Adding Table Lines to Process Callouts

[Chance0066]

Has anyone attempted to add lines to the automated Callout from the Process Annotations stencil? I'm looking to utilize the functionality of the "cc" addon but work in some of the formattings that VisioGuy talks about in his http://www.visguy.com/2009/01/23/title-block-3-smart-tabs-smart-text/ article.

I've been able to figure out how to add the lines and tabs and have the shape completely resize with the text. I believe I could figure out how to have the horizontal lines only show up and position when there are a certain number of properties as well. However, I can't figure out how to integrate those visual effects when using the "cc" addon.

The problem is that the Addon rewrites all of the cells anytime it's run, so my formulas lose their references. So I thought that I might be able to utilize the User.ccParentName and User.ccReportOn to reference the associated shape directly. I was able to concatenate the cells successfully with

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User.ccParentName&"!"&INDEX(0,User.ccReportOn), but that end value doesn't seem to work when trying to use it as a reference to the associated shape's cell.

Is it possible to use a concatenated string as a cell reference for formulas within shape sheet? I would like to avoid working with VBA if possible(unless there is a way for me to edit/copy the original "cc" addon)... I've only done VBA in Excel, and I don't know that this small change would be worth the time investment for me. I'm happy to answer any questions to help fill in the blanks. Appreciate any advice in advance.

[Chance0066]

UPDATE:

Mere minutes after writing this, I located a potential solution in this thread http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=3870.0. I'm able to use vojo's solution from that thread to create a reference in a user cell. This is a good start, and I'll be working on the other function now, but I'd like to keep this up in case anyone else has already tackled this problem. Using SetF is fine for one reference, but I would rather not have to do so for multiple references.

[Chance0066]

Solution:

So, after a significant amount of time trying to alter the original Process Annotations shape, I eventually gave up on that and decided to use a workaround to create an original shape instead. At first, I wanted to avoid doing this, because it's a little clunky, but the results made it worth it in the end.

I started by creating a basic box shape, then making it a group. With that in place, the group shape would hold the "cc" addon and create the association with the shape that I wanted to display the data from. Now, when the addon runs, it creates text fields and populates them. This was the problem that I was dealing with because I was struggling to "modify" those fields to have them tabbed and formatted as I wanted.

So I just used Hide Text on the group shape and locked away its text edit options.

Then I was able to pull the target shape's name and index the "ccReportOn" list to create cell references within the shape data section. I used those shape data cells in the group shape's shape sheet to create my own text fields in the sub shape. Since the "cc" addon wasn't interfering with the text in the sub shape, I formatted everything as needed and added the horizontal and vertical lines.

The end result is a call-out shape that displays the associated shapes data using the Configure Callout addon that adjusts its label and description columns based on the longest text string in each. I also set it up to auto-align with the associated shape. It looks simple, but its usability in my application is priceless.


I never would have imagined that this would be quite as complicated as it was. All and all happy with it, but I wish I wouldn't have had to resort to the hidden text option. It bothers me, but my end users will never know the difference unless they get into shape sheet. I'm hesitantly going to share it here in case anyone else would like to try and use it, but it's likely far from perfect and it's very specific to my application. But someone may find it useful and I'm open to constructive criticisms of course.

EDIT: The attached shape seems to be functioning incorrectly when added to a page with scaling. I'm looking into the issue, but I'm sure it has something to do with the resizing based on text. This is a new one for me, so there are some kinks to work out.

EDIT2: I corrected the issue. Seems I had some bad math happening in the tabs section. The formula was converting the pt measurement to inches, so AntiScaling caused some poor functionality. I forced the formula to use the original pt measurement and removed antiScale from the tabs. This seems to have fixed the issue... Until something else comes up I'm sure. The updated copy is attached.

If someone has a better way to handle this tabbing functionality, I'd love to get some feedback.