Book Image

Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio

By : David Parker, Senaj Lelic
Book Image

Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio

By: David Parker, Senaj Lelic

Overview of this book

Every business has process flows, but not all of them are fully described to or verified for accuracy with each stakeholder. This not only presents a risk for business continuity but also removes the ability to make insightful improvements. To make these complex interactions easy to grasp, it’s important to describe these processes visually using symbology that everybody understands. Different parts of these flows should be collaboratively developed and stored securely as commercial collateral. Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio helps you understand why it is crucial to use a common, systematic approach to document the steps needed to meet each business requirement. This book explores the various process flow templates available in each edition of Microsoft Visio, including BPMN. It also shows you how to use them effectively with the help of tips and techniques and examples to reduce the time required for creating them, as well as how you can improve their integration and presentation. By the end of this book, you’ll have mastered the skills needed to create data-integrated business flowcharts with Microsoft Visio, learned how to effectively use these diagrams collaboratively, but securely, and understood how to integrate them with other M365 apps, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Power Automate.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)

Using layers to control visibility and color

Layers in Visio are like different sheets of acetate, one on top of another, like we used to do with overhead projectors at school many years ago. We could add or remove these acetate sheets to show or hide their contents. However, Visio is more complex because all shapes in Visio can be optionally assigned to one or more layers, and all of the flowchart shapes have been pre-assigned to a layer called Flowchart. The Dynamic connector shape has been pre-assigned to a layer called Connector.

Each layer has seven properties, in addition to its name, that can control the appearance and behavior of every shape assigned to it. The seven properties are as follows:

  • Visible: This toggles the visibility of shapes.
  • Print: This toggles the printability of shapes.
  • Active: If checked, then any new shapes that do not already have layer assignments will be assigned to this layer.
  • Lock: This prevents the shapes from being selectable...