Resizing a grid shape in Microsoft Visio 2013

Solution 1:

Interesting, this happens if you change the default values of the rows and columns of a grid shape (for example in template Charts and Graphs). The specific shapes are old and were not updated in Visio 2013. This was not the intended behavior by the developers. This is something that the Visio Team should fix therefore it should be reported to the Visio team at Microsoft.

Solution 2:

Highlight the whole shape of the grid (including the excess space) and ungroup the boxes. Select the boxes that are being used and group them separately then move them to the side. There will still be the remaining boxes that are not used in the same original position so highlight them and then remove them from the page (cut them). Not a traditional way of solving the issue but it was the only way I could do it.

Solution 3:

There is a useful article discussing this and why it doesn't work at http://visualsignals.typepad.co.uk/vislog/2012/02/modifying-the-visio-grid-shape.html (it is something to do with the cells not resizing themselves correctly when they are not visible).

Handily, the author provides a similar shape you can download and use instead which has the correct behaviour, plus the source code for generating it in a later post.

The VB.NET code he uses to generate the fixed shape is below:

Module Module1

    Private Const User_RowHeight_Name = "RowHeight"
    Private Const User_ColumnWidth_Name = "ColumnWidth"
    Private Const User_RowIndex_Name = "RowIndex"
    Private Const User_ColumnIndex_Name = "ColumnIndex"
    Private Const User_IsVisible_Name = "IsVisible"
    Private Const User_ResizeModeIndex_Name = "ResizeModeIdx"

    Private Const Prop_Rows_Name = "Rows"
    Private Const Prop_Columns_Name = "Columns"
    Private Const Prop_ResizeMode_Name = "ResizeMode"
    Private Const Prop_RowHeight_Name = "RowHeight"
    Private Const Prop_ColumnWidth_Name = "ColumnWidth"

    Private Const Format_Cell_Delimiter = ";"


    Public Sub GridBuilder()

    If ActiveWindow.Type = VisWinTypes.visDrawing Then
        Call BuildGrid(ActiveWindow, _
                       10, 10, _
                       "100 mm", "50 mm", _
                       "25 mm", "5 mm")
    Else
        MsgBox "Please select a drawing window before running the Grid Builder code.", vbOKOnly, "Grid Builder"
    End If

    End Sub


    Private Sub BuildGrid(ByRef wdw As Window, _
                          ByVal rowCount As Integer, columnCount As Integer, _
                          strGridWidth As String, strGridHeight As String, _
                          strCellWidth As String, strCellHeight As String)

    Dim pag As Page
    Dim shpParent As Shape


    '  Create Grid parent shape
    Set pag = ActivePage
    Set shpParent = pag.DrawRectangle(3, 3, 5, 5)
    With shpParent

        '  Add new User, Shape Data and Actions sections
        .AddSection visSectionUser
        .AddSection visSectionProp
        .AddSection visSectionAction

        '  Add Row / Column count Shape Data cells
        .AddNamedRow visSectionProp, Prop_Rows_Name, visTagDefault
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsType).FormulaU = "1"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsFormat).FormulaU = """" & CreateNumericIndexString(1, rowCount, Format_Cell_Delimiter) & """"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsValue).FormulaU = "INDEX(" & rowCount - 1 & ",Prop." & Prop_Rows_Name & ".Format)"
        .AddNamedRow visSectionProp, Prop_Columns_Name, visTagDefault
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsType).FormulaU = "1"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsFormat).FormulaU = """" & CreateNumericIndexString(1, columnCount, Format_Cell_Delimiter) & """"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsValue).FormulaU = "INDEX(" & columnCount - 1 & ",Prop." & Prop_Columns_Name & ".Format)"

        '  Add resize mode cells
        .AddNamedRow visSectionProp, Prop_ResizeMode_Name, visTagDefault
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsType).FormulaU = "1"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsFormat).FormulaU = """Size parent to cells" & Format_Cell_Delimiter & "Size cells to parent"""
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsValue).FormulaU = "INDEX(0,Prop." & Prop_ResizeMode_Name & ".Format)"
        .AddNamedRow visSectionUser, User_ResizeModeIndex_Name, visTagDefault
        .CellsSRC(visSectionUser, visRowLast, visUserValue).FormulaU = "LOOKUP(Prop." & Prop_ResizeMode_Name & ",Prop." & Prop_ResizeMode_Name & ".Format)"

