Creating Graphs Using Visio - and use them with Latex

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Visio is a Microsoft product that makes it very easy to create graphs. This is NOT a tutorial for Visio, it is very easy to learn anyways. This tutorial will show you how to run Visio on a Linux desktop to create your graph, then how to export this graph to a pdf file you can use in your Latex setup.

Running Visio from Linux Desktop

1- Start a Citrix client and login to a Windows desktop (step by step instructions ( here )

2- Once you have your Desktop running, click Start->All Programs->Microsoft Office->Microsoft Office Visio 2003

3- Edit your graph in Visio and make sure to save a copy

4- Make sure you size the page to fit your drawing. You can do that in Visio by following these steps:

  * File->Page Setup
  * Page Size tab
  * select Size to fit drawing contents
  * click OK

Exporting a Visio drawing to EPS

This is a little convoluted, I wish there were a simpler way.

1- From Visio, choose File->Print

2- Choose Adobe PDF as your printer

3- Check the Print to File checkbox

4- Click on Properties

4.1. Under Adobe PDF Settings: Uncheck the Do not send fonts to "Adobe PDF"

4.2. Under Paper/Quality:

   Click Advanced
   Expand the PostScript Options 
   For the PostScript Output Option, make sure Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) is selected.

5- Click OK till you get back to the print dialog

6- Click OK and print, select a file name with .eps extension

Adding eps drawings to Latex

If you need to convert EPS files to PDF for Latex inclusion, I have a makefile and a perl script that will get the job done.

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