Documenting DB with Visio

Has anyone used visio to diagram the database? I'm using visio 2003
Professional and have been finding some minor issues - and no, noone in the
Visio group responded to my post.
I have reverse engineered a database (with very few PK/FK's) into visio and
am facing multiple usability issues. If someone has written a set of
instructions usable by experienced ER/win user, I would be most grateful.
First, I would like to do a two-page view as I move tables from the "lump"
created by the reverse engineer to something I can print and distribute. All
I can do is open two windows.
When I do copy/cut-paste it is changing the table name from "Table" to
"Table1". Very annoying!
Sometimes when I select multiple tables, the links go away on the paste. I
don't think always, but defiantly sometimes.
The initial diagram has about 122 tables on one page; sometimes a copy will
change the size of the table to something larger than the new page.
Thanks,
JayHi
"JayKon" wrote:

> Has anyone used visio to diagram the database? I'm using visio 2003
> Professional and have been finding some minor issues - and no, noone in th
e
> visio group responded to my post.
> I have reverse engineered a database (with very few PK/FK's) into visio an
d
> am facing multiple usability issues. If someone has written a set of
> instructions usable by experienced ER/win user, I would be most grateful.
> First, I would like to do a two-page view as I move tables from the "lump"
> created by the reverse engineer to something I can print and distribute. A
ll
> I can do is open two windows.
> When I do copy/cut-paste it is changing the table name from "Table" to
> "Table1". Very annoying!
> Sometimes when I select multiple tables, the links go away on the paste. I
> don't think always, but defiantly sometimes.
> The initial diagram has about 122 tables on one page; sometimes a copy wil
l
> change the size of the table to something larger than the new page.
> Thanks,
> Jay
>
You may find it easier not to create a diagram when you initially reverse
engineer the database. You can then drag the objects from the object viewer
onto the page.
You can right click a table that you have dragged onto the page and choose
show related tables to get other tables with relationships to the table you
have chosen.
You may want to provide some means of identifying some tables that are on
more than one page, such as changing the background colour. You can also
change the behaviour so that the help will say which other pages that table
appears on, you could also change the double click option to go to one of th
e
pages.
HTH
John