PowerPoint 2007 and Visio

Inserting Visio Content as an Object
Inserting Visio Content as a Picture

Inserting Visio Content as an Object

In Office 2007 versions of Visio and PowerPoint, you still cannot insert Visio 2007 content into PowerPoint 2007 in Visio's native drawing format. Either you'll need to link to an existing or newly-created Visio drawing as an object - or export from Visio to a graphic format and thereafter import it into PowerPoint 2007. Between the two methods, you'll have to choose the latter if you want to transport your presentation to a system without Visio installed. Let's first examine the Insert | Object route:

1. In PowerPoint 2007, select the Insert tab on the Ribbon and click the Object button, as shown in Figure 1.
   
   
   Figure 1: Object option in the Insert tab of the Ribbon
   
   
2. This opens the Insert Object dialog box that you can see in Figure 2. Choose the 'Create New' option and select 'Microsoft Office Visio Drawing'. Click OK.
   
   
   Figure 2: Insert object
    
3. This causes Visio 2007 to launch with the 'Choose Drawing Type' dialog box as shown in Figure 3 -- here you can choose the type of drawing you want to create.
   
   
   Figure 3: Choose drawing type
   
   The left pane of the Choose Drawing Type window provides a list of drawing categories -- choose any category and the options on the right pane show templates based on the chosen category. Select any template, and click OK to start working on a new Visio drawing based on the selected template.
    
4. This will open the Visio interface within the PowerPoint 2007 slide. Drag and drop the stencil shapes from the Shapes pane on the left side to start creating your drawing, as shown in Figure 4.
   
   
   Figure 4: Visio 2007 interface within PowerPoint 2007
   
   
5. Click anywhere outside the Visio area to go back to PowerPoint 2007 -- see Figure 5. Your Visio drawing will still be on the PowerPoint slide but it's placed as a Visio object -- if you need to make more edits or changes, double click the shape to reinitiate Visio for editing.
   
   
   Figure 5: Visio shape in PowerPoint 2007
   
   
   Note: Using this method is best if you need to edit the Visio object often.

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Inserting Visio Content as a Picture

The second method is more straight-forward. Although you cannot edit the original drawing this way, the resultant presentation will be more compact and portable:

1. Open Visio by choosing Start | All Programs | Microsoft Office | Microsoft, Office Visio 2007 as shown in Figure 6 .
   
   
   Figure 6: Microsoft Office Visio 2007
   
   
2. This opens the Visio 2007 interface as shown in Figure 7.
   
   
   Figure 7: Microsoft Office Visio 2007 interface
   
   
3. Now choose any template category from the left side of the interface see Figure 8. Then choose any template in the selected category, and click Create to start working on a new drawing.
   
   
   Figure 8: Choose a template
   
   
4. Once you are done with the drawing, save it as a Visio drawing. Thereafter, choose File | Save As to save it to another file format.
   
   
5. The resultant Save As dialog box allows you to save the diagram to several graphic formats - both vector and raster. In all you can save to 24 formats - we'll choose WMF or EMF as shown in Figure 9 , since they are the best formats to transport graphic content between Microsoft applications. Both WMF and EMF can also be natively edited within PowerPoint 2007 as drawings - although not as diagrams! It can also be thereafter animated.
   
   
   Figure 9: Save the file
   
   Choose the file type and location to save the (.WMF or .EMF) file.
   
   
6. Now in PowerPoint 2007, select the Insert tab of the Ribbon and click the Picture button as shown in Figure 10.
   
   
   Figure 10: Picture
   
   
7. From the resultant dialog box navigate and choose the (.WMF or .EMF) file. Click Insert to place the drawing on the slide.
   

There's also a third method - although it merely automates the second method:

1. Right click on the created diagram in Visio and copy it as shown in Figure 11.
   
   
   Figure 11: Copy diagram
    
2. In PowerPoint 2007, choose Paste | Paste Special from the Home tab of the Ribbon as shown in Figure 12.
   
   
   Figure 12: Paste Special
   
   
3. This opens Paste Special dialog box as shown in Figure 13, choose the Picture (Enhanced Metafile) option and press OK.
   
   
   Figure 13: Paste Special dialog box
   

Of course you can also emulate the first method by simply dragging a drawing from a Visio window into a PowerPoint slide.

After importing a Visio diagram into PowerPoint, you might want to animate elements sequentially or recolor some shapes - Microsoft has several tutorials on their site which discuss just that and more.