The enhanced collaboration
capabilities in Visio 2013 take two principal forms: commenting and
coauthoring. Both capabilities recognize the growing importance of
collaboration among geographically dispersed workers by providing extra
features when used with Visio
Services, either via SharePoint within an enterprise or SharePoint
Online. In the following section, you will learn how a group of people
can write and read comments in a Visio drawing, even when some of them
do not have Visio. In the section after that, you will explore the
coauthoring capabilities of Visio 2013. Both exercises utilize the
following Visio Brainstorming Diagram that summarizes the collaboration capabilities in Visio 2013.
Commenting in Visio 2013 is much more flexible than in previous
versions of the product and includes several important enhancements.
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You can attach comments to shapes as well as to the drawing page.
Tip
If one shape is selected when you add a comment, the comment will be
attached to that shape. If more than one shape is selected when you add
a comment, the comment will be attached to the anchor shape . If no shapes are selected, the comment will be attached to the drawing page.
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When you move or copy/paste a shape containing a comment, the comment travels with the shape.
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A comment indicator appears on the top right of a shape or top left of a page that contains a comment.
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You can view all comments at once by opening the Comments pane.
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In addition to writing and reading comments in Visio, you can take
the same actions in a web browser when the Visio diagram is located on
a SharePoint server or in SharePoint Online.
Note
In this exercise, you will add comments to a Visio diagram. If you
have access to either SharePoint or SharePoint Online, you will also
read and write comments using a web browser.
Important
You need access to Visio Services on a SharePoint 2013 server to
complete all of the steps in this exercise. Visio Services are
available with a SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise Client Access
License (ECAL) or by using SharePoint Online in Office 365.
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Right-click the Commenting
topic shape in the diagram, and then click Add Comment.
Visio drops a comment indicator and an edit box for the comment body
onto the page. The indicator is located in the upper-right corner of
the shape and looks like a cartoon dialog balloon; the edit box appears
above or near it.
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Type Can users without Visio really add comments to a diagram?
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Right-click anywhere on the page background, click Add Comment to page, type This looks like a good summary, and then press Esc. A comment balloon appears in the upper-left corner of the page.
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On the Review tab, in the Comments
group, click Comments Pane. The Comments pane opens and displays all comments that exist on this or any other pages in the diagram as shown on the left.
Be sure to notice the navigation controls at the top of the Comments pane:
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The previous and next buttons allow you to move through the comments sequentially (left graphic).
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The Filter by drop-down list lets you select categories of comments that you want to review or edit (right graphic).
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Save changes to the diagram and then close it, but leave Visio running.
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Switch to your web browser, navigate to the SharePoint folder in which you saved your diagram, and then click Collaboration Brainstorm Diagram
. When the diagram opens, you’ll notice that there aren’t any visible comment indicators.
Tip
The default view for Visio Web Access is to hide the comment
balloons unless the Comments pane is open, which is why no balloons are
visible in your web view. However, the default presentation for
comments in Visio is to show the comment balloons whether or not the
Comments pane is open; the graphic that accompanies step 3 shows this
behavior.
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In the upper left of the browser window, click Comments. The Comments
pane opens on the right side of the window, and comment balloons appear
on both the page and the shape in the same locations where they
appeared in Visio.
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In the Reply box beneath This looks like a good summary, type Thanks, and then click anywhere outside the Reply box. Visio Services writes your comment to the Visio diagram.
Tip
If you or someone else has the diagram open in the Visio client when
you attempt to add comments via your web browser, you will receive an
error message like the one shown in the following graphic.
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In the Reply box beneath Can users without Visio really add comments to a diagram? type Yes. This comment was added in a web browser., and then click anywhere outside the Reply box. Visio Services updates the Visio diagram.
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Switch to Visio and open Collaboration Brainstorm Diagram
.
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On the Review tab, in the Comments group, click Comments Pane, which opens the pane and reveals the new comments that were entered in your browser.
Note
CLEAN UP Save your changes to the Collaboration Brainstorm Diagram drawing, but leave it open if you are continuing with the next exercise.
The Visio commenting
feature makes it easy to connect with another person who has entered
comments. If you point to the commenter’s name or photograph, a pop-up
box displays his/her photo and up to four ways to connect with that
person, including live chat if both parties are online at the same
time. In the following graphic, only the email icon is active, because
the other three require Microsoft Lync.
Clicking the arrow in the lower-right corner of the pop-up box opens
a contact card for this person. The information that appears on the
contact card will vary depending on what the user has made public in
his/her profile. An example of the full contact card appears in the
following graphic.
Important
The following section applies only to the Professional edition of Visio 2013.