0 - Visio 11.book Page 20 Tuesday, July 1, 2003 10:50 PM
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MICROSOFT® OFFICE VISIO® 2003 USER GUIDE
Create your own shapes Visio offers several ways to create your own shapes:
Draw shapes from scratch using Visio drawing tools
• Draw a shape from scratch using any of the
When you use the Visio drawing tools on the Drawing toolbar to create shapes from scratch, keep in mind that shapes can be either open or closed.
drawing tools—Rectangle, Ellipse, Line, Arc, Freeform, or Pencil—on the Drawing toolbar. For example, if you want to add a freeform arrow to a block diagram, you can draw the arrow with the Freeform tool.
• Merge two or more shapes. For example, to create a round sign with an arrow cut out of its center, you can place an arrow shape on top of a circle and then use the Combine command. • Revise an existing shape. For example, if your company uses a special process shape for flowcharts, you can modify a Visio process shape, save your modified version, and then use it in future flowcharts. TIP: When you use the drawing tools, you can hold down the SHIFT key while you draw to constrain the drawing behavior.
Open shapes are lines, arcs, or zigzag shapes. You can format the line ends, but you cannot fill the shapes with colors or patterns, because they contain no enclosed area. Closed shapes are rectangles, circles, or other shapes that include an area you can fill with colors and patterns.
You can apply a fill and pattern to a closed shape, such as a rectangle, and ends to open shapes, such as lines.
Draw a shape using a Visio drawing tool 1 Show the Drawing toolbar by clicking the
Drawing Tools button ( ) on the Standard toolbar. 2 On the Drawing toolbar, click a drawing tool. 3 Hold down the mouse button and drag on the drawing page to create the shape you want.