Tables?

[Randall Arnold]

Probably confusion on my part, but I can't figure out how to do standard
tables in Visio-- you know, the typical table such as is found in Word,
Puiblisher, Frontpage, et al. There are table-type shapes, to be sure, but
the ones I've tried have suffered one limitation or another. I just need a
good-old fashioned table that can have cells split, merged, shaded,
inserted, etc. Note: the Help in Visio 2003 beta only pulls up references
to database tables-- not what I need.

Thanks all,

Randall Arnold

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, the Help should have more than database
tables in it. You can find other table shapes in the Marketing stencils or
in Charting. Visio does not currently have a rich table capability ala
Word.

I will take your post as a vote for such a feature in the future.

 

[Randall Arnold]

Thanks Mark.

I tried every shape that even remotely looked like it could do what I want,
but all had one limitation or another. I couldn't add or remove rows or
columns, and can't format individual cells the way I want.

Visio could definitely use a rich table capability. I was quite surprised
it wasn't there!

FYI, here's what I'm wanting to do: my client wants to get their product
line on the web. They want a sort of e-commerce site, except that their
customers will browse their product line (light poles and related
accoutrements) and request a quote online for prices of items and systems.
The request will go into a database, which contains prices (that the
customer doesn't see, but my client can), and send an alert to a specified
email address (and/or update a web page) that an RFQ is in the queue. The
quoter will pull up the quote, which on his end will list the prices, which
he/she can tweak as needed for a given situation. Then the completed quote
will be sent to the requester.

I want to use Visio for a significant portion of this. I will be serving up
SVG "cut sheets" (item drawings), XML data, etc. My hope is that I can use
a combination of Visio and FrontPage as the front-end for all the activity,
and Word/Excel/Publisher/Access will sit underneath and serve up appropriate
supporting data. I need everything tightly integrated, both on the Internet
site and Intranet. Do you have links to any examples along these lines?
I'm afraid that I'm (once again) in bleeding edge territory and lost without
a compass!

On a side note, I am very impressed with this product, and use it
religiously. I've been out pushing it as much as possible, but have
encountered a great deal of confusion and inertia. People are just not as
aware of this tool and what it can do as they should be. MS really needs to
elevate its awareness!

Randall Arnold
(beta ID 237445)

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Perhaps the ActiveX control for Visio 2003 would be helpful here. If you
downloaded the Beta, you can get some information from the Developer Help.

<snip>
You can a lot more information by going to Visio Automation
Reference->Programming Concepts->Concepts->About the Visio Drawing Control
and checking out the list in "See Also"
</snip>

--
Mark Nelson
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.