Show Message Box If Shape is Selected - Without Running a Macro

[Leonardo]

Hello,

Do you know if it's possible to create personals events on Visio ?

I'm asking this question because i would like to right a code which could open a msgbox when a shape is selected. (without run my macro. )...... Like this, users will select any shapes and read a msg on the msgbox.

thk you,
Best.

Leonardo

[Yacine]

look for the event selectionChanged in the thisDocument of module of the document.

[Leonardo]

The event is not in the document. To use it, i have to use AddAdvise method...

Are you sure for this event ? I read that in the Microsoft site : "Occurs after a set of shapes selected in a window changes"

[Leonardo]

look for the event selectionChanged in the thisDocument of module of the document.

Maybe are you talking about the event SelectionAdded ?

[wapperdude]

I rarely use events, so won't comment on which to use.  But I do question the "advisibility" of triggering a Visio response every time a shape is selected.  Any time you do something, a shape is selected...2D, 1D.  That trigger mechanism will be firing constantly. Yikes!

Wapperdude

[Paul Herber]

How about activating the message box when the shape is double-clicked?

[doone]

You can also use the Comment field in the Miscellaneous section of the shape sheet.  It's like a tool tip on a mouse hover event.

[Yacine]

Wapperdude and myself played with a hover routine some while ago. (http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=6012.0)
Eventually I recalled this post and had some spare time to build up a small visio sandbox around the idea.
Have a look at it. It shows also the use of the selectionChanged event.

Hint: saving the document switches the animation on and off.

HTH, Y.

[Visio Guy]

Have a look at the space/office planning shapes. When you select a wall shape, it displays a built-in dimension (length number).

This is an example of an add-in responding to shape selection events, and setting a flag in the ShapeSheet of a shape when it happens. You can even demonstrate that the code is incomplete by breaking it:

1. Open a Home Plan or Office Plan diagram
2. Select a wall shape (the dimensions show)
3. Copy the shape
4. Open a new diagram (not a "plan" template)
5. Paste the shape
    The dimensions for the wall will remain "always on", since the new document does not have the support of the add-in.

Note also in the undo buffer, you will see "Select Shapes". Normally, selecting shapes in not an undoable action, but the add-in is flipping a flag inside the shape, which causes undoable stuff to happen.

You can also confuse it by having multiple windows open. When you click a different window, the SelectionChanged event doesn't fire, and the selected wall doesn't get deselected, so the dimensions remain visible.

I have code for my own SelectionChanged event that fires when different windows are activated, so that shapes can be cleared of special selected behaviors.

[Leonardo]

How about activating the message box when the shape is double-clicked?

Yes it could be interesting.. The interest is to interact with the shapes without executing macro.

[Paul Herber]

Try this:
http://www.paulherber.co.uk/articles/visio-articles/output-dialog/