I thought I would write an article on Microsoft Visio since I haven’t written one for awhile, and also because it seems that a lot of people are not very familiar with this great tool. Visio is an extremely powerful application, and more people should take advantage of it (*steps off soap box*).

This article will focus on some common Visio Flowchart shapes and what kinds of uses you should put them to. You can find a detailed definition for a Flowchart from this link to the Wikipedia definition.

Here are the shapes we will be discussing:

1. Process Block - You can use this shape to describe “processes”, which can be defined for our purposes as a certain action being taken. Some examples of a process could be:
   • Performing a calculation, such as “Calculate the average of all the sales”.
   • A group taking an action, such as “The Product Test group validates the software modules”.
   • A generic action, such as “Document is placed in the tray”.

   These are normally the building blocks of your Visio diagrams.

2. Decision Symbol - As the name implies, you would use this symbol to branch out your diagram based on a decision that is made. You can think of this as an “If” statement (for those familiar with programming concepts).

   There are two basic ways to use this symbol:

   • Yes/No Path - This has two outcomes, Yes or No. An example would be “Is the average greater than 0?”. Based on the answer, you would either go down a “Yes” path or a “No” path.
   • Multiple Path - The flow can go multiple ways based on the outcome. For example, if could you “Choose location to check”, and then each location could be a path.

   The key here is to make sure you label each path, even if it is with a “Yes” or a “No”. Otherwise, you won’t be able to navigate your diagram.

3. Terminator Symbol - This is what you use when you want to end or start your diagram. Normally, you would have one at the beginning labeled “Beginning of (process)”, and one at the end labeled “End of (process)”. However, if your diagram can end in many places, you should have a terminator for each place it can end. This also works if you have multiple beginning points, but this is less common. Make sure to give them descriptive names instead of just “Begin” and “End”.

4. Document Symbol - Pretty obvious explanation here, but you might find yourself using it a lot. If you have any kind of document that you are trying to represent in your diagram, you should use this symbol. For instance, if the input to your process is a file, it would be represented by this symbol. Another example would be if the output of your process is a file.

5. On Page Reference - This should be used if you need to “jump” back to another part of your process in a different part of the diagram, but can’t connect them using a standard connector. Also, this can be used to modularize your diagram. For example, if you have a repeatable process (like a “Function” for those familiar with programming terms), you could reference that process by just using this symbol instead of repeating that part of the diagram multiple times. You should use this when what you are referencing is on the same page as this symbol.

   Another important point is that these symbols work in pairs, like two ends of a connector. The key is to label them both the same thing so that you know which reference goes where. I use numbers, which seem to work fairly well for small diagrams. However, if your diagram is more complex I recommend using more descriptive text like “Determine customer payment information function”.

6. Off Page Reference - This has pretty similar uses to the On Page Reference, however the key difference is that you would use this when what you are referencing is on a different page than the symbol. Using an example above, if you were to have repeatable functions in your diagram, you might just have one page where the details for it reside and then use this reference when you want people to skip to it. This way you don’t have to repeat the same set of symbols multiple times in your diagram. This also creates a cleaner, less cluttered diagram.

7. Database Symbol - I think you would use this more when designing software processes, as it represents a connection to a database or more specifically a table in that database. For example, say part of your diagram writes a value to a table, then that table should be represented by this symbol. This symbol should be labeled with the name of the table if there is only one database, if there are multiple databases than the name of the database should preface the table name.

Shape Location

Shapes 1-6 are located on the Basic Flowchart Shapes menu, while Shape 7 is located on the Miscellaneous Flowchart Shapes menu. Both of these menus can be accessed by clicking on File -> Shapes (”Stencils” in some older versions of Visio) -> Flowchart.

These are just some of the more common shapes used when creating a Flowchart. As you design your diagram, explore the different shapes available to you in order to better tailor your diagram to your project’s needs.

One of the most frustrating aspects of working with Microsoft Visio is trying to get your shapes in exactly the right places on the page relative to each other.  This can be both a time consuming and stressful process.  However, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  By grouping shapes that share a common function, you can break your project into easier to manage modules instead of a bunch of individual shapes.

This is a pretty easy process (much easier than you are probably thinking).  For starters, find some shapes that you want to group together.  Some examples where this could be useful are:

• A Legend on a map or process flow.
• A block of similar design elements, such as a backend design for an application or the front end modules for the application.
• Any “shape” that is built out of multiple shapes, or really anything that goes beyond the simple shapes you can drag onto your pages.

For example purposes let’s say that we want to group multiple shapes that make up the Legend on our project.  We’ll assume that all of the shapes for the Legend are in place, and it looks exactly how we want it.  However, how do we easily move them all at once without changing the positions of the component shapes? Simple. 

First, select all of the shapes in the Legend; this includes any Text components that you have.  The resulting shapes should look something like this:

Then, right click and select Shape from the resulting menu.  From the Shape menu, select Group.  This is shown below:

Now, your shapes should be grouped and look like this:

There you have it, your Legend module is now complete.  You can move the entire group just like you would a single shape by dragging it around your project.  Also, if you want to modify individual shape position within the group, all you have to do is select that shape and move it.  It really is just that simple.

Lastly, if you want to ungroup your shapes, select the group, right click, and select Shape -> Ungroup.  Now all of the shapes are individual objects again.

This should save you tons of time (it’s been a lifesaver for me many a time), and make your projects easier to update in the future.