How to combine shapes in Microsoft Visio with the help of Operations?

 When we talk about combined shapes in Microsoft Visio then it's doesn't mean that we are going to "Group". In Combining shapes there are many different functions are available like Union, Combine, Fragment, Intersect, and Subtract.

Sometimes a question comes into our mind that why we need to combine shapes? The answer is that sometimes we are working on a flowchart then we need some special shape that we have to use in our flowchart and that shape could not be available in Microsoft Visio then we can make such shapes as we want with the help of two or more shapes.

First of all, how we will find these Operations like Union, Combine, Fragment, Intersect, Subtract. These are important function that helps us to combine shapes while working with Microsoft Visio (ms Visio 2019). Select Developer tab > Shape Design then in Shape Design we will see Operations.

By clicking on Operation then we will see all these Union, Combine, Fragment, Intersect, Subtract.

Union: Union means that two or more things become a single. In Visio when we insert two or more shapes when applied a union then these shapes become a single shape.

Insert two shapes first one Process and the second one Decision. After it, we place the Decision diagram on the Process diagram then select both these two then apply Union on them and these two shapes converted into a single shape. As you can see the different results in the following result. (if we are joining two shapes when we select the first shape and the second shape then applied operation on it the whole shape will be in a single color. The color depends upon which shape we select first. Always the color is preferred from the first selected shape.)

We can join shape by placing it on any other point. It's not necessary to place it on a specific point.

Combine: In combine, shapes are converted into a single shape after subtracting the common part.

Fragment: In fragments, the shapes are converted into parts as we applied fragment operation from the developer tab. (As fragment means pieces or parts).

Intersect: In intersect, common parts of shapes are left behind and other parts are finished.

Combining shapes is the most important fact in Microsoft Visio. With the help of combining shapes, we can do many important operations in Microsoft Visio?