Visio Advanced 2021: Custom Stencils and Master Shapes

Name: Visio Advanced 2021: Custom Stencils and Master Shapes
Author: Ali Green

Create, customize, and save stencils in Visio to use in later projects.

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 3 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Hello, this is Ali Green, and in this lesson we're going to add shapes to our favorite stencil. Whenever we're talking about our stencil, our stencil is a container for our shapes. Let's get started. We'll come up to file at the top and we'll come down to open. And we're gonna navigate to our Knowledge City files, so our Visio Advanced Knowledge City. Come on over to the right and click on browse. And within the folder, we're going to click on our adding shapes to the favorite stencil. And let's hit open. So we've opened up our file and our file is our human resources, hiring a candidate process. We're gonna zoom out just a bit so we can see the entire file. And over on the left we have our basic flow chart shapes and our cross-functional flow chart shapes. Let's open up our favorites. So at the top, we'll click on more shapes and we have a bunch of different stencils we can choose from. We'll come on over to my shapes and we'll click on favorites. And that's gonna open up our favorites. Now with the favorites, our shapes will get saved in our favorites, and we can always come back whenever we're opening the new file and use these shapes again and again. So let's come up to our basic flow chart shapes. And if we have basic flow chart shapes that we're using very frequently, we're going to add those to the favorites. So come down the process, which process is very frequently used. We're gonna right click on process and there's a list that's gonna pop up. We're gonna come up to add to my shapes and we have our favorites. Let's click on favorites. And if we click away from our basic flow chart shapes and click back on favorites, we now have our process shape which can easily just be added to our page. Let's add a few more shapes. Come up to basic flow chart. We'll scroll down and we'll add our decision and our start and our end. So we'll grab our decision, right click, add to shapes, add it to the favorites, right click on start and end, come up to add to shapes and add to favorites as well. So if we click away from our basic flow chart and again on favorites, there's our shapes. Let's add shapes from another stencil, some basic shapes. Come up to more shapes and our list of stencils will pop up. We'll come up to general and basic shapes. So we have our basic shapes. Let's click on square. Right click. Add to the favorites. Circle, add to favorites. Pentagon, add to favorites. And if we click on our basic shapes and click back on favorites, we have our favorite shapes and they've been added. So what if we change our mind about our shapes and we want to remove shapes from the favorites? So we'll come up to our favorites. We'll right click. And we'll come down to edit stencil. And with edit stencil, we can select our process. Right click. Click on delete master. And that's gonna take the shape away from the favorites. We can also click on circle, right click, delete master, as well as pentagon. Right click, delete master. And we're gonna save to our favorites. And before we save to our favorites, we're gonna right click and we'll reset the stencil. And we'll hit save. And we'll click on basic shapes. Click back on our favorites. And there's our shapes. So when we open up a new template, these will be the only shapes in our favorites. So we've opened up our favorite stencil and we've added shapes to our favorites. We've also removed shapes from our favorite stencil. Thank you guys for watching and I'll see you in the next lesson.

Advanced Provider : Ali Green 3 Lessons · 14m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

In these lessons, we will explore how to save shapes to a customized stencil to use later on. Customized stencils are great because they can be used in the present diagram we are working in, then imported into other diagrams for later use. We’ll also show you how to save your shapes to the Favorites stencil so that you always have the same shapes available no matter which template you have open. This can be especially helpful for when you need to use a limited number of shapes and want to make those shapes easy to find.

You’ll also learn how to share custom stencils across your organization by saving a stencil and emailing it to other colleagues or team members. Finally, you’ll learn how customized Stencils can be organized by theme, based on the shapes you add to them.

What You'll Learn

Save shapes to the Favorites stencil so the same shapes are available across any open template
Create a custom stencil to reuse shapes in the current diagram and import into other diagrams later
Export and open custom stencils in new templates and other projects
Share custom stencils across your organization by saving a stencil and emailing it to colleagues or team members
Organize customized stencils by theme based on the shapes you add to them

Key Takeaways

Customized stencils can be used in the current diagram and then imported into other diagrams for later use.
Saving shapes to the Favorites stencil keeps the same shapes available no matter which template is open, which helps when you need a limited number of shapes that are easy to find.
Custom stencils can be shared across an organization by saving a stencil and emailing it to colleagues or team members.
Customized stencils can be organized by theme based on the shapes added to them.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this Visio Advanced 2021 course cover?

It covers saving shapes to a customized stencil for later use, saving shapes to the Favorites stencil so they are available in any template, sharing custom stencils across your organization by emailing a saved stencil, and organizing customized stencils by theme based on the shapes you add.

What lessons are included?

The course includes three lessons: Adding Shapes to the Favorites Stencil, Create a Custom Stencil, and Open a Custom Stencil in a New Template.

Why use customized stencils in Visio?

Customized stencils can be used in the diagram you are currently working in and then imported into other diagrams later, and the Favorites stencil keeps the same shapes available no matter which template you have open.

How can I share a custom stencil with my team?

You can share custom stencils across your organization by saving a stencil and emailing it to other colleagues or team members.

What skills does this course relate to?

It relates to skills including Microsoft Visio, Stenciling, Visual Modeling, Visual Objects, Auxiliary View Drawing, and Microsoft Photodraw.