        '  Add RowHeight / ColumnWidth User cells
        .AddNamedRow visSectionProp, Prop_RowHeight_Name, visTagDefault
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsType).FormulaU = "2"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsValue).FormulaU = strCellHeight
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsInvis).FormulaU = "User." & User_ResizeModeIndex_Name & "=1"
        .AddNamedRow visSectionProp, Prop_ColumnWidth_Name, visTagDefault
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsType).FormulaU = "2"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsValue).FormulaU = strCellWidth
        .CellsSRC(visSectionProp, visRowLast, visCustPropsInvis).FormulaU = "User." & User_ResizeModeIndex_Name & "=1"

        '  Add RowHeight / ColumnWidth Shape Data cells
        .AddNamedRow visSectionUser, User_RowHeight_Name, visTagDefault
        .CellsSRC(visSectionUser, visRowLast, visUserValue).FormulaU = "IF(User." & User_ResizeModeIndex_Name & "=0,Prop." & Prop_RowHeight_Name & ",Height/Prop." & Prop_Rows_Name & ")"
        .AddNamedRow visSectionUser, User_ColumnWidth_Name, visTagDefault
        .CellsSRC(visSectionUser, visRowLast, visUserValue).FormulaU = "IF(User." & User_ResizeModeIndex_Name & "=0,Prop." & Prop_ColumnWidth_Name & ",Width/Prop." & Prop_Columns_Name & ")"

        '  Set Width and Height cells
        .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowXFormOut, visXFormHeight).FormulaU = "IF(User." & User_ResizeModeIndex_Name & "=0,Prop." & Prop_RowHeight_Name & "*Prop." & Prop_Rows_Name & ",SETATREFEXPR(" & strGridHeight & "))"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowXFormOut, visXFormWidth).FormulaU = "IF(User." & User_ResizeModeIndex_Name & "=0,Prop." & Prop_ColumnWidth_Name & "*Prop." & Prop_Columns_Name & ",SETATREFEXPR(" & strGridWidth & "))"


        '  Add Actions cells for context menu
        .AddNamedRow visSectionAction, "Resize0", visTagDefault
        .CellsSRC(visSectionAction, visRowLast, visActionMenu).FormulaU = "INDEX(0,Prop." & Prop_ResizeMode_Name & ".Format)"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionAction, visRowLast, visActionAction).FormulaU = "SETF(GetRef(Prop." & Prop_ResizeMode_Name & ")," & """INDEX(0""" & "&LISTSEP()&" & """Prop." & Prop_ResizeMode_Name & ".Format)""" & ")"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionAction, visRowLast, visActionChecked).FormulaU = "User." & User_ResizeModeIndex_Name & "=0"
        .AddNamedRow visSectionAction, "Resize1", visTagDefault
        .CellsSRC(visSectionAction, visRowLast, visActionMenu).FormulaU = "INDEX(1,Prop." & Prop_ResizeMode_Name & ".Format)"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionAction, visRowLast, visActionAction).FormulaU = "SETF(GetRef(Prop." & Prop_ResizeMode_Name & ")," & """INDEX(1""" & "&LISTSEP()&" & """Prop." & Prop_ResizeMode_Name & ".Format)""" & ")"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionAction, visRowLast, visActionChecked).FormulaU = "User." & User_ResizeModeIndex_Name & "=1"

        '  Set protection and behaviour cells
        .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowLock, visLockCalcWH).FormulaU = "1"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowLock, visLockTextEdit).FormulaU = "1"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowLock, visLockVtxEdit).FormulaU = "1"
        .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowGroup, visGroupDisplayMode).FormulaU = "1"
        .ConvertToGroup
    End With


    'Generate grid cell shapes and add them to the parent
    Dim iRow As Integer
    Dim iCol As Integer
    Dim shpTempCell As Shape

