Microsoft® Office Visio® 2003 Step by Step

Linking Visio Diagrams to Office 2003 Files

The main difference between linking a Visio diagram and embedding a copy of a Visio diagram is that a linked diagram doesn't become part of the Office 2003 file. You link a Visio diagram to a file when you want to synchronize the original diagram with the copy in the file. For example, you might link an unfinished Visio block diagram to a Word document. Then when you make changes to the Visio drawing file, those changes are reflected in the Office 2003 file, so it's always up to date.

There is another difference between linking and embedding: when you link to a Visio diagram, you link to the entire diagram, including the background. When you embed a copy of a Visio diagram, you can copy all or only specific ...