Diagram will not resize properly

[Jim W.]

I have constructed a Visio (2003) representation of a Visual Basic screen,
using the shapes found in Windows and Dialogs, and in Common Controls, as
well as a number of "text shapes" that were created with the text tool. I
did not (knowingly) use any groups when constructing this "picture". There
are no "gray boxes" appearing around any of the shapes when I select them,
because I used the ShapeSheet window to remove all protection settings from
all of the shapes. I am now trying to resize the picture by using the "Area
Select" function in the pointer tool. I select the entire picture and then
use the mouse to "grab" the lower right hand corner, and then drag that
corner up and to the left, in an attempt to make the picture smaller. I want
the end result to be an identical, but smaller, picture. The actual result
is that only the "blank form" (background) shape gets smaller... the other
shapes within it shrink somewhat, but ALL of the text remains the original
size. ****** I have repeated the process after using the pointer tool and the
group button to create a group out of all the shapes, but the results are the
same!!! ******

Is it NOT POSSIBLE to resize a Visio diagram??? I have spent close to 5
hours trying to figure out how to do something that should only take 5
seconds to do. Please Help!!!

 

[Chris Roth [ Visio MVP ]]

THE RANT : )

The old "Read My Mind" feature raises it's head again...imagine if your text
resized every time you resized an ordinary rectangle! You'd go nuts.

Anyway, sometimes people need the whole thing to resize, other times they
need only parts of a shape to resize. In the case of the UI shapes, you'll
notice that the borders around the various control-shapes don't change
thickness when you resize them. This is a feature, and I've yet to see any
other graphics application that does this. (The rest are all clip-art
servers, and every resize warps the every detail of a shape proportionally -
useless!)


THE SOLUTIONS

- You can change the page scale. It's under File > Page Setup, then one of
the tabs. Try 1:2 to halve the size of all shapes. You might still have to
diminish all of the text sizes, though.
- Metafile. Copy your drawing. Select Edit > Paste Special. Choose Enhanced
Metafile. You'll now have a "dumb" copy of your original graphic that will
resize like clipart. Text, graphics, everything will resize proportionally,
but will still be "vector", so it will print nicely.



--

Hope this helps,

Chris Roth
Visio MVP

 

[Jim W.]

Thanks for your suggestions Chris. I added 20% to the page size and then set
the fit-to-page print option. I was then able to add another diagram to the
same page and have everything appear on the same (single) page when
printed... PLUS I can still go back and manipulate the shapes in the diagram
if necessary (which is not possible with the metafile cut-and-paste-special
strategy).

Thanks again!

Jim