Chapter 22. Drawing and Editing to Create New Shapes

Everything seems easier when it is done for you, like premade shapes in a Microsoft Office Visio 2007 stencil. Often, however, it’s easier just to do it yourself. No doubt, Office Visio 2007 will normally meet all of your shape needs, but if you need a specific shape you might want to design your own. To do so, take advantage of Visio 2007’s drawing tools. The good news is that you don’t necessarily need to draw a shape from scratch even when you can’t find what you want on an existing stencil. In fact, it’s almost always faster to start with an existing shape and then modify it to suit your needs.

This chapter presents the pros and cons of various shape drawing and editing techniques, and describes in detail all the drawing tools and techniques you can use. For shape developers and others who want to understand shapes inside out, this chapter also discusses shapes in terms of their geometry.