Visio - Change width of swimlane labels in cross-functional flow chart

Question

I have a number of cross-functional flowcharts created in Visio 2016. I would like to increase the depth of the labels of the swimlanes as in the image below.

I have attempted selecting individual labels and using the resize handle. I have attempted selecting all the labels and using the resize handle. I will get a dotted line that looks like it will resize, but it snaps back to the original size.

Answer 1

I have discovered another solution, but it requires knowing you need a wider swim lane label when you first start a cross-functional flow chart.

Before you place any boxes in a swim lane, edit the top swim lane label with text long enough to produce the greater width. The label will automatically expand and remain that wide. Adding additional pages will also retain the width.

This only works on:

• The first page
• The first swim lane label
• With no boxes in the first swim lane.

Answer 2

1. Ensure Visio has Developer Mode enabled.

2. Open the Drawing Explorer window.

3. Expand the pages to see the page you want and scroll down to find the shape Swimlane List

4. Open the shapesheet editor for this shape.

5. Find the shapesheet cell User.visHeadingHeight

6. Set the cell value to the size you require.

P.S. This value may get overwritten by Visio whenever you edit any of the heading text.

You can prevent this by putting a guarded value in the cell e.g. =GUARD(25mm)

Answer 3

Select all the Visio items you have created, but not the actual cross functional outline and drag them all anywhere outside of the cross-function outline.

Now the cross functional outline is empty, adjust depth of the labels of the swimlanes to the required width.

Select all of your items that are outside the cross-function outline and drag them all back into the newly resized cross-function outline. Thus retaining all the original spacings, etc.