Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter
December 2005/January 2006
| Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter December 2005/January 2006 |
To make quick, easy and effective diagrams to illustrate procedures, Beau Cain suggests using Microsoft Visio. Cain, who teaches a course on Visio at San Jose State's Professional Development Center, gave an entertaining presentation on the program at the September meeting.
A business and technical drawing and diagramming tool that facilitates creating graphic representations (diagrams) of concepts, procedures, product information, and specifications.
A plan, sketch, drawing, or outline designed to demonstrate or explain how something works or to clarify the relationship between the parts of a whole. "A diagram describes a relationship," explained Cain. It says, "this is the central idea and these are the ideas that relate to it."
Anyone who needs a graphic tool that facilitates creating diagrams, including marketing writers, engineers, and, yes, technical writers. "You don't necessarily need a fancy graphics program," Cain said.
First, let's answer "Why diagrams?" "People see images before their brain registers text," said Cain. Research shows that the eye is drawn to pictures before anything else on a page. Effective diagrams "can help you have an unconscious impact. They can get ideas into someone's mind quickly and easily."
As for why you should use Visio in particular to create diagrams, Cain said you should ask yourself, "How long would it take to create this diagram using MS Illustrator?" Chances are, it would be quicker and easier to use Visio.
When the native program that you are using, such as FrameMaker or Word, can easily meet your needs. Or if a more appropriate tool is available, such as Adobe PhotoShop, which would work better for photos. But if you are creating a complex diagram, Visio could prove helpful.
Visio comes in two versions, Standard and Professional, differentiated according to the type and number of templates each features. The Standard version includes templates for block diagrams, building plans, flowcharts, and forms and charts, whereas the Professional version's templates include those for building plans, databases, electrical and mechanical engineering, and software.
Cain had one caveat for both versions of Visio -- the program's terminology is inconsistent. For example, it uses the terms "template," drawing type," and "solutions" interchangeably, which can be confusing.
Cain described a procedure as a sequence of steps and demonstrated that Visio can easily be used to illustrate these steps, even by those who would call themselves "artistically challenged."
Opening up a blank document, he pointed out that Visio has many ready-to-use templates from which to choose, which feature styles, macros, toolbars, and autotext, similar to Word templates. Visio's primary features include standard toolbars and menus available in most Microsoft programs, a pasteboard (or background), the drawing page, and drag-and-drop stencils.
Visio features two kinds of stencil shapes: objects and connectors, the latter being items that describe the relationships between the former. Cain demonstrated the shapes by linking two objects with a connector, pointing out the red square that appears to show when the two objects are connected. He showed that when you drag and drop different objects, the connectors move with them, so the items can be moved quickly and easily. He also demonstrated the flexibility available when using stencils: you can use your own illustrations, other icons, make your own stencils, and even combine and customize existing stencils.
Other features Cain highlighted were the Backgrounds gallery, which works like the Master Page in page layout programs; headers and footers, like those found in Word; and layers. The thought of using layers might strike fear into the hearts of novice users, but Cain showed that in Visio, using layers is easy. He demonstrated on a photo of himself, showing how to add layers, remove them, and even render them invisible.
Cain then successfully fielded some not-so-easy questions from meeting attendees, including 'how do you turn an object into a hyperlink?' and 'how do you save a layer as an HTML file?'
He summed up by saying that Visio is "deceptively simple." He said that it has a few constraints, but there are many different ways to work around those constraints to create clear, effective diagrams.
Cain's presentation was made using Visio 2000 (although the most recent version of the program is Visio 2003). For those who want to learn more about the features of Visio 2000, Cain recommended the book Visio 2000: The Official Guide by John V. Hedtke.
Laura Persons is an STC member with a technical writing and editing background in the health care and nonprofit fields.
Copyright © 2005 by the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter (www.stc-sf.org). This article may be reprinted in another STC publication under the provisions of the chapter's copyright policy.