How to Add Visio Shapes Using Drop and Connect
Visio provides a tool to progressively add new shapes to your drawing without resulting to the old drag and drop method using a Drop and Connect arrow button on a shape. In this tutorial, you will learn how to add shapes using Drop and Connect.
Click on a shape in the Shapes panel on the left. Hover over a shape that is on the drawing and you will see four arrows appear, hover over the blue arrow pointing down:
In the Shapes panel on the left, we’ve selected the Web page shape. When we click on the blue arrow on the About web page shape, it will add a web page shape below About which is connected to it:
Now, more Drop and Connect arrows appear on the new shape we just added – you can continue adding new shapes at will. If you click on a different shape in the Shapes panel on the left and click the arrow on a shape, it will add that particular shape. For this example, we selected the Pop-up shape in the Shapes panel and clicked on the right arrow on the Page shape on the drawing. This created the new shape, Dialog.
When you’re adding many of the same shapes in progression, using Drop and Connect can save time.
Adding Text to a Shape
You can label shapes after you add them to the drawing page. Labeling provides an opportunity to add descriptions to items on your drawings and is frequently used when creating Visio drawings. One of the nice things about the text labels attached to shapes in Visio is that it automatically expands and is properly formatted when you enter it. There are three simple steps to entering text to label a shape:
- Double-click on the shape to label a shape. Visio will zoom in automatically if you’re viewing page width to allow you to see the text you’re typing.
- As you enter text, the label expands automatically.
- After you’re finished entering text, press the ESC key on your keyboard to save the text you entered. Visio will automatically zoom back out to you view setting.
Adding Text to a Connector
You can also add text to a connector to describe the connection between the shapes. This is similar to how you add text to a shape, you double-click the connector line to add a label. Once you do, the view automatically zooms in so you can see the text you’re entering. As you enter it, the text field automatically expands.
Once you’re finished, press the ESC key to save the text.
Deleting a Connector
If you decide there is no connection between two shapes or want to recreate the connection, you can delete a connector.
- Select the connector line you wish to delete.
- Press the DEL key on your keyboard or select the Edit menu and then select Clear.
Once you delete a connection, the two shapes are no longer connected.
In the Next Section
In the next section, we will explore how to manage stencils, those collections of shapes we’ve been using to piece together our drawings.
