Something simple...or so i thought (pages containing pages)

[magnets]

Hi,
I've been bashing my head against this for a while now, I think a big problem is I don't know what to search for to help find the solution.

I have Visio 2003 on xp sp3. I do not have the option of visio 2007 as this is a work thing.

I have drawn a scale diagram of my office, it is a large complicated office, split into two sections adjacent to each other on the same floor.
For ease of readability and because the two sections mainly work independently I have one section (A) on page 1 and the other section (B) on page 2.
Now these drawing took a looooot of effort to do, they are accurate to within 5cm (hey it's just me and a tape measure) they have the phone numbers, the computers, the wall jacks, the floor jacks, the toilet roll holders! everything.
Occasionally, on big jobs, both sections work together as one cohesive floor. What i would like is for Visio to display a third page which is page 1 (section A) and page 2 (Section B) combined (though obviously on a smaller scale). And it should auto-update, so if i make a change on page 1 it will be reflected on page 3.
It would be nice if i make a change on page 3 that it will reflect backwards too but this is not necessary, just nice.

Sorry for being wordy, basically I want sheets A & B to be represented by sheet C, i do not want to have to change sheet C independently of sheet A and/or B

I guessed this would be easy but i can't figure out how to do it.

[Visio Guy]

Hi Magnets,

You might be able to do this with a second drawing that imports the pages from the first drawing as linked data.

You do this through Insert > Object > Microsoft Visio file, create from file, and check the Link box. This essentially inserts Visio drawing data as though it were some sort of foreign object, but you can still grab it and move it around.

[magnets]

i shall give it a go tomorrow at work.
I just assumed that this feature would be built in.
Thanks for the help

[vojo]

I assume the point here is that you want to keep the originals in case of updates.   Otherwise, just copy
and scale.

Probably would not be too bad in VB to do.

Might even want to play with layers....one drawing on 1 layer...other on 2nd layer....turn layers on and
off as needed (either/or or both)

As far as scale (your 5 cm comment)...may want to play with scales all around to keep accurate but get to fit.   Ie, the 3rd pagescould keep same scale and be 2X the size....or....scale down the first 2 pages to 1/2 scale and place on 3rd.

[Visio Guy]

You could also quickly copy each page, and "paste as metafile" on a third page.

This would take about ten seconds to do. It won't automatically update, but it doesn't sound like you are doing this hundreds of times per day.

You could also put both drawings on a single page of a larger paper size. When you need two drawings, tile the drawing across two pages. When you need one single print-out, either use a large-format printer, or "reduce to fit on 1 page across by 1 page down" (this is in the Print dialog...)