Demo: Think fast, think clear, think Visio - Visio

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Demo: Think fast, think clear, think Visio

Applies to: Microsoft Office Visio 2003

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Remember when you had that great brainstorming meeting where you wrote everyone's ideas on the white board? You probably also remember that, at the end of the meeting, when everyone else left, you were sitting there copying down all those ideas into your notebook so you could take them away, get them into some kind of outline in your computer, and send out the meeting notes. The new brainstorming diagram in Microsoft Office Visio 2003 puts an end to all that.

In a brainstorming diagram, you can quickly capture lots of ideas by just typing them in a list. Visio puts the list into the form of a hierarchical diagram made up of topics and subtopics. When you want to rearrange ideas, you can drag them around in the Outline window to establish the correct relationships. Because you can associate properties with the topic and subtopic shapes, you can use the diagram as a project management tool that contains information about who is responsible for which tasks and when the tasks need to be completed. Want to create a report based on the ideas? Just export the diagram content to an outline in Microsoft Office Word 2003.

Note For screen reader text detailing the onscreen actions and a screen reader version of the audio script, click Demo text version.

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Screen Action	Audio Script
Visio 2003 is open. The pointer moves to the File menu, points to New, points to Brainstorming, and then clicks Brainstorming diagram (US Units). A blank brainstorming diagram opens. The Brainstorming toolbar is floating above the drawing page. The Outline window title bar is showing but the window is collapsed against the Shapes window on the left. Four stencils are available in the Shapes window, including Brainstorming Shapes, Backgrounds, Borders and Titles, and Legend Shapes.	The whiteboard. That's what we've always used to capture ideas about the marketing strategy for our latest product. But this year, I suggest something new: the Brainstorming diagram in Visio 2003.
The pointer clicks the Add main topic button on the Brainstorming toolbar. A Main Topic shape appears on the drawing page. The pointer clicks the shape. The default Main Topic text in the shape is replaced by text that says Marketing Strategy. The pointer right-clicks the shape, and then, on the shortcut menu, clicks Add Multiple Subtopics. The Add Multiple Subtopics dialog box opens. Marketing strategy ideas are typed into the box, such as Price, Promotion, Advertising, and Mailings. The pointer clicks OK, and the dialog box closes.	When the diagram opens, I get the main topic down on the drawing page and label it. Right away, people start throwing out ideas. Janet reels off the list of the main topics our strategy will involve, so I record those first. Andrew chimes in with some thoughts about his pet project, Promotion. I just keep typing to make sure I don't miss anything.
All the ideas from the dialog box now appear in the diagram on the drawing page as subtopics connected to the main topic Marketing Strategy shape. All the subtopics are labelled. The pointer moves over the Outline window title bar, and the window expands to show a hierarchical view of the topics and subtopics. In the Outline window, the pointer drags the Advertising subtopic and makes it subordinate to the Promotion subtopic.	After we finish our brain dump, we look at our ideas in relation to one another. In the Outline window, I can easily establish the correct hierarchy.
The Outline window closes. The subtopics in the diagram have been reorganized so some are subordinate to others. The diagram extends off the page. The pointer moves to the Auto-Arrange Topics button on the Brainstorming toolbar. The diagram rearranges itself so it is more or less in the center of the drawing page. On the Brainstorming menu, the pointer moves to Theme. A theme is applied to the diagram that adds color and changes the appearance of the main topic and subtopic shapes.	Our ideas are captured and organized, but the diagram looks clumsy and extends off the page. I can automatically rearrange the topics. Pamela, our manager, says the diagram is a bit hard to read, so I also apply a theme to make topics and subtopics stand out more clearly.
The pointer clicks the Legend Shapes stencil title bar in the Shapes window. The shapes on the Legend Shapes stencil appear. The pointer drags a Legend shape onto the drawing page. The Legend shape is a actually a table that contains three columns called Symbol, Count, and Description. The pointer moves to the stencil again, and then drags a Priority 1 shape onto the drawing page and drops it near the Advertising subtopic shape. The Priority 1 shape automatically shows up as a row in the Legend shape.	Nancy suggests that we prioritize the topics so I add a legend to the diagram. When I associate priority and other symbols with topics, the symbols are automatically listed and defined in the legend.
The finished brainstorming diagram appears, with three symbols in the Legend shape and the drawing page grid turned off. On the Brainstorming menu, the pointer moves to Export Data, and then to To Microsoft Office Word.	Pamela wants to use the topics in the diagram as the basis for a marketing strategy document. No problem, I say, and I export the topics to an outline in Word.
The subtopic shape labelled Placement is selected, and the Custom Properties window is open. In the window, the name Nancy appears next to the Assigned to property. The pointer selects the Promotion, Product, and Price subtopics in turn. Each time, the Assigned to property displays a different name. Visio 2003 disappears. The animated text Experience Your Own Great Moments appears. Under it appears the static text For more information followed by a URL: http://www.microsoft.com/office.	Nancy, Andrew, Janet, and I each need to take responsibility for different areas of the marketing strategy. I assign names to topics using properties in the brainstorming diagram. Now that you know how easy it is to capture information, it's your turn to brainstorm about all the ways that Visio 2003 can help you organize and visualize the important work you do each day.

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