Book Image

Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio

By : David J Parker, Šenaj Lelić
Book Image

Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio

By: David J Parker, Šenaj Lelić

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)

Banding shapes together

It is quite simple to select multiple shapes and move them without physically grouping them with the Group command, and there are different ways of selecting multiple shapes and keeping them banded together.

As mentioned earlier, ungrouping instances of master shapes dragged from a stencil can have a detrimental effect because it can accidentally break them apart and remove their smartness, including any data associated with them.

Selecting multiple shapes

We can multi-select by holding down the Ctrl or Shift key while clicking the left mouse button and clicking on shapes, or by holding down the left mouse button on the page and dragging a rectangle over shapes. In desktop Visio, there is also a Lasso Select command available from the Home | Editing | Select drop-down menu.

Using the built-in containers

Desktop Visio users have the ability to add other containers to band shapes together besides the Swimlanes masters from the Cross-Functional Flowchart...