Visio Guy

Thanks yet again to all of you Visio gurus who make this site so useful and powerful for neophytes like me.

In my continuing quest to bring order to my organization's hundreds of disparate (and previously poorly managed) workflows, I am organizing them all into a single master Visio document.  With this, I am leveraging the default off-page reference (OPR) shape to provide clickable links to move from one page to another as processes branch or dovetail.

I've struggled with how to meaningfully name those connectors, trying to provide names that would also allow readers using a hardcopy (or other non-Visio-clickable format) to easily know to which page to turn just by looking at the text on the shape.  I've arrived at a convention of using numbers, and setting the OPRs on the left side of pages (so coming IN to a process from the OPR as opposed to going out) in increasing order, from one page to the next, throughout the document.  (The OPRs on the right of any page are "going out" and will not be in sequential order.)

Example: 
The first OPR in the entire document that appears on the left of any page is 1000, any others on that same page are 1001, 1002, etc.   
On the next page which also has OPRs on the left, the numbers start at 1100, 1101, 1102, etc. 
The next page would start at 1200, etc.
So when a reader of  hardcopy sees a process continuing (OPR on the right) to "2301," they can flip through the pages and find "2301" in a left OPR by knowing that the left OPRs are in numerical order.


This works, although I have to page through occasionally (as I add or move processes) and update some of the numbers.   (I'm setting the OPRs to "Keep shape text synchronized" when I create them, so it is not hard to scroll through and update the 'left' OPRs and have the changes cascade to the 'right' OPRs.)

My question: How might I change the OPRs, or possibly create a custom OPR (pair of OPRs for left vs. right?), so that the text of the left OPRs will update to a format of "PP-##" where PP is the current page number (which would have to update as I add or move processes) and ## is a sequential number (01, 02, 03).  And of course the right OPRs would have to update to match... 

I think I could manually manage the ## part.  But having the shape update to show the current page number in the deck of processes-- I have no clue!

Thanks again for all pearls thrown before this Visio swine...  :P
JC

Hey, JC:

   If I understand you correctly, the PP part is pretty straightforward: Use Insert Field to put the page number into the text of your left OPR.  More specifically, Insert/Field/Page Info/Page Number.  You can then manually enter your ## part, as you say you can manage.  I did a quick test, and the synchronized "right" OPR's automatically display the correct text, page number and manually-entered ## too.

   Hope this helps (and actually addressed your question!).

   - Ken

Thanks, Ken.  I'll play around with that today.

Much appreciated!
JC

You might check this out
http://blog.bvisual.net/2011/09/02/page-grids-and-off-page-references/

al