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User Interface Basics

 
Tutorial

Visio, user interface, toolbars, menus, status bars, accelerator keys, dialog boxes

 Visio provides various means for you to input information and to feed information back to you. In this tutorial you will learn about Visio's communications interfaces. 

There are five basic user interface items in Visio.

Menus
These are found at the top of the screen above the toolbars or by right clicking.

Menus are right under the application window top banner. The banner itself indicates the application you are using, the drawing document you have open and the current page.

A different kind of menu is displayed when you right mouse click in Visio. The format of the pop-up menu is context sensitive and is different depending on the location of the cursor and any shapes you might have selected.
Window and pop-up menus in Visio.

 

Toolbars
These are located at the top of the screen and contain tool buttons for quick execution of actions

Toolbars are located right under the menu by default. They are dockable elements however and you can click and drag them to any location you prefer.
Toolbars docked under the window menu.

 

Status bar
This is found at the bottom of the screen. They provide useful information during the course of creating a drawing.

The status bar is the bottom banner of the Visio window. Context sensitive information is displayed there and some parts of the status bar also respond to mouse clicks for data input.
Visio status bar.

 

Accelerator keys
These are not seen on the screen, but when used, provide a very efficient way of executing actions.

Dialog boxes
These appear when choosing certain menu items or when performing certain actions, and they provide you with many options for making modifications to your drawing. They display in a tabbed index style that combines several options into one box (version 5.0 only) or as singular entities that deal with one specific topic.

A Visio 5.0 dialog box
A typical Visio dialog box.

These five user interface items all behave according to Microsoft standards, and are common elements within many Window 95 applications. Because of this "common Windows 95 look and feel" of Visio, your familiarity with other Windows applications will help you in navigating the Visio interface. For example, many of the common file operations that you will use (open, save save as, print, etc.) can be found in the File menu.

The Visio Basics tutorial is based on training material devised, created and delivered by Visimation.

 

 
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