Visio Tutorial

| Using Visio | Some Terms | Draw a Data Flow Diagram | For Help |
| Question | Context Diagram | Fuctional Decomposition Diagram | System Diagram |

Using Visio

Visio Professional 5.0 is installed in BITS, Student Union computer lab and Park Computer Lab now.

Visio Professional 5.0 provides templates for various diagrams including Entity-Relationship Diagrams and Data Flow Diagrams. You can draw your Entity-Relationship Diagrams, Decomposition Process Diagrams and different levels of Data Flow Diagrams in t hese templates.

However, you may use other versions of Visio, such as 4.0 and 4.5. The following tutorial is written for Visio Professional 5.0. The operation is similar in other versions.


Some Terms 
Any one-dimensional shape that can be glued between two shapes in a drawing to connect the shapes. Some master shapes are connectors. You can also use lines and other shapes you draw as connectors. A 1-D connector shape that changes its path to avoid crossing through 2-D placeable shapes that lie between the two shapes the connector connects. When you drag a Dynamic ConnectorUs endpoints, it reroutes automatically. When you select the Dynamic Con nector, it displays midpoints and vertices you can drag to manually change its route from one shape to the other. A property of shapes that causes them to stay connected even when one of the shapes is moved. When you attach a connector to a shape, you are gluing the connector. If you move the shape, Visio adjust the connector as needed. If you move the connector, the glue is broken and the shapes are no longer connected. Grids are non-printing horizontal and vertical lines displayed on the page. The grid helps you position shapes visually. The intervals of the grid correspond to the unit of measure you set in the Options dialog box. You control the size of the interval s in the Tools - Ruler & Grid dialog box. The menu bar contains menus of commands that you can use to create and change drawings. The toolbar contains buttons that set and change Visio options and tools you can use to create and format shapes and text. The toolbar and menu bar vary depending o n the currently active window (drawing, ShapeSheet, stencil, edit icon, or print preview). In addition, the toolbar can vary depending on the display resolution of your monitor, which tools you are using, the size of the main window, and which toolbar you are using.

You can choose the toolbar style you want displayed by Visio. Options include Microsoft Office, Lotus SmartSuite, and Novell PerfectOffice.

 When you create a new drawing, Visio open a new file with a blank page. If you need more than one page, you can easily create and add pages to a drawing by the following steps:
    1. From the Insert menu, choose Page.
    2. Type a name for the page, or use the default name provided by Visio.
    3. Click OK.
A line, arc, ellipse, freeform or rectangle; a closed or open series of line and arc segments; or a group. You create a shape by dragging and dropping a master shape from a stencil into a drawing, by using drawing tools, or by grouping other shapes. A collection of master shapes which you can drag and drop into a drawing. By default, stencils appear docked on the right side of the drawing window. A Visio file that opens one or more stencils and can contain styles and settings for a particular kind of drawings. You may use the Entity-Relationship Diagram templates and Data Flow Diagram templates. One of the diamond-shaped handles that appears between two segments on a multiple-segment shape or at the end of a segment. On most shapes, vertices appear when you select a shape with the pencil tool. On a Dynamic Connector, vertices appear when you s elect the shape with the pointer tool. You can reshape a shape or connector by dragging its vertices.

 
Draw a Data Flow Diagram step by step

To create your particular Data Flow Diagram, you may not need to complete each of the following steps.

Shape Help is the best source of information about particular shapes. To open it, right-click a shape, then choose Shape Help from the shortcut menu.

Visio 5.0 provides two Data Flow Diagram templates: Flowchart P Data Flow Diagram and Software Diagram P Gane-Sarson DFD.

    1. Start Visio.
    2. In the Choose a Drawing Template box, choose Software Diagram P Gane-Sarson DFD Template, then click OK.
    3. Visio opens a new file with a blank drawing page.
    1. From the File menu, choose Page Setup.
    2. In the Page Setup box, click Print Setup.
    3. In the Print Setup box, click Portrait (tall) or Landscape (wide) orientation, choose a paper size, then click OK.
    4. In the Page Setup box, click Same as Printer or choose a standard or custom drawing page size, then click OK until you return to the drawing page.
When you create a new drawing, Visio opens a new file with a blank page. If you need more than one page, you can easily create and add pages to a drawing by the following steps:
    1. From the Insert menu, choose Page.
    2. Type the name for the page, or use the default name provided by Visio.
    3. Click Ok.
    1. From the toolbar, choose the text tool.
    2. With the crossbar, point to where you want your Data Flow Diagram title to start, then click and drag a box about the size you think your title will be.
    3. Type the title.
    4. From the Format menu, choose Text - Font.
    5. In the Font box, choose the title text's font, size, color, and style, then click OK.
    6. From the toolbar, choose the pointer tool.
    7. Click the title text block to select it.
    8. Drag a selection handle to change the text block width or height.
    9. Position the pointer over the text block. When the pointer turns white, drag the text block to where you want it to appear on the page.
    1. From the toolbar, choose the connector tool.
    2. Drag and drop a two-dimensional shape.

