
You can see the smart-tag icons, which change from arrows to padlock depending on the locked-state. When you are done, simply right-click and unlock the position!īelow, we can see the shapes with their various editing options. Once the shapes are locked, you can resize them in-place. You can lock or unlock multiple shapes by selecting them all, and setting the Shape Data field.

In my own case, I frequently create Visio drawings that use a lot of concentric circles and “concentric” rectangles–along the lines of the squares shown in the thumbnail for this article. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to stretch the shape (say, to accomodate more text) without losing the in-line position? We’d like the rectangle to stay centered with the flow of the diagram, but resizing moves it down and to the right. If you wanted your shape to stay centered at it’s current location, then you have to move it back after resizing.īelow, we can see what happens in Visio in the case of flowcharts.

Neat-o!īut unless I have totally missed something (which does occur occasionally), there is one feature that Visio could really use: the ability to resize shapes on-center.Ĭurrently, when you resize a shape, it grows in the direction in you pulled: left, right, upwards, downwards. For instance, with the Shift key depressed, you can constrain a shape to move only vertically or horizontally. Visio has tons of keyboard shortcuts, including modifiers for constraining the resizing and moving of shapes.
