SCREENCAST
If you prefer, a screencast is available that covers this topic:
INTRODUCTION
Visio users are are already familiar with how to to group and ungroup shapes in Visio …
And having created a group, if it is unselected, by default the first click on any shape in the group will select the entire group.
Walkthrough of Sub-selection in Groups
But if a group is selected and then you click on a shape in the group, you enter the world of “Sub-selection”. Let’s walk through this:
Nothing selected:
Click on any shape in the group and the entire group is selected.
And once the group is selected, if you click again on the group, you’ll “sub-select” a shape inside the group. Notice in the screenshot below how the sub-selection handles look slightly different from the normal selection handles above. Also notice that the group still has a box around it firther emphasizing emphasizing that this is a sub selection.
Sub-selection is useful because it lets us modify a shape “inside” the group without breaking apart the group.
Selecting in the Sub-Selection Mode
Sub-selection is an interesting place to be.Clicking on shapes has different outcome depending on whether you clicked on a sub-selected shape or not.
Suppose the you have the circle sub-selected. If you click on the circle again, the entire group will be selected.
Now suppose you have the circle sub-selected, and then you click on the triangle. Now the triangle is sub-selected.
Sub-Selecting Multiple Shapes
You can sub-select more than one shape.
For example, start by sub-selecting the circle.
Instead of clicking on the triangle, hold down the CTRL key as you click on the triangle.
Now both the triangle and the circle are sub-selected.
Controlling the Default Selection Behavior in Groups
So, this a a very useful feature, but sometimes it is NOT what we want.
- Sometimes we want to only select the group and not allow sub-selection
- Sometimes we want the first click on an unselected group to sub-select a particular shape by default instead of the entire group.
The good news is that this behavior is completely controllable on a per-group basis.
In Visio 2007, select the group and then right click Format > Behavior
This will launch the Behavior dialog, under the Behavior tab, examine the value for Selection.
In Visio 2010, you’ll notice that the same context menu does NOT have a Behavior item
The way to do this in Visio 2010 is to use the Developer Tab
Once you have the Behavior dialog up, notice the three options for Selection: Group only, Group first, and Members first.
Group Selection Options
- Group first – this is the default behavior that I have so far described in the blog post. The first click selects the entire group. The second click selects a shape inside the group (a.k.a sub-selection). This is the behavior I have described above
- Group only – the first click selects the entire group. The second click unselects the group. In other words, with regard to selection a group will behave exactly as a single shape using this option.
- Members first – The first click will sub-select a shape in the group.
Walkthrough of Group Only Selection
Nothing is selected:
Click on any shape and the entire group will be selected.
Click on any shape again and the group will be unselected.
Walkthrough of “Members Only” Selection
Nothing is selected:
Click on circle. The circle will be sub-selected.
Click on any shape in the group (even the circle) and the entire group is selected.
