How To Make A Background Frame Template In Visio With Poage Number

I have worked inside many organizations where Visio documents and diagrams need to exist well presented, or otherwise they will be ignored. One of the ways to provide a consequent professional look is to use borders, titles and backgrounds. In this article, I discuss the congenital-in ones, and show how custom ones can be created.

The Born Visio Backgrounds

I can hands insert a background shape from the Design \ Backgrounds ribbon drop-down push in the Visio carte.

In fact, when I exercise drop i of these background shapes, say the one called Menstruation, downward onto my folio, then a new page, called VBackground-1 or similar, is automatically created, and the shape is moved onto this page. This new page has a folio type of Background and it is automatically associated with the Foreground page that I initially dropped the shape onto.

Note that the showtime choice is No Background which appears to remove whatsoever existing groundwork shape.

In the following screenshot, I have opened the Cartoon Explorer window to show that the Period shape is on the VBackground-one folio, and that it has several sub-shapes within it.

When I examine the ShapeSheet of the top group shape inside the Flow main, so I can encounter why the shape behaves like it does.

Starting time, the Width and Acme formulas fix them to the width and height of the folio, and the PinX and PinY formulas ensure that it is centered on the page.

The User.Background cell is required with the value 0 for the "Make Background" add-on in the EventDrop formula to function properly and understand that this is a simple background shape. Any subsequent calls to this Microsoft provided add-on will replace the existing background shape, rather than add a new one.

Cell	Formula
Width	=GUARD(ThePage!PageWidth)
Pinnacle	=Baby-sit(ThePage!PageHeight)
PinX	=Guard(Width/2)
PinY	=Guard(Superlative/two)
User.Background	0
User.msvShapeCategories	="DoNotContain"
EventDrop	=RUNADDON("Brand Background")+SETF("EventDrop",0)

The second role (SETF(…)) of the EventDrop formula actually removes the formula from the shape when information technology has been dropped, then that information technology cannot be run a second time.

The User.msvShapeCategories formula is gear up to "DoNotContain" in-case the shape is accidentally on elevation of a container shape.

The Congenital-in Visio Borders & Titles

Borders and titles tin exist inserted in a like manner to the groundwork shapes, from Visio'south Borders & Titles drop-downward gallery.

Just like the Groundwork shapes, the edge shape, chosen Tiles in this example, is automatically moved to a new VBackground-1 page, or information technology is added to an existing background page.

Note that the first option is No Border and Title which appear to remove any existing edge and title shape.

An exploration of the Tiles chief reveals how information technology works. In fact, I noticed for the commencement time that this shape has a right-mouse menu choice to hide or bear witness the footer shape, which displays the page number.

The key formulas for the border and championship shape ensure that the shape is sized to the folio minus the margins, and the User.Groundwork formula is prepare to 2.

Prison cell	Formula
Width	=Baby-sit(ThePage!PageWidth-ThePage!PageLeftMarginThePage!DrawingScale/ThePage!PageScale-ThePage!PageRightMarginThePage!DrawingScale/ThePage!PageScale)
Height	=Baby-sit(ThePage!PageHeight-ThePage!PageTopMarginThePage!DrawingScale/ThePage!PageScale-ThePage!PageBottomMarginThePage!DrawingScale/ThePage!PageScale)
PinX	=GUARD(Width/ii+ThePage!PageLeftMargin*ThePage!DrawingScale/ThePage!PageScale)
PinY	=GUARD(Height/2+ThePage!PageBottomMargin*ThePage!DrawingScale/ThePage!PageScale)
User.Background	ii
User.msvShapeCatgories	="DoNotContain"
User.AntiScale	=IF(AND(User.Scale>0.125,User.Scale<eight),i,User.Scale)
User.Calibration	=ThePage!DrawingScale/ThePage!PageScale
EventDrop	=RUNADDON("Make Background")

The User.AntiScale and User.Calibration formulas are actually used by the sub shapes to ensure that fonts and line thicknesses look adept at unlike scales.

N.B. Historically Visio fonts and line thicknesses have behaved best when they are inside a factor of 8 of their original scale, hence the formula in User.AntiScale that checks that the scale is inside this range.

Inserting document properties

I often modify the text on my border and title shapes to brandish document, folio or appointment\time values automatically, by using the INSERT \ Field dialog.

Inserting certificate timestamps

I am a peachy believer in displaying a date\timestamp on Visio documents because information technology can be of import to know if the printed document is current or not.

When I insert appointment\time values, then I unremarkably ensure they are formatted in the way that my audience requires. I remember having to modify all dates to United states format, i.eastward. month starting time, for a Swiss banking company in London because the reports were being viewed past an American.

Of course, other data types can be formatted too.

Making Custom Masters

I decided that my custom groundwork shape, called Gradient Background, should have 80% transparency. This ways that I will nevertheless exist able to meet the grid lines and page breaks on the screen, and information technology will salvage in those ink costs!

Basically, I only created a formatted rectangle, and practical the cell formulas as described to a higher place for the built-in Menstruation master shape.

Similarly, I created a new main chosen Ellipse Titles, and practical the formulas from the top group shape of the built-in Tiles master. I converted my basic rectangle to a group with no line or fill, and inserted sub shapes into this group shape.

N.B. I always add the Edit Object command to my ribbon using Customize Ribbon, because this enables me to open a grouping shape up. I think Microsoft hid this control because some users would accidentally open a group shape, and then mess information technology upwards!

It is worth mentioning that I oft ready the size to the font size, and position relative to an border of the parent group shape. In this example, the Width of the ellipse is a multiple of the font size, and its PinX and PinY formulas are relative to the top edge and right edge of the parent shape.

Cell	Formula
Width	=Baby-sit(Char.Size*12)
Height	=Guard(Width/three)
PinX	=GUARD(Sheet.5!Width*1-Width/2)
PinY	=GUARD(Sheet.5!Superlative*1-Height/2)

After I created another couple of ellipses, and inserted formulas similar to above, I could then drag and drop onto the folio. The PinX/PinY formulas ensure that the ellipses are always in the top right corner, even when the page is automatically or manually resized.

Making Custom Stencils

Although I have shown these custom masters in a document stencil, there is no reason why they cannot be added to a general stencil for use on any certificate.

Yous can even go the Visio interface to display these custom backgrounds, and borders and titles in the drop-down gallery, rather than the Microsoft ones. All y'all need to practice is salve the stencils with the special names _BCKGRND.vssx and _BORDERS.vssx into the My Shapes folder in My Documents.

In this instance, I also copied the None masters from the original Groundwork and Borders and Titles galley on to the respective custom stencils. These masters have a slightly dissimilar formula in the EventDrop cell, =RUNADDONWARGS("Make Background","/R")+SETF("EventDrop",0). Also, the User.Background cells are set to 1 and iii respectively.

Now, when I re-open Visio, I no longer see the congenital-in galleries because they have been replaced with the custom galleries from my stencils.

Note that the leading underscore in the stencil names ways that they will get hidden from the Visio More Shapes \ My Shapes menu.

Summary

In this article, I take described how the built-in Visio background, borders and championship shapes piece of work, so that custom ones can be created for whatever organization. I have always found that company personalized documents are more than likely to exist accustomed, and their bona fides are more clearly understood.

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