Chapter 3. Understanding the ShapeSheet™
Microsoft Visio is a unique data diagramming system, and most of that uniqueness is due to the power of the ShapeSheet , which is a window on the Visio object model. It is the ShapeSheet that enables you to encapsulate complex behavior into apparently simple shapes by adding formulae to the cells using functions. The ShapeSheet was modeled on a spreadsheet, and formulae are entered in a similar manner to cells in an Excel worksheet.
Validation rules are written as quasi-ShapeSheet formulae so you will need to understand how they are written. Validation rules can check the contents of ShapeSheet cells, in addition to verifying the structure of a diagram. Therefore, in this chapter you will learn about the structure of the ShapeSheet and how to write formulae.
