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About this lesson
In this module, you will start moving shapes into your diagram, and you will see how to move the shapes, and line them up with other shapes, which will help you create your first Visio diagram.
Exercise files
Download this lesson’s related exercise files.
Creating your first diagram75.8 KB 1st Diagram-1.4.vsdx
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Quick reference
Creating your first diagram
In this module, you will start moving shapes into your diagram, and you will see how to move the shapes, and line them up with other shapes, which will help you create your first Visio diagram.
Instructions
- Start Visio, then click on Basic Flowchart, then the Blank Flowchart, and click "Create".
- Begin creating your first diagram by using shapes from the "Basic Flowchart Shapes" window on the left. To add a shape, click and drag it onto your diagram.
- 00:04 Let's go ahead and make our first diagram in Microsoft Visio.
- 00:08 So I'm going to go ahead and double click on the Visio icon on the desktop.
- 00:13 Then notice how at this point you can either make a blank drawing, or
- 00:17 you can pick one of these templates and there's other templates available.
- 00:21 Now if you choose one of the templates, you'll get certain shapes and
- 00:24 certain stencils, but you can always add more.
- 00:27 So, a very common use of Visio is to make a flowchart.
- 00:31 So let's go into the basic flowchart template.
- 00:35 Now here I can choose one of these preset diagrams or I'm going to make a blank one.
- 00:39 So I'll pick on the blank one over here, I'm going to use US Units and
- 00:43 I'll pick on create.
- 00:46 Now we're in a blank diagram, these are called shapes and
- 00:50 the collection of shapes is called a stencil.
- 00:52 And then if I picked on this one, you would get different shapes,
- 00:55 as you can see.
- 00:57 So each stencil has different shapes, so
- 00:59 I'm going to pick up that shape and just drag it into the diagram.
- 01:05 Now as you move your shape around,
- 01:07 sometimes you're going to get these green lines, that means that's in the center.
- 01:11 And then if I move it to over here,
- 01:14 I can see how it will be in the center vertically and horizontally.
- 01:17 So as you move your shapes around, you might get those lines,
- 01:21 here it tells me I'm centered horizontally on the diagram.
- 01:24 So I'm going to lift my finger and now you have that first shape in there.
- 01:28 Now, you could always move that shape and resize that shape and format it.
- 01:32 And we'll see how to do that as we go through the different lessons.
- 01:36 Now, in this case, you can also apply text to that shape, so
- 01:40 I'll type in the word, Start.
- 01:43 This text will be associated with that shape, and
- 01:46 now I'm going to go ahead and just click over here.
- 01:50 And then see how the word start is within that shape, okay?
- 01:55 So naturally the diagram will be made up of many, many shapes.
- 02:00 Another way to add the shapes is to pick on the Home menu and
- 02:04 you click on this pull down.
- 02:06 And you'll have basic shapes like a rectangle, an ellipse,
- 02:10 a line, free form, an arc, or you can draw your own shapes with the pencil.
- 02:15 So let's continue to use some of the shapes that are over here.
- 02:18 So next, I'll pick on a process and I'm just going to pick it up and
- 02:23 drag it into the diagram.
- 02:25 Now watch how as I approach that other shape,
- 02:28 you're going to get these other lines and then we can tell that's lined up okay?
- 02:33 So those lines help you quite a bit, see how I can tell that's lined up now,
- 02:38 and I'm going to lift my finger.
- 02:40 And from there, we'll say enter a user ID, I'm just going to type that in.
- 02:47 And then just click over here, and now we have the second shape.
- 02:52 So making your diagram is going to be a matter
- 02:56 of moving the shapes into the diagram.
- 02:59 So next in the flowchart, we'll have a decision, so
- 03:04 I'm going to pick up the decision shape.
- 03:06 And drag it right there, so
- 03:08 notice how as I approached the other shapes, then you'll get these arrows.
- 03:13 So this tells me that that's lined up.
- 03:16 Now as you get more sophisticated with Visio, I can kind of move that up or down.
- 03:22 And when I get those two green arrows on the right hand side,
- 03:25 that means it's evenly spaced, so those lines really help you.
- 03:30 Now you can always move things after the fact, or
- 03:32 there's other ways to make sure they're evenly spaced.
- 03:34 Or perfectly lined up, but those lines are really guiding us, as you can see.
- 03:40 I'm going to type in, is the login correct, and
- 03:43 now that text is within that decision.
- 03:47 Now with the decision, you can have a branch that would say like, no over here.
- 03:53 And yes over here, and then it would go in different directions.
- 03:57 Now if you noticed,
- 03:59 when I move my mouse to that shape, you're going to find another way to make a shape.
- 04:04 So I can actually click on these arrows and
- 04:07 then you would see other shapes that go along with your current template.
- 04:11 This especially works with the flowchart, so
- 04:14 notice how as I hover my mouse on that shape.
- 04:17 You get these arrows and then I could just click another quick shape over there.
- 04:22 Or you can drag the shapes in from the left hand side.
- 04:25 So in this case, I'll click on the process and drag it over here and
- 04:30 then I move the Start and End over here, okay?
- 04:34 So I'm just dragging the shapes in, so in this case, maybe if they picked on yes.
- 04:40 Then I want it to go to another
- 04:44 procedure. They can continue on.
- 04:51 But if they did not enter a correct login, then I want to stop it,
- 04:59 so I just typed in the word Stop there.
- 05:02 So of course, we're going to move these shapes around and
- 05:05 format the shapes, but now you have an idea.
- 05:08 of how to get your Visio diagram started.
- 05:12 Keep in mind, you'll always be able to add more shapes and
- 05:14 more stencils as you go forward.
- 05:17 Let's go ahead and save this, so I'll pick on File and then Save.
- 05:22 And then you want to give it a good name of course, so
- 05:24 I'll pick in the Browse choice.
- 05:27 And then usually it's going to put it into the Documents folder although you can pick
- 05:31 a different folder.
- 05:32 And I'm going to call this one, 1st
- 05:39 Diagram, and notice how it's going to have a vsdx extension and I'll click on Save.
- 05:47 And then notice how that name shows up on your title bar and
- 05:51 now we've made our first diagram in Microsoft Visio.
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