Have a flowchart flooded with shapes? Avoid tediously repositioning each shape. Quickly, access the proper tools and menus to perfectly align and distribute your shapes with Microsoft Visio.
Let’s take a look at both methods.
The first picture shows what your flowchart would look like if you shrink the process shapes. The boxes get really small, which means that the information that you type into the boxes will be more difficult to read. This is only acceptable where the flowchart either contains little text or is never going to see a printer (onscreen viewers can zoom in).
A better practiced method is to move the boxes over—as is clearly visible in the second picture. The first column of process shapes is slightly moved down (which tells the person reading the flowchart that the very top left box is the starting point of your process/ procedure or concept). The second column begins near the top of the page, and carries over to the third column. All that is necessary is to add more process shapes and connect them using the line connector tool. This kind of flowchart is useful for procedures containing many steps (particularly for detailed flowcharts).
When you have a flood of shapes populating a page it is tedious to align each shape to the grid one-by-one. This is where knowing the Visio menus helps. Click on the Shapes menu. Select the Lay Out Shapes option.
A new window pops onto the screen, offering the user some options for laying the shapes on the window, including how those shapes should be connected. Also, in this same window you can enlarge the page to fit a drawing, and even keep all shapes aligned to the grid. If you want to specify a measure for spacing between shapes, click on the Spacing button.
If you only want to make a one or two changes to a few shapes on the paper then there’s no need to open the Lay Out Shapes window. Alternatively, select a shape with your mouse (hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple shapes, or hold down the mouse button and draw a selection), then revisit the Shapes menu.
Select from Align Shapes, Distribute Shapes, or Connect Shapes to position your shapes however you want them to appear on the page. Align shapes moves shapes so that they are aligned to one another or the grid. Distribute Shapes allows you to add/ reduce spacing between shapes. And, connect Shapes will draw a line between shapes so that you do not have to connect each shape one by one.
When you’re ready to enter your text for each shape, click on a shape in your flowchart, and then use the tools in the following illustration to configure the attributes to your text. See the explanation for each attribute below.
- Click on the Text Tool. The cursor changes into a cross hair.
- Click on the paper area in the workspace, and hold down the left mouse button. Drag the cross hair from left to right, and then down to draw a rectangular text box. Type a name for your flowchart.
- Click on the Font list box. Select the font you want for your text. The text you’ve just typed will change. If the text doesn’t change, select the text box by clicking on it, and then click on the Font list box a second time.
- Select the font size. A good font size for naming your document is 14 points or greater.
- Bold or underline the text by clicking on the text attributes icons (B, I, U).
- Set the paragraph/ text body alignment. I choose center for basic flowcharts.
- Set the font color.
If you want a line around the text you’ve just created (to create a text box look for your flowchart label), simply click on the line color icon (either the line color [brush and line icon] or the three lines icon next to it).
Below is a description of the most common shapes used in Visio (in case you’re new to Visio).
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