    Dim GridSelection As Selection
    wdw.DeselectAll
    Set GridSelection = wdw.Selection
    GridSelection.Select shpParent, visSelect

    For iRow = 1 To rowCount
        For iCol = 1 To columnCount
            Set shpTempCell = CreateGridCell(shpParent, iRow, iCol)
            If Not shpTempCell Is Nothing Then
                GridSelection.Select shpTempCell, visSelect
                Set shpTempCell = Nothing
            End If
        Next iCol
    Next iRow

    GridSelection.AddToGroup

    End Sub

    Private Function CreateGridCell(shpParent As Shape, rowIdx As Integer, colIdx As Integer) As Shape
    Dim shpCell As Shape

    If Not shpParent Is Nothing Then
        Dim pag As Page
        Dim parentId As Integer

        Set pag = shpParent.Parent
        parentId = shpParent.ID
        Set shpCell = pag.DrawRectangle(1, 1, 2, 2)

        With shpCell
            .AddSection visSectionUser
            .AddNamedRow visSectionUser, User_RowIndex_Name, visTagDefault
            .CellsSRC(visSectionUser, visRowLast, visUserValue).FormulaU = rowIdx
            .AddNamedRow visSectionUser, User_ColumnIndex_Name, visTagDefault
            .CellsSRC(visSectionUser, visRowLast, visUserValue).FormulaU = colIdx

            'Set shape visibility
            .AddNamedRow visSectionUser, User_IsVisible_Name, visTagDefault
            '  =IF(OR(User.RowIndex>Sheet.1!Prop.Rows,User.ColumnIndex>Sheet.1!Prop.Columns),0,1)
            .CellsSRC(visSectionUser, visRowLast, visUserValue).FormulaU = "IF(OR(User." & User_RowIndex_Name & ">Sheet." & parentId & "!Prop." & Prop_Rows_Name & ",User." & User_ColumnIndex_Name & ">Sheet." & parentId & "!Prop." & Prop_Columns_Name & "),0,1)"
            .CellsSRC(visSectionFirstComponent, visRowComponent, visCompNoShow).FormulaU = "NOT(User." & User_IsVisible_Name & ")"

            'Set width and height
            .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowXFormOut, visXFormHeight).FormulaU = "GUARD(Sheet." & parentId & "!User." & User_RowHeight_Name & ")"
            .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowXFormOut, visXFormWidth).FormulaU = "GUARD(Sheet." & parentId & "!User." & User_ColumnWidth_Name & ")"

            'Set position (PinX and PinY)
            '  =Sheet.1!User.ColumnWidth*IF(User.IsVisible,User.ColumnIndex,1)-Sheet.1!User.ColumnWidth/2
            '  =Sheet.1!Height-Sheet.1!User.RowHeight*IF(User.IsVisible,User.RowIndex,1)+Sheet.1!User.RowHeight/2
            .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowXFormOut, visXFormPinX).FormulaU = "GUARD(Sheet." & parentId & "!User." & User_ColumnWidth_Name & "*IF(User." & User_IsVisible_Name & ",User." & User_ColumnIndex_Name & ",1)-Sheet." & parentId & "!User." & User_ColumnWidth_Name & "/2)"
            .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowXFormOut, visXFormPinY).FormulaU = "GUARD(Sheet." & parentId & "!Height-Sheet." & parentId & "!User." & User_RowHeight_Name & "*IF(User." & User_IsVisible_Name & ",User." & User_RowIndex_Name & ",1)+Sheet." & parentId & "!User." & User_RowHeight_Name & "/2)"

            .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowLock, visLockVtxEdit).FormulaU = "1"
            .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowLock, visLockRotate).FormulaU = "1"
            .CellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowLock, visLockDelete).FormulaU = "1"
        End With


    End If

    Set CreateGridCell = shpCell

    End Function


    Private Function CreateNumericIndexString(ByVal startInt As Integer, endInt As Integer, delimiter As String) As String
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim IdxString As String

    For i = startInt To endInt
        IdxString = IdxString & CStr(i)
        If Not i = endInt Then
            IdxString = IdxString & delimiter
        End If
    Next i

    CreateNumericIndexString = IdxString

    End Function

End Module