ShapeSheet Watch - ShapeSheet on steroids =)

[Nikolay]

Hello guys,

Recently I've finished the first version of the ShapeSheet Watch tool -
the Addin which adds number of features I find quite useful while developing shapes with ShapeSheet. The tool is open-source (see the link for details).

Installers are available for Visio 2003 - 2013, x86 and x64 versions (although I did not test a lot against Visio x64)



Short video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSMyCm9Y_Dc


Features:
- Docking window (shows cells of the currently selected shape/shapes), see e.g. here: http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=1808.0

- Multiselect support (do changes to multiple Sheets at once), see e.g. http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=4843

- Full text search (name, formula, value), see e.g. here: http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=5046

- You can select to have all cells, or specific cells only by mask (like Watch in IDE)

- Show formula AND value, see: http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=3652.0

- Highlight updated cells.

- Features of standard ShapeSheet: Highlight "localy" defined cells, Value completion.

http://unmanagedvisio.com/shapesheetwatch/

What is planned:
- Adding/deleting rows and sections (Add Row / Add Section / Delete row / Delete section etc)
- Copy/Paste cell range from one shape to another (like copying of custom properties or geometry sections)
- Copy/Paste to Excel.
- Table view (like standard shapesheet)
- Support of child-parent “pseudo-selector” to simply work with child/grouped shapes.
- Ability to open more than one shapesheet.
- Full-blown autocomplte.
- Translations

The source code & project (help me coding, I'm doing this in my free time!):
https://github.com/nbelyh/ShapeSheetWatch

The project tracker (bugs/feature requests):
http://unmanagedvisio.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/dashboard

[JuneTheSecond]

Very cool!
Thank you for your good job!

[Jumpy]

+1

[JuneTheSecond]

How can I show again the columns, mask, name, etc..
When I hide the column with not clearing check box in setting,
but with moving columns' edge, narrowing to zero width.
Now there is no column at  all.
Uninstall and install again did not restore the columns.

[Nikolay]

Yes, found this bug.. will fix in the next build. If you set column width to zero "by hand" by resizing column header, you can't revert it back:
http://unmanagedvisio.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/SSW-24


Now, the settings are stored in this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\UnmanagedVisio\ShapeSheetWatch

To workaround the problem, you can just remove this key as a whole (this will reset all settings to their defaults)
or remove the values "ColumnWidth" and "ColumnVisible" in this key which store column config.

What do you think, should the uninstaller delete all settings (now it does not)?

[wapperdude]

In general, I think the uninstaller for any program should clean up it's registry entries.  But that's my personal opinion.  There might be other issues to consider that I don't know about.

In the mean time, wouldn't a registry cleaner find and remove these entries after uninstall?  Might be safer in general.

Third, for the less informed, like me, what steps necessary to install the shapesheet watch?

Wapperdude

[Nikolay]

In general, I think the uninstaller for any program should clean up it's registry entries.  But that's my personal opinion.  There might be other issues to consider that I don't know about.

Yes, makes sense!

Third, for the less informed, like me, what steps necessary to install the shapesheet watch?

Just run the installer

For normal x86 Visio:
http://unmanagedvisio.com/download/shape_sheet_watch/ShapeSheetWatch_2013_11_x86.msi

Short video:
http://unmanagedvisio.com/shapesheet-watch-multiselect/

[wapperdude]

Thanks for the clarification Nikolay.  Program downloaded and ran fine.  But, I don't see it in Visio.  I'm running V2007, on Win7 Pro X64.  (I also have Office 2010 installed.  Don't know if that creates a problem.)

Wapperdude

[Nikolay]

But, I don't see it in Visio.  I'm running V2007, on Win7 Pro X64.

Not sure as well.
Normally, after install in Visio 2007 you get a toolbar "ShapeSheet  Watch" where you can click a button to show the window.

[Visio Guy]

WOW!

FYI: Runs fine on 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Visio 2013.

[JuneTheSecond]

To workaround the problem, you can just remove this key as a whole (this will reset all settings to their defaults)
or remove the values "ColumnWidth" and "ColumnVisible" in this key which store column config.

Thank you, Nikolay.
Now works fine.

[wapperdude]

   Happy day!  It is working!!!  It turned out to be fairly simple:  my version of Visio is 32 bit, even though Windows is 64 bit.  Ran the x86 version and all is well.

It works really well.  Dragging it to the left side and placing it in the section of Visio where the Size&Pos window, etc. are located allows you to expand the width of the ShapesheetWatcher window and shrink the drawing window if desired.  This allows the drawing to be centered in its window.

Minor (very minor) bug:  when you hover over the "L" and "U" buttons at the top, there's a typo in the text:   ..."teh grid".  S/b "the grid".

Enhancement:  this may already be inplace, and I need to read more about the Watcher, but, sometimes formulas can be quite long.  It would be nice to have an expanded display at the top of the window to show entire entry of a selected cell.  Sorry if this already exists.

This is so cool.  Thanks Nikolay.      

[Nikolay]

  Happy day!  It is working!!!  It turned out to be fairly simple:  my version of Visio is 32 bit, even though Windows is 64 bit.  Ran the x86 version and all is well.

It works really well.  Dragging it to the left side and placing it in the section of Visio where the Size&Pos window, etc. are located allows you to expand the width of the ShapesheetWatcher window and shrink the drawing window if desired.  This allows the drawing to be centered in its window.

Minor (very minor) bug:  when you hover over the "L" and "U" buttons at the top, there's a typo in the text:   ..."teh grid".  S/b "the grid".

Enhancement:  this may already be inplace, and I need to read more about the Watcher, but, sometimes formulas can be quite long.  It would be nice to have an expanded display at the top of the window to show entire entry of a selected cell.  Sorry if this already exists.

This is so cool.  Thanks Nikolay.      

Thank you!!  Sure I will be improving it

[Yacine]

Hi Nikolay,
did you publish your tool as open source? I would be very interested in looking at the techniques you used to implement it so seamlessly.

[Nikolay]

Hi Nikolay,
did you publish your tool as open source? I would be very interested in looking at the techniques you used to implement it so seamlessly.

Yes, the project is on github (it's a live repository):
https://github.com/nbelyh/ShapeSheetWatch

You can clone this repository, monitor it, or just download the sources as a .zip file

BTW, if someone would like to join/contribute to the project, I would really appreciate it!

The technology behind is rather old in fact /C++ to avoid any rutimes, and thus install hassles, and thus be compatible with most Visio versions, and HTML UI rendering by HTMLayout to look nice /

To build everything from sources, you'll need Visual Studio installed (2008 Standard or above), and (to build installer) you'll need WiX installed.
In the root folder, there is "b.bat" file - just click it, and the project (release x86 and x64) should be built.