Saving a Diagram

Save often.

That’s obvious but sound advice, regardless of the software you’re using. It’s particularly good counsel if you use Visio 2007 for long periods of time or if you typically have several programs open while you work. Save your changes frequently using any of the following methods:

• Press Ctrl+S.

  Save

  

• Click the Save button on the Standard toolbar.

• Choose File, Save.

The first time you save a diagram, regardless of the method you use, the Save As dialog box appears so that you can specify a name and location for the drawing file, as Figure 8-1 shows. After you specify this information, press Ctrl+S to save incremental changes to the diagram.

You might wonder exactly what is saved. Unless you specify otherwise, Visio 2007 saves any changes you’ve made to shapes, pages, and their properties (such as size and themes). Visio 2007 also saves a drawing’s workspace, which saves the position of all the open windows in the file, such as the Shape Data, Size & Position, Pan & Zoom, and Drawing Explorer windows. The next time you open the file, the stencil, drawing page, and other windows will look the same as when you last saved the file.

However, there are less obvious options that you can use when saving Visio 2007 files. You can do the following:

• Save information about the drawing file by specifying properties with the File, Properties command.

• Save a file as read-only to prevent others from editing it.

• Save a Visio 2007 drawing file by using the default (.vsd) format or as an XML (.vdx) document.

  For details about Visio 2007 and XML, see the section titled “Visio 2007 and XML File Formats” in Chapter 21, “Customizing Shapes and Solutions.”

  
  

• Save a drawing file as a stencil or template simply by using the Save As command and specifying Stencil (.vss) or Template (.vst) in the Save As Type list.

  For details, see the section titled “Mastering Visio 2007 Documents” in Chapter 21.

  
  

• Save a drawing file in Web (HTML) or graphics format.

  For details, see the section titled “Exporting Visio 2007 Diagrams for Use on the Web” in Chapter 5, “Using Visio Diagrams on the Web,” and the section titled “Exporting Shapes and Diagrams” in Chapter 7, Using Visio Diagrams with Other Programs.”

  
  

• Share your work as part of a presentation or by linking or embedding a diagram in another application.

  For details, see the section titled “Working with OLE” in Chapter 7.

  
  

Document Workspaces

Document Workspaces are SharePoint sites that let you make your drawings available for coworkers to read and modify. To go into detail about SharePoint services and sites would take another book, but suffice to say you can share your document by e-mailing it as a shared attachment or by utilizing the Shared Workspace task pane.

To e-mail a document as a shared attachment, follow this procedure:

1.	Open the drawing that you wish to share.
2.	Click the E-mail button on the Standard toolbar. Mail Recipient
3.	Fill in the e-mail as you normally do.
4.	Click Attachment Options on the Options group of the Message tab, and select Shared Attachments.
5.	Type in the address of the document workspace. The address must be a valid SharePoint location.
6.	Click Send to send the e-mail.

The recipients receive a copy of the drawing that is also held in the document workspace. The drawing in the workspace is automatically updated when other recipients upload their changes.

You can also share your drawings using the Document Management task pane. To do so, follow these steps:

1.	Select View, Task Pane to display the Visio task pane.
2.	Select Document Management from the task pane’s drop-down menu.
3.	Type in the document workspace name, and the location of the workspace. The address must be a valid SharePoint location.
4.	Click Create.

Including File Properties with a Diagram

After you have saved a file, you can right-click the file to display the Properties dialog box. This box helps you customize and identify your file.

The Properties dialog box contains so many options, who has time to fill them all in? However, if you supply some or all of the requested information, it can help you identify your drawing or diagram later without having to open it, because other dialog boxes can read a file’s properties and display the information to you. For example, when you select a file in the Open dialog box, you can click the Tools button, and then choose Properties to view the file information, as Figure 8-2 shows.

To enter properties for an open drawing file, follow these steps:

1.	Choose File, Properties.
2.	On the Summary tab of the Properties dialog box, enter the information you want to save with the diagram. Most of the boxes allow you to type up to 63 characters. The Description box accepts up to 191 characters. The Hyperlink Base box accepts up to 259 characters.
3.	Click OK.

Saving a Preview of a Diagram Another way to locate a particular Visio 2007 file is to save a preview of the drawing. You can then display it in the Open dialog box. To save a preview, choose File, Properties, and then select the Save Preview Picture option on the Summary tab. The preview is a handy way to find one Visio diagram when you have a lot of them; however, the preview image does add to the file size of the diagram. To see a file’s preview in the Open dialog box, click Views, and then click Preview. If you’re using an older version of the Windows operating system, you can take advantage of the Quick View tool to preview Visio 2007 diagrams. Quick View is available in Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 95, or Microsoft Windows NT 4, but not in Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP, or Microsoft Windows Vista. The preview image appears when you right-click a Visio file in Windows Explorer and then click Quick View.

Changing Where Diagrams Are Saved

When you save a drawing file, Visio 2007 initially displays the My Documents or Personal (if you have Windows NT) folder to save it in. This folder is also the first place Visio 2007 looks when you open an existing drawing file. Whenever you use the Save As command to save a drawing file, you can specify a different location in the Save In box, the same way you do in other Office applications. If you always save your work in a different location, it might make more sense to change the default file path Visio 2007 uses to locate and save files. For example, if you set D:WorkVisio as the default file path, when you use the Save As command, that folder is displayed in the Save In box.

To save your work to a different location, follow these steps:

1.	Choose File, Save As, and then click the Folders arrow on the left side of the dialog box to display a list of available drives and folders. [View full size image]
2.	Select the drive or folder in which you want to save your file. A list of existing files and folders in that location is displayed.
3.	To save your drawing file in a subfolder, display the Folders list, and then double-click the subfolder.
4.	Make sure the file name appears the way you want, and then click Save.

To change the default location (file path) for saving drawing files, follow these steps:

1.	Choose Tools, Options, click the Advanced tab, and then click File Paths.
2.	In the Drawings box, select the existing text, and then type the file path you want; for example, D:WorkVisio, or click the button to the right of the box and browse to the location that you wish to use.
3.	Click OK. The next time you choose the Save As command, the new default appears as the initial location in the Save In list.

Saving to a Document Management System

If you work with a document management system (DMS) that supports the Open Document Management Architecture (ODMA) standard, you can store Visio 2007 drawings and diagrams with it. Many organizations that work on collaborative projects use these systems to track documents that must be accessed and modified by many people across a network. A DMS tracks revisions, monitors document access, and facilitates version control.

If Visio detects the presence of an ODMA 1.5–compliant system on your computer, you can choose File, Save or Save As to save your drawing file, and the DMS Save dialog box appears instead of the Save dialog box. If the DMS Save dialog box does not appear, you might need to register Visio 2007 with your DMS. Refer to the documentation that came with your DMS.