Visio Tip #2: Export text from Visio

There are situations when we want to export text from Visio diagram. For e.g. the other day I wanted to export sever Name and IP addresses from a physical diagram. I hoped to find something like Save As text etc. But then I stumbled on this blog http://kenfallon.com/?tag=visio-export-text. Copying the steps here in case link dont work

• Visio 2003 go to Tools -> Reports.
• Visio 2007 go to Data -> Reports.

These instructions are for Visio 2007.

• Make a new report and select Shapes on All pages or Shapes on the current page.
• Then select only (you may want to Show all properties to make sure nothing else is checked)
• Give it a Title e.g: Text Only Report
• Give it a Name e.g: Text_Only_Report
• Then select run and export it to either Excel, HTML, Visio Shape or XML

In the future when you want to extract text all you need to do is run Data -> Reports select Text_Only_Report and press Run.

Visio Tip # 1 : Reduce size of file

Sometime during the course of time, the size of Visio increases manyfold, sometime reaching upto 6-10 MB. Even if you zip it, there is not much help. But there are some options for reducing file size suggested by Microsoft. You can find them at this URL http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305025. The suggestions are to

• Remove unused shapes in the local stencil.
• Configure Visio to save the drawing with out a preview picture.
• Reduce the number of grouped shapes.
• Convert duplicate shapes to a single master shape.
• Do not save your diagram as a XML for Visio drawing