The Developer tab is not on by default when you start Visio 2010, but there is a wealth of functionality here that is critical if you want to create your own shapes and solutions for Visio. To see the Developer tab you have to “Run in developer mode”. To do this:
1. Click the Office button in the upper left portion of the screen
2. Choose Visio Options
3. Choose Advanced
4. Scroll down to the bottom to see the “General” section and select “Run in developer mode”
The Developer tab provides access to the following features:
Code group
· Visual Basic
· Macros
· Record Macro
· Pause Recording
· Macro Security
Controls
· Insert Controls
· Design Mode
· Properties
· View Code
Shape Design
· Show ShapeSheet
o Shape
o Page
o Document (you don’t have to go through the Drawing Explorer anymore!)
· Drawing Tools
o Rectangle
o Ellipse
o Line
o Freeform
o Arc
o Pencil
· Operations
o Union
o Combine
o Fragment
o Intersect
o Subtract
o Join
o Trim
o Offset
o Update Alignment Box
· Group (also available on the Home tab)
o Group
o Ungroup
o Add to Group
o Remove from Group
· Shape Name (shows the old Format Special dialog)
· Behavior (shows the old Format Behavior dialog)
· Protection (shows the old Format Protection dialog)
Stencil group
· New Stencil (US units)
· New Stencil (Metric)
Show/Hide group
· Document Stencil
· Drawing Explorer
· Master Explorer