First published on MSDN on Jan, 26 2007
Every once in a while a new feature idea comes along that is so unique and compelling that it revolutionizes the way people work. Insert Text Box is not such a feature. Adding text to a diagram is nothing new in Visio. However, usability studies have shown that adding text is one of the more challenging tasks for new users. Thus we added Insert Text Box to Visio 2007 to make diagramming a little more approachable.
Insert Text Box is a menu command that invokes Visio's Text tool. Choosing the command is the equivalent of clicking on the Text tool in the Standard toolbar. We found that new users were not aware of the little 'A' toolbar button. In contrast, most users were aware of PowerPoint's Insert Text Box command, and many would look for a similar command in Visio. Now that command exists.
One significant difference between the Insert Text Box command and the Text tool is that you can only insert one text box at a time with the command. Once the text box is created, Visio automatically switches back to the Pointer tool. With the Text tool you remain in text mode until you manually switch back to the Pointer tool. The one-shot method solves another problem for new users - not knowing about the Pointer tool. Even after users discovered the Text tool, they did not always realize that they had to switch back to the Pointer tool at some point.
Microsoft Office Visio 2007 - now with text box insertion technology. Buy it today.
