visioshapesheet

Visio ShapeSheet ShapeData: keep two rows in sync

I have two Shape Data rows for a Shape's ShapeSheet:

Shape Data  Label    Prompt   Type Format                                                                                                                 Value                       Invisible
Prop.Type   "Type"   ""         4 "Alpha;Beta;Gamma;Delta;Epsilon;Zeta;Eta;Theta;Iota;Kappa" INDEX(4,Prop.Type.Format)   False
Prop.Abbrev "Abbrev" No Formula 4 "A;B;G;D;E;Z;E;T;I;K"                                      INDEX(4,Prop.Abbrev.Format) True

The way I intent to use this is to have the user select the Type, say Epsilon, and then have the Abbrev automatically switch to the corresponding value in the Prop.Abbrev.Format.

Note: the values used here are placeholders for the actual values for my application, which are not shown here so they don't distract from the real answer I need, how to keep the selections in sync when the first one is chosen or changed.

Thanks for any help you can give!

Solution

  • I don't have Visio on this machine, so I am unable to copy and paste a working solution. The approach gets a little complicated, but extremely flexible.

    Save your lists in the User section, rather than Prop - this then becomes underlying data for use in properties. If you are using a master stencil then this also helps with managing the fields.

    You can now store an index in your data as well - this index points to the appropriate values in your arrays. You can use Actions and side menus to set the index which, when referenced properly, means you can have the full name and/or abbreviation in the side menu and the ShapeSheet does all the work underneath.

    The functions you want to look at are:

    I had a similar business problem which relied on setting a background colour based on the value of shape data. Your final solution could end up including formulas like this: =SETF(GetRef(Prop.Type),"GUARD(INDEX(LOOKUP(Prop.X,Prop.X.Format),User.Type))").

    For more in-depth discussion - check out https://superuser.com/questions/1277331/fillforegnd-in-shapesheet-using-wrong-data and the extended discussion at http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=8205.15 - the latter link also includes an example file with working shapesheets (well, working to the extent that they exposed my problem).