Create Custom Stencils and Working with Master Shapes in Visio

Name: Create Custom Stencils and Working with Master Shapes in Visio
Author: Elissa Smith

Discover how to use custom and pre-created stencils and master shapes

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 10 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Hello, welcome to Advanced Visio. In this class, we're going to create a custom stencil. Now right now, I have my shapes task pane open and I can see the current, again, categories of stencils that are here. To create one of my own, I'm going to go to the More Shapes button and click on the arrow at the side and come down. Third from the bottom, I'll see that I can create a new stencil based on US units or one on metric. I'm going to select US units. My new stencil is just going to be called Stencil17 or Stencil15, but I can rename it. To do that, I'm going to right click on it and come down to Save As. These will save locally on your computer so that you can access them. I'm going to go ahead and give it a name, MyFavoritea-2021, and then click on Save, and it will rename my new custom stencil. Right now it doesn't have any shapes. Now one option. If there is a shape in your current drawing you'd like to add to the stencil. You can actually click on that shape and left drag it and drop it over your stencil. The problem with that though is that it removes it from your drawing. So another option is to undock the stencil. To do this, I'm going to right click on the stencil's name and come down to Float Window. This basically takes the stencil and puts it in its own separate dialog that can be, again, removed from the shapes pane, but kept open. Now to add some other shapes, I'm going to come in and click on Categories or Stencils that I'd like to add into my custom stencil and just drag these shapes on. In this case, it doesn't remove them, it just allows me to create a copy of it and add it to my own stencil. So you can see here how going through these different categories and finding the different, again, items that I want to add, and I'm just dragging them on and adding them to this stencil of my own. Now this stencil, I can actually take it and left drag it to over to the other side and dock it separately. I can also take it and add it to the bottom of my current shapes pane, but you'll notice that it's going to be part of the stencils that I currently have open. Thanks so much for watching. In the next lesson, we're going to look at more ways that you can, again, edit this custom stencil. Stay tuned.

Advanced Provider : Elissa Smith 10 Lessons · 28m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

This course covers creating and applying stencils and master shapes to diagrams. It illustrates how to create personal stencils and how to import stencils into diagrams. It then dives deep into different stencil functions and shows how to use the master shape tool within stencils.

What You'll Learn

Create custom stencils and add shapes to them in Microsoft Visio
Import pre-created stencils into diagrams
Open, manage, and remove shapes from custom stencils
Use the master shape tool to create and manage master shapes within stencils
Edit master shape properties and apply master shape commands
Add or delete master shapes within diagrams, including using the Document and Favorites stencils

Key Takeaways

The course covers creating and applying stencils and master shapes to diagrams in Microsoft Visio.
It shows how to create personal stencils and how to import stencils into diagrams.
It explores different stencil functions, including the Document Stencil and the Favorites Stencil.
It demonstrates using the master shape tool within stencils, including creating, editing, and deleting master shapes.
It explains how to add or delete master shapes within diagrams.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this course cover?

It covers creating and applying stencils and master shapes to diagrams, including creating personal stencils, importing stencils into diagrams, exploring different stencil functions, and using the master shape tool within stencils.

What will I learn to do with stencils?

You will learn how to create custom stencils, import pre-created stencils, open and manage custom stencils, and remove shapes from them. The course also covers the Document Stencil and the Favorites Stencil.

What will I learn about master shapes?

You will learn how to use the master shape within stencils, create and manage master shapes in a custom stencil, use master shape commands, edit master shape properties, and add or delete master shapes within diagrams.

What software and skills does this course focus on?

It focuses on Microsoft Visio and covers skills such as diagramming software, stenciling, arrow diagramming methods, VISI (CAD/CAM software), and visual modeling.