Document Stencil: a special stencil that contains masters for the shapes contained in a Visio drawing The mystery behind why changing the properties of a master does not update all of its derivative shapes lies in the existence of the document stencil, and is compounded by the fact that the document stencil is hidden by default whenever you start Visio. Consequently, many people aren’t aware that it even exists, let alone know of the critical role it plays when you want to change one master and have all instances inherit the changes. Here’s what happens when you drag and drop in Visio. When you drag a master from a stencil onto the drawing page, Visio creates a copy of the master in the document stencil. When you drag another instance of the same master into the drawing, Visio actually uses the copy in the document stencil to create the next shape instance. In essence, the document stencil contains the working copy of each master that you've used at least once in a drawing.

If you subsequently make changes to the master in the original stencil and drag an instance onto the page, Visio creates a new copy of that master in the document stencil. You end up with shapes on the page that are linked to two different masters even though you started with only one and then edited it. In direct contrast, if you edit any of the masters in the document stencil you will be offered the option to 'update all instances' derived from that master. To really understand what is going on you need to open the document stencil.

Hia folks I need to make some military org charts, using standard NATO/US symbols to depic unit types. I wanted to use VISIO, but I can't find. Visio Tank Shapes August 30, 2013 By Visio Guy 3 Comments A customer recently saw the Battle Zone post, and contacted me regarding “tank shapes” for Visio.

Save the master changes and click Yes when asked whether to update instances. The result of Test Three is that the shape on the drawing page retains its unique color but it inherits the new line color from the updated master. What’s happening here is that the edited instance on the drawing page is still linked to the master in the document stencil, however, when you edit an attribute in a shape you break the link for that specific attribute. Conclusion As are result of the tests above we can see that: 1) Making changes to a master in a stencil does not affect any drawing page shapes that were derived from that master. 2) Making changes to a master in the document stencil gives you the option to apply the changes to all derived shapes.

Easy peasy high school. Conclusion #1 is the biggest source of confusion for people who create custom masters – it’s the opposite of the behavior they expect. Conclusion #2 makes sense – once you know of the existence of the document stencil. A final note: At the conclusion of Test Two above, you have updated a master in the document stencil along with its instances on the drawing page. You have not updated the master shape in your original custom stencil. If you want the changes you’ve made to become permanent for all new instances that you drop onto the page, drag the updated master from the document stencil to your custom stencil and delete the original, unchanged master. References 1) About the document stencil: 2) Enabling the Developer Tab in Visio 2010.