Microsoft Visio 2007

How to Add Visio Shapes to a Stencil

As we mentioned earlier, a stencil is a collection of shapes. You can add multiple shapes to a stencil. You may want to create a stencil with frequently used built-in shapes, or you can create a stencil with many custom shapes in it. Whatever your use, adding shapes to your stencil provides a place for you to access the shapes you need.

First, we’ll add an existing shape to your new stencil.

1. Open the pre-existing stencil you’d like to save a shape from.
2. Right-click on the shape you’d like to save to your new stencil and select Add to My Shapes, select the new stencil you just created.
   
3. Your shape is saved to your new stencil.
   
4. Click the little save icon on the right to save your stencil.

Create a New Master Shape in Visio

Visio also has the ability to create a brand new master shape. This permits you to create your own shapes to use in your Visio drawings. Find out how to create a new master shape:

1. In your new stencil, right-click and select New Master.
2. The New Master dialog box appears. Enter in the data for your new master shape.
   
3. Click OK. Your new master is created. Now, right click on the new icon, select Edit Master, and then Edit Master Shape.
   
4. A blank drawing page appears for you to create your master shape. You can use the built in drawing tools, or copy and paste graphics you’ve created in an external application. In this example, we’re going to create a mini-Learnthat.com stamp that we can apply to drawings.
   
5. One you’ve created your graphics, click File and select Close. A confirmation dialog box will ask if you want to update your master, click Yes.
6. Another dialog box will ask if you want to save changes to your stencil, click Yes.
7. If your stencil closed entirely, click File, select Shapes, select My Shapes, then click on the Stencil you created.
8. Now you’ve created a new master shape.
   
9. As you can see, there are no connection points on our master shape. Let’s add some. First, right-click on the name of your stencil (in my case, Learnthat and select Edit Stencil. This places the stencil into edit mode and allows you to change shapes. Right-click on your master shape, select Edit Master, then select Edit Master Shape.
10. Your master shape opens on a drawing page. If you need to, zoom in on your shape.
11. Click on the connect toolbar icon and select Connection Point Tool.
    
12. Select your drawing. Find the first point that you’d like a connection point and hold down your ctrl key on the keyboard. Your cursor changes to the connection point connector creator cursor. A blue cross-hairs is added to the graphic at the place the connection point would be created if you click.
    
13. Click at the first point you’d like a connection point. Now click the other points on the graphic you’d like a connection point. We added four:
    
14. Now click File and select Close. Click Yes to update the Master. Click Yes to save the changes of the stencil. If need be, reopen the stencil.
15. Drag and drop the new shape onto the drawing page. You’ll see some added connection points on it:
    
16. Congratulations! You’ve created a new master shape.

Closing a Stencil

You can close a stencil to remove it from view and make room for other stencils. When you select a different stencil, the stencil you are in automatically minimizes to reduce space.

1. Right-click on the title bar of the stencil you want to close.
2. Select Close.

Opening a Stencil

You can open any number of stencils to add shapes to your Visio drawing. There are three types of stencils: my stencils, built-in and custom. Each of these can be access through the same menu.

1. Click on the File menu and select Shapes.
2. Select My Shapes if you want to access a stencil you’ve created.
3. Select one of the categories of built-in stencils if you’d like to access one of the stencils Microsoft has created.
4. Click Open Stencil at the bottom if you’d like to access a third party stencil you’ve acquired.

Once you open the stencil, it appears in the Shapes panel on the left side of the Visio screen.

In the Next Section

In the next section of this free Microsoft Visio 2007 tutorial, you will learn how to work with shapes – inserting new ones, formatting them, and managing ones you’ve added.