      3. (For details about how to use a shape, right-click it on the page or on the stencil, then choose Shape Help.)

    3. With the first shape selected, drag and drop a second shape. Visio automatically connects the shapes.
    4. Drag and drop enough shapes to build the Data Flow Diagram. Each new shape connects to the selected shape.
    5. Use the grid to align shapes on the page.
    1. Select the shape or connector you want to add text to.
    2. Type the text. Visio zooms in on the selected shape as you type.
    3. Press the ESC key to return to the original magnification.
To refine the look of a Data Flow Diagram, you can change the way a shape and text looks, rearrange shapes on the page, or move a connection from one shape to another.
    1. Select the two-dimensional shape or connector you want to format.
    2. From the Format menu, choose Fill. In the Fill box, choose the options you want, then click OK.
    3. From the Format menu, choose Line. In the Line box, choose the options you want, then click OK.
    1. Select the shape that includes text or the text block you want to change.
    2. From the Format menu, choose Text - Font. In the Font box, choose the options you want, then click OK.
    1. Select the shape you want to rearrange, then drag it to a new location. The shape retains its connections, although the connector may move to another point on the shape.
    1. the connector you want to move.
    2. Place the pointer over a connector endpoint, where it turns into a four-headed arrow.
    3. Press the CTRL key and drag the connector's endpoint from the original shape to the new shape you want to connect.
To save the Data Flow Diagram, you can name and save it, print it, or place a copy of it in another document.
    1. From the File menu, choose Save As.
    2. In the Save As box, type a name for the Data Flow Diagram, choose the other options you want, then click Save.
    1. From the File menu, choose Print.
    2. In the Print box, choose the print options you want, then click OK.
    1. Choose Select All from Visio's Edit menu to select the entire diagram, then, from the Edit menu, choose Copy.
    2. Open the destination document, then choose Paste (or the equivalent) from that program's Edit menu.
  

For Help
  

An Example

Question

Starting with a context diagram, draw as many nested primitive DFDs as you consider necessary to represent all the details of the system described in the following narrative. (Note: this tutorial only goes to system level DFD. You should go to lower primitive levels as you see fit.)

Maximum Software is a developer and supplier of software products to individuals and businesses. As part of their operations, Maximum provides an 800 telephone number help desk for clients who have questions about software purchased from Maximum. When a call comes in, an operator inquires about the nature of the call. For calls that are not truly help desk functions, the operator redirects the call to another unit of the company (such as Order Processing or Billing). Since many customer questions requi re in-depth knowledge of a product, help desk consultants are organized by product. The operator directs the call to a consultant skilled on the software that the caller needs help with. Since a consultant is not always immediately available, some calls m ust be put into a queue for the next available consultant. Once a consultant answers the call, he determines if this is the first call from this customer about this problem. If so, he creates a new call report to keep track of all information about the pr oblem. If not, he asks the customer for a call report number, and retrieves the open call report to determine the status of the inquiry. If the caller does not know the call report number, the consultant collects other identifying information such as the caller's name, the software involved, or the name of the consultant who has handled the previous calls on the problem in order to conduct a search for the appropriate call report. If a resolution of the customer's problem has been found, the consultant in forms the client what that resolution is, indicates on the report that the customer has been notified, and closes out the report. If resolution has not been discovered, the consultant finds out if the consultant handling this problem is on duty. If so, he transfers the call to the other consultant (or puts the call into the queue of calls waiting to be handled by that consultant). Once the proper consultant receives the call, he records any new details the customer may have. For continuing problems and fo r new call reports, the consultant tries to discover an answer to the problem by using the relevant software and looking up information in reference manuals. If he can now resolve the problem, he tells the customer how to deal with the problem, and closes the call report. Otherwise, the consultant files the report for continued research and tell the customer that someone at Maximum will get back to him, or if the customer discovers new information about the problem, to call back identifying the problem wi th a specified call report number.

 


Context Diagram

Fuctional Decomposition Diagram 

 

 

System Diagram