Last Tuesday, one of my fellow bloggers, Eric, posted a video about how to create an office layout diagram using Visio. I think it’s fun and clever but then I got to wondering if most people out there really understand what Visio is…? Or maybe they've heard of it but when the words “layout” and “diagram”  pop up, their blood starts to run cold— it sounds like geometry; it sounds like drawing and measuring is involved.

I understand this sort of reaction because, well, I've never had particularly strong spatial abilities; I nearly flunked geometry in ninth grade. Even today I probably couldn't find my way out of an origami-folded paper bag.

You too?

So here comes Visio to provides all the shapes, templates, and connectors (and all that stuff) so that you don't have to be geometrically or spatially inclined and yet create drawings and documents that make you look like you are.

Of course, you do have to learn a bit of the lingo, so here are 3 terms you need to know.

OK, ready?

Shape

A shape in Visio is like the cell in Excel: It's the building block of your drawings, your diagrams, your charts, and whatever else you're creating in Visio.

Stencil:

A Visio stencil is simply a container for all your shapes— it's a collection of shapes, and all those shapes in a particular stencil have something in common. They can be a collection of shapes that you need to create a certain type of diagram.

Drawing

In Visio all drawings start with a simple four-step procedure: Pick a template (a flowchart, a floor plan, or an engineering template, for example), add shapes from the template stencils to it, add text to the shapes, and then connect them in the ways that illustrate the point you're trying to make.

Of course there are many more terms you should learn— pasteboard, connector, and PivotDiagram to name a few— so visit my column, Crabby demystifies Visio terms on Office Online or on the Crabby Office Lady blog if you want to know more.

Crabby Office Lady

— Crabby