Wiley Visio 2007 For Dummies 978-0-470-08983-5 Manuel D’Utilisation

you see only the layer of data you actually need. All of the data is still
there, but you only access it when you actually need it. (See Chapter 10
for ideas on how you can use layering to manage your data efficiently.)

 Make your diagrams a group activity: The ability to comment on ideas in

a group is essential in business today. The diagrams that you create are
ideas only they’re in graphical, rather than textual, format. Visio helps you
make the diagrams you create a group activity by providing a number of
ways to add comments and revisions. (See Chapter 13 for more informa-
tion on working with comments and the Visio review features.)

 Report on data: Wouldn’t it be great if you could store data in a drawing

and then report on that data? With Visio, you can. Suppose you draw an
office layout plan that includes cubicle walls, fixtures, office furniture,
and telephone and computer equipment. You can store each piece of fur-
niture and office equipment with data such as its inventory number,
owner, and current location. From this drawing, you can generate prop-
erty, inventory, and location reports. (See Chapter 12 for more informa-
tion on storing and reporting on data in shapes.)

 Use the drill-down feature: Jump quickly from an overview drawing to a

detailed drawing and back again. For example, you can draw an overview
map of a worldwide computer network and double-click the name of a
city to see a drawing of that city’s computer network. This drill-down fea-
ture is possible because Visio lets you define a shape’s behavior when
you double-click it. (See Chapter 12 for more information.)

 Generate drawings from data: In contrast to the previous point, would-

n’t it be great to be able to generate drawings from existing data? Again,
with Visio, you can. Suppose you have employee data (name, title,
department, reporting manager, and so on) stored in a text or spread-
sheet file. You can generate an organization chart automatically from
this data using Visio. (See Chapter 14 for more information on using
external data in Visio.)

 Use hyperlinks: Often, you can’t convey in a single drawing all the infor-

mation necessary to make your point. You might want to refer the reader
to a separate drawing, a Web site, or another document with related
information. With Visio, you can add hyperlinks to a drawing or shape.
This is an invaluable feature for pulling pieces of information together to
present a comprehensive picture. (See Chapter 14 for tips on using
hyperlinks in diagrams.)

Visio actually provides support for eight categories of drawings. You can
create everything from business charts to software and database diagrams.
The “Understanding the Visio Drawing Categories” section of Chapter 2 pro-
vides a description of each of these drawing categories so that you have a
better idea of precisely what Visio can do for you.

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