Microsoft Visio 2007

Creating a Visio Drawing from a Template

You can also create a drawing from a template. This is very useful if you create many of the same types of documents or you need a starting place to save time when you create a document. There are a number of templates available on the Internet and you can also create your own templates. A template can help define a structure for your Visio drawing so that everyone creating a drawing follows the same rules. For example, if you have a standard rack in your datacenter, you could define a template with the rack drawn out for network technicians to fill in shapes of the servers.

We’re going to create a new Visio drawing based on a room template – a 40ft x 28ft room with a 2ft snap grid. We found the template at VisioCafe.com.

1. Click the File menu.
2. Click New and then click New Drawing from Template.
3. A dialog box opens. Navigate to the template file, in our example, Floor-Layout.vst
   
4. Click on the template file and click Open.
5. Your template is now open:
   

Templates are immensely useful if you’re creating many of the same types of documents or you want to place controls around how your drawings are constructed.