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Microsoft Visio 2013 : Collaborating on Visio diagrams (part 2) - Coauthoring

12/17/2014 8:33:55 PM

Coauthoring

Coauthoring in Visio 2013 means that multiple people can edit the same diagram simultaneously when the diagram is stored on SkyDrive, SharePoint, or SharePoint Online. Nothing else is required other than opening the drawing—coauthoring is automatic.

In the Visio 2013 implementation, shapes and pages are not locked during a coauthoring session. The assumption is that there are so many possible things to change in a Visio diagram that it’s unlikely two people will be changing exactly the same thing at the same time. On the rare occasions when that does occur, the last change wins.

To prevent possible conflicts and to help everyone working on a diagram to understand what is happening, Visio provides several markers on the upper-right corner of a shape during coauthoring sessions. The markers indicate when another user is editing some aspect of a shape (refer to the following graphic on the left), has altered a shape (center), or has deleted a shape (right).

image with no caption

Important

Normally, if one coauthor deletes a shape and then saves changes, the shape will disappear from other authors’ diagrams when they apply updates. There is an important exception: the shape will be retained and marked as shown in the preceding graphic on the right if one of the coauthors has made what Visio determines to be significant changes to the shape. If that author then saves the diagram, Visio reinstates the shape for all authors and adds a special marker icon. The exercise that follows includes an example of this sequence and the special icon.

The status line at the bottom of the Visio window shows important coauthoring information.

  • Toward the left, an icon indicates that other users are editing the diagram and displays how many are doing so. Each time a new coauthor opens the diagram, he or she is announced in a text box (following graphic on the left). At any time after the announcement box has disappeared, clicking the icon produces a list of coauthors (right).

    image with no caption

    Pointing to one of the coauthor’s names produces a short form contact card that indicates how the person can be contacted via a series of icons. Additional icons are illuminated if both authors are using Lync.

    image with no caption

    Clicking the arrow in the lower-right corner yields a full contact card that displays as much information about the coauthor as that person has chosen to make available.

  • Toward the right end of the status bar, the words Updates Available notify you that other users have saved changes. Clicking Updates Available applies any pending changes to your diagram and saves your changes to the server.

    image with no caption

    Important

    Unlike commenting, coauthoring is not possible via a web browser. All authors must use the Visio client, either via a desktop software license or a Visio Pro for Office 365 subscription.

In this exercise, you will make changes to a diagram that you have opened with two copies of Visio. You can start both copies of Visio on a single PC or on two different PCs. Although you can perform all of the steps in this exercise by yourself, it will be more interesting if you and another person work together.

The portion of the diagram you will be using in this exercise is shown in the following graphic.

image with no caption

To complete this coauthoring exercise, you must save the diagram as Collaboration Brainstorm Diagram on SkyDrive, SharePoint, or SharePoint Online. In addition, you or another person must open the saved diagram in a second copy of Visio.

Important

Each instruction step is preceded with PC1 or PC2 to indicate where the step should be performed. All screen shots in this exercise were taken from PC1.

  1. PC2: Right-click the SkyDrive shape, click Styles on the Mini Toolbar, click any color other than blue in the Theme Styles section, and then click Save. Your updates are sent to the server. After a brief delay, the symbol indicating that another user is editing the SkyDrive shape will appear on PC1.

  2. PC1: Click Updates Available. The color change is applied to the SkyDrive shape and the icon indicating that changes have been made by another user appears.

    image with no caption
  3. PC1: Select the SkyDrive, SharePoint, and SharePoint Online shapes, drag them far enough to the right so that Visio creates a new page, and then click Save.

    image with no caption
  4. PC2: Click Updates Available. The relocated shapes appear in their new positions.

    You have now made and saved changes on each PC and have verified that the results appear on the other computer. In the remaining steps of this exercise, you will make changes to a shape on PC1 while the user on PC2 deletes the same shape.

  5. PC1: Right-click the SharePoint shape and click Change Topic Shape.

  6. PC1: In the Change Shape dialog box, click Rectangle, and then click OK.

  7. PC1: Double-click the SharePoint shape and change the text from SharePoint to SharePoint (corporate). Do not save your changes.

    image with no caption
  8. PC2: Delete the SharePoint shape and then click Save. The Visio AutoDelete function also deletes the connector leading to the SharePoint shape.

    Important

    At this point, you have unsaved changes pending for the SharePoint shape on PC1 and have just deleted that shape on PC2. After a brief pause, deleted shape warning icons will appear on PC1 for the SharePoint (corporate) shape and the connector leading to it.

  9. PC1: Wait for deleted shape icons to appear.

    image with no caption
  10. PC1: Click Updates Available. Because you made multiple changes to the SharePoint (corporate) shape before the user on PC2 deleted it, Visio retained the shape and added a marker icon above the upper-right corner.

    image with no caption

    Tip

    The connector leading to the SharePoint (corporate) shape, which was deleted automatically when the primary shape was deleted on PC2, has not been preserved—there were no changes to the connector on PC1 that caused Visio to retain it.

  11. PC2: Click Updates Available. The formerly deleted SharePoint (corporate) shape reappears in the diagram.

Note

CLEAN UP Save your changes to the Collaboration Brainstorm Diagram drawing and close it on both PCs.

Other -----------------
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