Opening a Visio vsdm project in Presentation Mode

[Jim Blanchard]

I'm new here so hello!
I am building VBA project that other people, not familiar with Visio are going to use for training purposes.  It would be really nice if there was a way of either opening the file or project directly in presentation mode, or by using VBA code associated with a command button on its own page in the project.

I haven't found anything that will allow me to do that.

Thanks in advance.

[Surrogate]

Hi, Jim!
What do you meas as 'presentation mode'?

[wapperdude]

If all you want to do is view the file, then consider Visio Viewer.  It's free.
Another option is to say the Visio file as PDF, and use PDF Viewer, also free.

To use the presentation mode in Visio requires that the file already be open, which means Visio has already started...in order to open the file.  For general use, this is a bad approach:  1) everyone doing this needs to have a working copy of Visio.  Expensive.  2) everyone doing this can edit the file either accidentally or intentionally.  For these reasons, and others, Visio Viewer was created.

[Yacine]

@Wayne, there might be another scenario, namely if you would want to give other editors hints on how to use the drawing.
I looked for a method to set the drawing in presentation mode via VBA. Calling it with document.open(). But couldn't find any command. Even the recorder fails.

Anyway, you're still right that the presentation mode is a bad idea.
Better choices are hints outside the drawing area and external help files.
The external help files could either be opened automatically (document.open()) or manually via provided link.

A very nice feature would however be a "guide" mode - that I would not be capable to implement by myself.
Let me explain. You want to guide your users through a bunch of steps to perform (fill in doc data, do this, do that, ..)
A plug-in shall display on start of the document a dockable window and provide the guidance.
Source of the guidance could be stored in the doc itself, a stencil, or something else.

I have myself unfortunately not enough know-how about plug-ins. May be something for Nikolay?

[Jim Blanchard]

Hi, Jim!
What do you meas as 'presentation mode'?

Its a full screen mode to view a visio project in.

[Jim Blanchard]

@Wayne, there might be another scenario, namely if you would want to give other editors hints on how to use the drawing.
I looked for a method to set the drawing in presentation mode via VBA. Calling it with document.open(). But couldn't find any command. Even the recorder fails.

Anyway, you're still right that the presentation mode is a bad idea.
Better choices are hints outside the drawing area and external help files.
The external help files could either be opened automatically (document.open()) or manually via provided link.

A very nice feature would however be a "guide" mode - that I would not be capable to implement by myself.
Let me explain. You want to guide your users through a bunch of steps to perform (fill in doc data, do this, do that, ..)
A plug-in shall display on start of the document a dockable window and provide the guidance.
Source of the guidance could be stored in the doc itself, a stencil, or something else.

I have myself unfortunately not enough know-how about plug-ins. May be something for Nikolay?

Yacine, Thanks for the answer.  The project or file is an interactive application driven by VBA code that we have written.  Using any of the other Visio viewers, unless they enable the code to run from the controls on the page, will not work.

[Yacine]

Hi Jim, here's what Leo.org proposed as adjectives for writing an application as Visio drawing: adventurous, daring, gamy, gamey - risqué, hazardou, risky. (Source: German's "gewagt" )

Joking aside, I wonder if the presentation mode, which can be left by a simple ESC click is the right solution.

Beside the obvious and more reasonable advice to port the solution into another platform, I would rather suggest going the long and tedious way of blocking Visio's function. But I wouldn't dare doing it. The outcome is far from being assured.

[wapperdude]

Here's a possible approach, of which I know nothing, so don't shoot me.  One of the touts of Office 365 was ability to collaborate.  Such a thing is possible with Visio.  It involves using My teams.  Yes, there is a cost to it.  But, this might be suitable method to do your training as each member sees the file and interacts with it.  Here's a link if you're curious:  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/visio/visual-collaboration

[Nikolay]

@Yacine

I think you might have answered the same question before? Am I missing something. It was only 7 years ago

http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=7041.0

Application.DoCmd visCmdFullScreenMode

[wapperdude]

Well that's cool.  Works well.

[wapperdude]

For those wanting a bit more indepth commentary, see this 2007 post by Visio Guy:  http://www.visguy.com/2007/05/25/run-vba-code-when-documents-open/

[Jim Blanchard]

Hi Jim, here's what Leo.org proposed as adjectives for writing an application as Visio drawing: adventurous, daring, gamy, gamey - risqué, hazardou, risky. (Source: German's "gewagt" )

Joking aside, I wonder if the presentation mode, which can be left by a simple ESC click is the right solution.

Beside the obvious and more reasonable advice to port the solution into another platform, I would rather suggest going the long and tedious way of blocking Visio's function. But I wouldn't dare doing it. The outcome is far from being assured.

Tell Leo to go bite me.  :>)

So, I have developed this and now have a project that the only thing a user can do is work with the command button and text box controls that are on the page.  All the background pages are hidden, all of the shapes have been protected from moving, resizing etc. and the user can't even select a shape.  I expect that if someone was extremely experienced with the program and intent on screwing it up they could defeat the protections that have been added.  That is unlikely.  The developer tap is hidden as well.

I am convinced that there is no way of opening a visio document in presentation mode when it opens.  It has to be done using the appropriate steps as people have suggested.

I am not familiar with any of the other platforms people are referring to, are there any out there that will allow a user to use the controls and allows it to open in full screen, or presentation mode?

[Yacine]

Tell Leo to go bite me.  :>)

Nikolay's find did actually work.

Code Select Expand


Private Sub Document_DocumentOpened(ByVal doc As IVDocument)
  Application.DoCmd visCmdFullScreenMode
End Sub


To place into "ThisDocument" module in the VBA environment.

[Nikolay]

There may be an issue with "security", i.e. the yellow "click here to enable macros" banner. It won't allow you to run the macros until you click that button.

[Yacine]

Right, but since it is a small team, they can certainly set their safety level accordingly.