FAQ posts of '2013' 'February'

Symptom:
When starting Visio for the first time it appears that any VisiTools that were installed after Visio was installed but before Visio was run for the first time are not available, i.e. the VisiTool menu and toolbars are not present.

Cause:
The cause of this symptom is unknown.  It is potentially caused by the fact that COM Addins are not loaded the first time Visio is started after being installed.

Solution:
From the Add/Remove Programs list, select each VisiTool that is installed and choose the Repair option to force the VisiTool to update it’s registry data.  Before performing the repairs, make sure Visio has been run at least once and shutdown.

Symptom:
Individual VisiTools may not start or an error message may appear when their associated toolbar button or menu item is selected from the VisiTools menu or toolbar.

An exception occurred invoking Search and Replace:

Invalid parameter.

This error occurred attempting to start: Search and Replace

Please notify your administrator.

Cause:
The Security Level setting for Macros is set to Very High.

Solution:
Adjusting the Security Level

From the Tools menu select Options.  On the Options dialog select the Security tab.  On the Security tab select the ‘Macro Security…’ button.  On this dialog select any option other then the ‘Very High’ option.  It is recommended to have your Security level set to either High or Medium.  Click OK, then OK again.  You will be prompted that the new setting will take effect the next time you start Visio, so exit Visio and restart to set the new security level.

If this does not resolve the problem, refer to Knowledge Base article VisiTool does not launch:  Confirming Registry settings

If you see the following error when starting a VisiTool, first follow the instructions in the Knowledge Base article entitled Very High Security keeps VisiTools from launching.

---------------------------
VisiTools
---------------------------
An exception occured invoking VisiPad:
Invalid parameter.
This error occured attempting to start: VisiPad
Please notify your administrator.

If that fails to resolve the issue, under rare circumstance the Windows Registry settings are not set to the expected values.  If you are comfortable editing the Registry, confirm that the following are correctly set:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Visimation\VisiTools_2003\VisiPad 2003

Description = VisiPad

ExecutionString = VisiPad

FileName = C:\Program Files\Visimation\VisiTools\VisiPad 2003\uimgr.vsl

Type = 1

Also, check that the file “uimgr.vsl” is located in the path C:\Program Files\Visimation\VisiTools\VisiPad 2003\uimgr.vsl

Symptom:
Shapes that contain blank or empty text fields are not cloned to the destination shape.

Cause:
The Visio object model does not provide a mechanism to discover what a field is linked to if that field is blank.  For example, if the shape’s text contains a field that is linked to a Custom Property and the value of that Custom Property is blank then the link to that field cannot be determined.

Solution:
Prior to cloning a shape, make sure that any fields that are to be copied contain a value.

Symptom:
The batch printing or clean process pauses and waits for a response to any macro warning messages that Visio presents to the user when a document containing macros is opened.

Cause:
The macro warning messages are part of Visio’s security process.  Any Visio documents that contain macros can cause Visio to present this message, pausing all other operations until the message has been acknowledged.

Solution:
To keep these messages from interrupting the batch printing process of VisiBatchPrint or the batch cleaning process of VisiBatchClean it is recommended that Visual Basic for Applications be disabled before running VisiBatchPrint or the security level be changed to Very High.

Disable Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)

From the Tools menu select Options.  On the Options dialog select the Security tab.  On the Security tab remove the check mark from ‘Enable Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications’

Adjusting the Security Level:

From the Tools menu select Options.  On the Options dialog select the Security tab.  On the Security tab select the ‘Macro Security…’ button.  On this dialog select the option, ‘Very High’.  This will keep any unsigned macros from running or any messages to be displayed about unsigned macros when a Visio document is opened.

Installing any VisiTool, with the exception of VisiBatchPrint, will create a VisiTools toolbar and menu item in Visio.  If you want to turn off the VisiTools toolbar during a Visio session, you can select Tools > Customize > Toolbars and uncheck VisiTools.  This will turn off the toolbar for the current session but it will reappear when you re-start Visio because it is set to load in the Windows Registry.

