Microsoft Visio 2007

How to Brainstorm with Microsoft Visio 2007

1. Create a new document, select New, Business, then click Brainstorming Diagram.
2. First, let’s save our document, we’re going to call ours Visio-Brainstorming1.vsd.
3. A new toolbar opened when you created a brainstorming diagram, the Brainstorming toolbar. Click on the Add main topic button on the Brainstorming toolbar.
   
4. This will create an oval which is our main topic for the brainstorming session. We’re going to brainstorm about a new website idea. Let’s label our main topic oval New Website. Double-click on the shape and it will allow you edit the text, type in New Website and press the ESC key. Your drawing is simple right now:
   
5. You can see in our example screenshot above, there is an Outline Window which opened up with the brainstorm drawing. This will outline your ideas as you create them. You can leave this on, or close it, whichever your preference.
6. Now that we have our main idea, let’s create some subtopics. Select the New Website main topic, then click the Add Subtopic button on the Brainstorming toolbar.
   
7. Double-click your New Topic to edit the text and change it to Evergreen content. Select the New Website shape again and add another subtopic. Repeat until you have three (total) subtopics defined. We added User submissions and Social wildfire to our topics. Our drawing looks like this, you can download an up to date version if you’re following along:
   
8. Now, let’s expand out each of our subtopics. Select Evergreen content and select the Add multiple subtopics button on the Brainstorming toolbar.
   
9. This will open a dialog box that you can enter multiple subtopics at once – instead of adding each one individually. We’re adding these subtopics: Niche-focused, Easy to write, SEO rich, Fast to produce.
10. Now repeat the process for the other two subtopics. Under User submissions, add Easy to write, Motivate submissions, How to control spam? Under Social wildfire, add Facebook integration, Social research, Valuable to users. Your diagram should look similar to this one:
    
11. As you can see, we’re well on our way to brainstorming what could be a pretty cool website. We decided to move Social wildfire over a little so it doesn’t look like a part of Evergreen content. If you move it, simply select the Social wildfire shape and drag it, the subtopics will follow automatically. If you’ve been following along, here’s a download of our final version of the file which you will use in later exercises.

In the next Visio tutorial, you will learn how to format shapes.