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Home | Products | Visio
Visio and Expression
by Geetesh Bajaj - June 10th, 2004

Introduction
Step 1 - Export From Visio
Step 2 - Opening the Diagram in Expression
Step 3 - Apply Organic Strokes in Expression
Step 4 - Export to Bitmap
More Info

Introduction
Both Microsoft
Office Visio and Microsoft
Expression are drawing tools - but they look at the whole
drawing metaphor with entirely different eyes. While Visio targets
the technical aspect, Expression is more of an artistic drawing
medium. Luckily, one can achieve great results by combining both
of them.
In this tutorial, we'll start with a simple Visio diagram. We'll
take it to Expression and use that program's natural media strokes
to give an organic look to the Visio diagrams. Such organic diagrams
look different that your usual perfectly angled Visio output -
and can add impact within your next PowerPoint presentation or
Word document.
Back

Step 1 - Export From Visio
Since Expression cannot open the Visio file format natively, you'll
need to export from within Visio to a format that Expression can
understand. We'll export from Visio to the WMF format.
This technique will work with Visio 2000, 2002 and 2003.
- Create a new diagram or open an existing one in Visio.
- Simplify the content - try not to include too much detail since
that will not look very nice after the organic strokes have been
applied in Expression.
- Select all the elements in Visio - choose Edit | Select All
(Ctrl + A).
- Group the content in Visio - choose Shape | Grouping | Group
(Shift + Ctrl + G).
- Save your drawing under a new name - choose File | Save As...
- Save now to a WMF file - choose File | Save As...
Choose Windows Metafile (*.wmf) in the Save as type dropdown box (see screenshot).
- Close Visio - if you are prompted to save your diagram again,
click OK.
Back

Step 2 - Opening the Diagram in Expression
We'll now bring the WMF graphic into Expression:
- Launch Expression and choose File | Open (Ctrl + O). Select
the WMF graphic and click Open.

- In Expression, your imported WMF may actually be larger than
the page size itself. Select the entire drawing - choose Edit
| Select All (Ctrl + A) (see screenshot below left) . Choose
one of the corner handles and drag to reduce the graphic size
until it's similar to the page size. Then, choose View | View
All (see screenshot below right).

- In Expression itself, choose File | Save As... and save it
as an Expression XPR drawing.
Back

Step 3 - Apply Organic Strokes in Expression
Now that our Visio diagram has metamorphosed into an Expression
drawing, let's start giving it the organic look:
- If all elements are not selected, select them again - chose
Edit | Select All (Ctrl + A).
- In the Strokes palette within Expression, I chose the 'Bitmap
Airbrush' stroke style and set the stroke thickness to 90 points
in the Paint Style palette (see screenshot).
- Here's how the end result looks like:
- Experiment with different stroke styles and thicknesses - you
can also change the stroke color within the Paint Style palette.
Save your drawing.
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Step 4 - Export to Bitmap
As you can see, the organic look gives an almost artistic, painted
effect to a conventional Visio diagram. If you want to take this
graphic to Word or PowerPoint, you might want to export the Expression
drawing to a bitmap.
You can then insert this bitmap inside Word or PowerPoint using
the Insert | Picture | From File... option.
- In Expression, choose File | Save as Bitmap... (Ctrl | Alt
| B). Choose PNG in the Save as Type drop down box and save your
drawing to a PNG bitmap.
- Expression will then prompt you with the Bitmap Setting dialog
box - remember to check the option for 'Save Alpha Channel'.
- You'll next see the PNG Options dialog box - accept the default
settings and click OK.
- Save your drawing and exit Expression.
Back

More Info
- The Microsoft
Visio homepage is chock-a-block of tips, techniques and
support info. While you are there, you can order a 30-day trial
version of Visio on CD-ROM, which also contains excellent tutorial
movies and case studies.
- The Microsoft
Visio Viewer is a free download which allows you to distribute
your Visio drawings to those who are not equipped with the
application.
- Search posts in the Visio
newsgroups archive for all sorts of Visio-related information.
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