Wireframes a little easier.

Visio 2007 Time-Saving Tips

Visio 2007 is a powerful tool. But when using it again and again, I’ve found that some basic tactics save a tremendous amount of time.

When creating wireframes, I use custom page size and scale settings. To keep from setting my wireframe pages up with these settings for each new project, I’ll create a template:

1. Create a simple background page that includes: area boxes for wireframe, Annotations column, title, footer, disclaimer and all of my custom layout settings

2. Save the drawing as a template. To do this – go to Save As.. menu select template as the file type and save it.

3. Now the next time you begin a new wireframe, open this template file instead of a new drawing and just rename it. This shaves precious minutes from a very tedious task.

Next timesave: making a custom Shapes collection.

I find myself using the same shapes over and over again in my wireframes. Other times I create custom shapes that I know I will need again in the future.

Visio allows you to create custom stencils (collections of shapes). To do this, open the File Menu, then Shapes. Select New Stencil. You will then see a blank shapes menu. Copy and paste shapes from your document into this box and give them a title. *Hint: Turn on “Show Document stencil” from the shapes menu to view all of the shapes for the current document and copy and paste many shapes at once. Once you are finished you will see a small save icon to the right of the generic title. Save the stencil to your My Shapes folder. Now this stencil will be available in the My Shapes library for future use.