Saving and modifying the stencil
At this point, the stencil is in edit mode. (You can tell by the red asterisk that appears in the stencil icon next to the stencil name.)
You can’t take the stencil out of edit mode until you save it. To do that, right-click on the stencil title bar, as shown in Figure C, and select Save As.
Since this will be a separate file, you can save it anywhere. However, it will be most useful within Visio if you save it in the Program Files\Visio\Solutions\Network Diagrams folder. Once you have done that, you can toggle the stencil between edit mode and read-only mode.
| Figure C |
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Even after you save a stencil with a specific name, that name won't appear in the stencil's title bar. The name that appears in the title bar is a feature of the stencil's properties. To change its properties, right-click on the title bar and select Properties to open a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure D.
| Figure D |
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As you can see, I changed the title that appears in the title bar to Switch Ports and added a category and a description. You'll also notice that I specified several keywords. This is helpful because Visio includes a feature called Shape Explorer, which allows you to search for masters based on keywords. To use Shape Explorer, click on Tools | Macros | Shape Explorer.
Modifying the master
The last step in this process is to modify the properties of the master itself. When you right-click on the master within the stencil, you'll see the menu shown in Figure E.
| Figure E |
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In addition to setting properties for the master, this menu will allow you to edit the master or even edit the icon that represents the master. In my case, all I needed to do was change the name of the master from Master.0 to something more useful. Since I wanted to create four of these, representing ports 1-48, I changed the name to Module 1, as shown in Figure F.
| Figure F |
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Summary
Microsoft Visio is not a restrictive “take-it-or-leave-it” program. By enabling you to create your own stencils and masters, it lets you do exactly what you want it to do. And since the stencils are created as separate files, you can share the stencils and masters within your office or e-mail them to fellow admins so that they can use them in their own Visio diagrams.
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Posted by Bkelly on Tuesday, November 14 2006 07:49 AM