Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Calvary-Church
Calvary-ChurchFlag for United States of America

asked on

Visio 2007 - How to Configure Shape Context Menu

When I right click on many of my shapes in Visio the context menu appears with Properties listed as the last option.  This takes me to the Shape Data.  However, other shapes don't have this option in the context menu when I right click on them so I have to go to Data then Shape Data.  What do I need to configure in the ShapeSheet so this appears in the context menu?  

Thanks
Avatar of Chris Roth
Chris Roth
Flag of Germany image

Hi CC,

The "Properties" item is created by shape developers. They decided that shape data was important for particular shapes. Shapes that don't have this item likely don't have any shape data fields by default, or have fields that were deemed somehow not particularly important.

I believe that in Visio 2007, you can right-click any shape, and choose Data > Shape Data to bring up the Shape Data pane, if it is not already visible.

Since the Shape Data window came into being in Visio 2007 or Visio 2003 (can't remember exactly), the need for the Properties item became less. Before, the Shape Data window was a pop-up window. With the always-on pane, data fields became visible as soon as a shape was selected.

So I could argue that what you're looking for is theoretically unnecessary. If you think that it is, please share exactly what you are trying to do, so that we can better assist. you.
Avatar of Calvary-Church

ASKER

Hi Visio_Guy,

When right-clicking on many shapes the last option is "Properties".  This takes you directly to the Shape Data. (I know just one step quicker than going to Data>Shape Data).  A while back I found information on how to add this to shapes where this didin't appare by adding an Action to the shapes data sheet with the correct settings Properties would then appear when right-clicking but now I forget the exact details of how to do this.

Thanks
Hi CC,

Just find a shape that has this property, then open the ShapeSheet for that shape.

Look to the Actions section in the ShapeSheet, and you'll see several formulas per row that makes this happen. If you have the Developer ribbon tab visible, you can simply right-click a shape, then choose Show ShapeSheet.

There are a lot of other details to know about, but we'll start with this for now to see if you can get it working.
Visio_Guy,

I did lookup this information on a couple of of shapes which had different entries under the "actions" section of the shapesheet.  I tried two different formulas but the "Properties" option still didn't appear in the right click context menu.  If my memory serves me correctly I only had to add one formula to the Actions section.  I'll have to keep experimenting and looking.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Chris Roth
Chris Roth
Flag of Germany image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
That's it.  Thanks visio_guy!
The r and underscore is an added touch which I hadn't discovered before which makes it easy to do from the keyboard.  I like it.  Thanks again Visio_guy for the complete, quick and precise answer.