Visio® 2007 Bible

Chapter 32. Creating and Customizing Stencils

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Creating stencils

• Using Visio tools to store your favorite shapes

• Saving stencils

• Adding shapes to stencils

• Modifying the master information that appears in stencils

• Changing spacing and colors in stencils

• Rearranging shapes in stencils

One way that Visio templates simplify your diagramming is by opening stencils that include shapes—shape masters, to be precise—that you can drag onto a drawing page to build diagrams quickly. If you want different masters, you simply open the stencils that contain them. Sometimes, the masters on built-in stencils simply aren't enough. Or, you might use so many different stencils that the Shapes window barely has room to show any shapes. Fortunately, you can build your own custom stencils—to put the masters you use all the time in one convenient stencil or to store custom shapes that you create.

Custom stencils reside within your My Shapes folder, by default. Opening them is as easy as opening any built-in stencil. Maybe easier. You choose File

In this chapter, you learn how to create custom stencils for the shapes you use frequently or custom masters you create from scratch. You'll also learn how to add masters to the Favorites stencil. Finally, you will learn how to modify the shape information that appears in stencils, and how masters are arranged.

Note

Microsoft has copyrighted the masters on the ...