Editing A Drawing with Amazing Visio Stencils

This tutorial shows you how to add the brand-new look and feel of Amazing Visio to any existing drawings that you have created with regular shapes:

  1. A drawing you just started with a special stencil -- such as a third party stencil for your  business.

  2. Or a drawing you have created a while ago.

By the end of this tutorial, you will feel really comfortable to use Amazing Visio stencils to enhance any drawings.

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visio_logo_32x32.gif (1061 bytes) 1. Creating A Drawing

Click your right mouse button here then choose Save Target As to download a sample drawing that was created with regular Visio shapes.  Save the drawing on your Windows desktop, then double click it to open.

The goal is to convert this drawing into this one.

visio_logo_32x32.gif (1061 bytes) 2. Adding A Background Page

A background page should be used to keep the page background.  Click here to see why.

1. Inserting A Background Page:

visio_HowTo_BackgroundPage_Tabs.PNG (922 bytes) Click your right mouse button on Page-1.  Choose Insert Page.  Choose Background for Type.  Click OK.

2. Adding A Shape for Background:

  1. Click the down arrow of the Open Stencil icon visio_HowTo_Stencil_OpenStencil.PNG (342 bytes) on the Standard toolbar. 

  2. Choose # Amazing Visio > amazing_shape_blue_dark_solid. 

  3. Drag the master shape * Rectangle and drop it on the background page.
    visio_Tutorial_Edit_Background.PNG (3169 bytes)

  4. Click the down arrow of the Shadow Color icon on the Format Shape toolbar.  Choose No Shadow.  The shadow is removed.
    visio_HowTo_Shadow.PNG (2482 bytes)

  5. Move and resize the shape to cover the entire page.

3. Attaching The Background Page to The Drawing:

  1. visio_HowTo_BackgroundPage_Tabs.PNG (922 bytes) Click Page-1 to make it the current page.

  2. Choose menu File > Page Setup. 

  3. Click the tab Page Properties.  Choose Background-1 from the Background list.  Click OK.

visio_logo_32x32.gif (1061 bytes) 3. Changing The Look And Feel of The Shapes

1. Turning Shapes Into Blue

  1. Click the down arrow of the Open Stencil icon visio_HowTo_Stencil_OpenStencil.PNG (342 bytes) on the Standard toolbar. 

  2. Choose # Amazing Visio > amazing_shape_blue_dark_dense. 

  3. Drag the master shape # Rectangle and drop it into your drawing.

  4. Double click (click here to see why) the Format Painter icon visio_Tutorial_All_FormatPainter.PNG (323 bytes) on the Standard toolbar.

  5. Click all the two dimensional shapes (such as rectangles) to be turned blue one by one.

  6. Press the Esc key to get rid of the tinny brush from your mouse pointer.  

  7. Click the shape you just added.  Delete it.

  8. Scroll down the stencil.  Drag #Dynamic Connector and drop it at the same location.

  9. Click the down arrow of the Line Ends icon visio_Tutorial_All_LineEnds.PNG (283 bytes) on the Format toolbar.  Choose the arrow pointing to the right.  An arrowhead is added to the connector.

  10. Double click the Format Painter as at step 4.

  11. Click all the connectors to be turned blue one by one.

  12. Repeat step 6 and 7.

2. Turning Shapes Into Yellow

Follow the same steps in the previous section but use stencil amazing_shape_yellow.

3. Changing The Text Color

  1. Press and hold the Shift key.

  2. Click My Flowchart, Main Process, and Additional Process.  All the 3 shapes are selected.  Let go the Shift key.

  3. visio_Tutorial_Edit_Font_Color.PNG (308 bytes) Click the down arrow of the Font Color icon on the Format toolbar.  Choose the Dark Blue color.

visio_logo_32x32.gif (1061 bytes) 4. Accessing Online Help

Optionally, you can enable the direct access to the online help of Amazing Visio from your drawing.  All you need to do is add the special stencil amazing_global.  You can then access the online help from your drawing via this menu:

visio_HowTo_Template_AmazingHelp.PNG (1792 bytes)

To add the stencil:

  1. Click the down arrow of the Open Stencil icon visio_HowTo_Stencil_OpenStencil.PNG (342 bytes) on the Standard toolbar.

  2. Choose # Amazing Visio > Global > amazing_global.  Choose Enable Macros from the pop up window (Click here to see why).  The menu is added.  Plus, the menu will be automatically added when you open your drawing in the future.

visio_HowTo_Template_AmazingGlobal.PNG (3251 bytes)

visio_logo_32x32.gif (1061 bytes) 5. Save Your Drawing

For more information about stencil, please click here.

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