You can view Visio diagrams that have been saved as Web drawings (files with a .vdw extension) even on computers where Visio is not installed. Web drawings are rendered by Visio Services, a feature of SharePoint Technologies that renders interactive and data-connected diagrams.

For the best viewing experience, install Silverlight 3.0 or later before you open the diagram. If you do not have Silverlight installed, the diagram is rendered in PNG format.

  1. In your browser, navigate to the SharePoint library that contains the Web drawing.

  2. Click the diagram’s name to open the file in the browser.

  3. Click and drag the diagram around to view specific parts, and use the zoom tools on the toolbar to change the size of the diagram.

  4. To make the entire diagram visible in the browser window, click the Zoom to fit in view button on the toolbar.

Quick Tasks

Task

Action

Follow a hyperlink.

If a shape has a hyperlink, the Pointer tool changes when it's over the shape to show that it can be clicked. Select a shape, and then click again to follow the link.

Get the latest data, if the diagram is linked to external data sources.

Click the Refresh button on the toolbar. If the contents of the external data source have changed since the last refresh, the new data appears in the diagram.

Changes in the data source might not be immediately reflected by refreshing a diagram, depending on the data caching settings for Visio Services.

Open the diagram in Visio (requires Visio to be installed on the computer).

Click the Open in Visio button on the toolbar.

View pages in a multi-page diagram.

Click the Page Navigation box on the toolbar and then click the page you want to see.

View detailed information about a shape.

Select the shape and then click the Toggle shape information button on the toolbar. The shape information pane opens. You can also CTRL+CLICK a shape to open the pane.

Print a Web drawing

To print, you must open the diagram in Visio. Click the Open in Visio button, and then use the standard printing options in Visio to print the diagram. You must have Visio 2010 Standard, Professional, or Premium installed on your computer.

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