: Choose menu File > Page Setup.

In conclusion, Easy Merge not only makes your drawing pages look identical, but also does a lot behind the scene to synchronize your data.

visio_EasyPublish_User.PNG (2176 bytes) 7. Saving Your Drawing

Save your drawing if you intend to keep it for later use.

visio_EasyPublish_User.PNG (2176 bytes) 8. What's the Next?

  1. You can use the above process to merge multiple drawings together.

  2. On the other hand, you can use the same process to split a drawing into multiples by using a group of new drawings as destinations.

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