In the Registry you can control the display of the toolbar, the menu or both.  If you are comfortable with the Registry, the procedure is below (make sure Visio is not running):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Visimation\VisiTools_2003

To turn of  the VisiTools toolbar, change the value for EnableToolbar from 1 to 0

To turn off the VisiTools menu, change the value for EnableMenu from 1 to 0

Start Visio and the toolbar and/or menu will be gone.  You can change these Registry values back to 1 at any time to return normal operation of the VisiTools toolbar and menu. Note that using this method to prevent display of the toolbar and menu does not remove VisiTools from the Add-on list.  Select Tools > Add-ons > Run Add-on and you will see the installed VisiTools in the Add-on list that you can run from this dialog.

Visimation's GIS Data Import for Microsoft MapPoint® imports ESRI® ShapeFiles and MapInfo® MIF files.files in the World Geodetic System 1984 format, commonly known as WGS 84.  This is the only coordinate system that MapPoint understands.  The latest version of GIS Data Import for Microsoft MapPoint will convert from other local coordinate systems on the fly if the .shp file is accompanied by a .prj file that identifies the coordinate system in which the import file has been saved.  GIS Data Import for Microsoft MapPoint will also import files that are already in WGS 84. If a valid .prj file does not exist, or if the import file is not in WGS 84, the tool will display an error stating that the data are not in the proper coordinate system.

ESRI ArcView® can produce data in WGS 84 which you can then import into MapPoint using GIS Data Import for Microsoft MapPoint.  If you receive an error when attempting to import a ShapeFile, use the following steps:

    For ArcView 8.0 or 9.0, go the "Arc Catalog" application and open the toolbox. One of the tools under the "Projections & Transformations" tree is Feature=>Project.
    Select the shapefile you want to change under the "Input Dataset or Feature Class" prompt.
    ArcView will automatically choose a name & location for the new feature class, but that can be modified in the "Output Dataset or Feature Class" prompt.
    In the "Output Coordinate System" prompt, the user can choose from a number of different projections, including the WGS84 (select Geographic Coordinate Systems=>World=>WGS 1984.prj)

Once again, note that GIS Data Import for Microsoft MapPoint will allow ShapeFiles to be imported that are referenced to any world datum, but MapPoint only supports WGS 84.  If you notice that the imported shapes are not in the exact locations they should be, make sure the ShapeFiles are referenced to WGS 84.

Symptom:
When Visio is started the following error occurs:

An Exception Occurred:
Unspecified error
Please notify your administrator.

Pressing the OK button clears this error.  All the menu items listed under the VisiTools menu are grayed out but the toolbar items on the VisiTools toolbar are still active.

Cause:
This error can be related to a menu that has been customized previously by another Visio add-on or solution which has locked the menu from any other customizations.

To verify that the Menu Bar has been locked start Visio and select View > Toolbars > Customize from the menu.  In the Customize dialog select the Menu Bar item from the Toolbars tab and see if the Reset button is enabled or disabled.  If disabled then the Menu Bar has been locked from any other changes.

Solution:
There are two resolutions for this issue.

Resolution 1:

Set the EnableMenu registry setting to 0 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Visimation\VisiTools_2003.
This setting keeps VisiTools from attempting to generate the VisiTools menu on the standard Menu Bar in Visio.

Resolution 2:

Delete the *.vsu files under C:\Documents and Settings\"user"\Application Data\Microsoft\Visio.

The VSU file stores any customizations that the customer has made to the menus and toolbars in Visio.  Deleting the VSU files causes the menus and toolbars in Visio to default to their original configuration.

Symptom:
Two entries for the same VisiTool are shown in the Add/Remove Programs list.

Cause:
The following steps will produce this symptom:

1. Install a VisiTool using the Just Me setting.
2. Install an updated version of the same VisiTool but this time choose the Everyone option.

This will produce two items in the Add/Remove Programs list for the same application.

Solution:
This symptom will not affect the operation of the VisiTool.  To resolve this issue you can uninstall both items and reinstall the latest version.