How to hide Visio 2007's UML parameter direction indicator ("in/out")

Question

I Googled and searched here for the solution, the only thing I've found it to override the text and edit it manually - however this will be changed as soon as you make a change to the object.

I'd like to hide the "in" direction indicator for method parameters - anyone know if it's possible to do this and if so, how?

Answer 1

After doing some research, here's what I found:

• There is no GUI option to toggle the visibility of the direction indicator
• A workaround would be to create a new master (copying the original class master), and tweak it to change the display of Operations shape.
• However, there is no option in the Shapesheet window to do that.
• The next thing to try would be manipulate it via code.
• After fiddling around, I couldn't find any public properties that allowed you to set that.
• I stumbled upon this technet forum post which confirmed my suspicion (that the UML addon lacked a good set of APIs).

So I guess the short answer is - No. There is no automatic way of doing that in Visio 2007/2010.

There are other tools that let you control this, such as:

• Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect (Class Diagrams)
• IBM's Rational Software Architect (Showing or hiding parameters)

If you can switch tools, I would recommend Enterprise Architect. It has allows C# code generation (not sure about IBM) and has Visual Studio integration as well.

Hope ths helps!