Snap and Glue Bad Function

[James B Murphy]

I use annotations a lot in my detailed electronics drawings. At some point in the past Visio changed to where the annotations will automatically snap onto my border or some other object whenever I drag them from the stencil. This is beyond annoying and is a terrible behavior requiring constant manipulating  on/off of the snap and glue feature. If that isn't bad enough, I just opened a drawing with a number of annotation arrow boxes in it. All of them have been repositioned and connected to borders and are no longer positioned in relation to the objects that they originally were intended to provide information for. This is beyond acceptable behavior. I now have to find every object and then try to match the annotation/notification to it. So, can someone please tell me why this is happening and how to permanently and totally remove the automatic snap and glue feature from all annotations? 

[#2]

@James B Murphy  Question: are you using the older callouts from a stencil or the newer callouts created from Insert>Callout and then selecting a callout style from the gallery?

[#3]

Scott, I am using callouts from stencils. The options on the insert menu are very limited plus I have some that are go to that I have saved. I can try one from the insert menu and see if the behavior is better. Anxious for a followup comment from you.

[#4]

The behavior of new-style callouts is markedly better in many ways than the old callouts, however, I don't know how they will interact with the borders and shapes you're using. Plus, as you pointed out, there are fewer formats and capabilities in the new callout set.

Do you have a sample diagram you can provide? DO NOT post anything confidential or proprietary but if there's a general example I can look at, that would help. As an alternative, if you'd prefer not to post publicly, you can send it to me via PM.

[#5]

@Scott Helmers First I have not used the new insert annotations only the ones I have saved as stencils. Since my original I have been in contact with Visio support and discovered the new features I do not like are now default with no reasonable way to disable them.

Scenario: Annotation with arrow is placed on the drawing. I want to relocate the annotation. If I just highlight and left click and hold then drag the annotation to the new location, when I release the mouse the annotation body will automatically relocate itself to a location of it's choice and put the point of the arrow at a location of its choice. Both locations tend to be the border of my drawing.

Resolution: (Unacceptable) Locate the "snap & Glue" button on the menu bar and click. uncheck the "snap" and "glue" boxes then click to close the menu po-pout. Move and reconfigure the annotation, Locate the "snap & Glue" button on the menu bar and click. check the "snap" and "glue" boxes then click to close the menu popout to be able to return to the operation of connecting lines to objects. I count 8 keystrokes everytime I want to relocate an annotation on a drawing. there can be a dozen or more of them in one of my basic drawings. 

The auto reconfigure happens if I chose to move a block of objects making an repositioning of a group of items a nightmare. I tried to attach a file but the software will not accept a Visio file.

[#6]

@James B Murphy I definitely understand your frustration at what has become much less useful for you. 

I can offer one way to streamline the unfortunate sequence you described below: Alt+F9 opens the Snap & Glue dialog. At least that eliminates rummaging on the ribbon to find the button to open the dialog. 

One potentially better suggestion: holding down the Alt key while dragging suspends snapping to the grid. I don't know, but perhaps it will eliminate the problem you're encountering with post-drag repositioning.

Because you can't post the diagram here (I will take that up with the appropriate people!), feel free to send it to me at Scott at VisioStepByStep dot com.

[#7]

Scott, I have used the callouts from the gallery but I do not like the format of any of them as well as the previous stencils. Further, I do not find that the new gallery behave any better than the ones I have been using. And maybe worse. ON the new ones the arrow attaches itself to the stencil it is pointing to. I do not want my arrows attached, I want them to be a distance away. While I have used the new inserts some I have primarily gone back to the stencils I am familiar with and just live with the issue. As I may have mentioned before, I am becoming increasingly unhappy with this software and the automation that can't be turned off. Additionally, it is constantly dropping work I have done and rebooting for some reason. This is not a good behavior for a professional grade software.

[#8]

I understand if the new style callouts don't behave as well as the ones you've used in the past.

Two questions:
Did you try my suggestion above to hold the Alt key while dragging in order to suspend snap and glue temporarily? Does it allow you to override Visio's auto-positioning?
Do you have a sample diagram you can email a diagram to the address I provided above?

I'm sorry to hear you are losing work because Visio has crashed. Are there any triggers you can identify that cause the problem?