I'm pretty new to advanced Visio usage.
I have a master stencil shape which is a container holding various other shapes. I want some data to be filled out on drop for an instance of this shape. I then want to modify the header of the container to use this entered data. Additionally, I want to be able to walk through the document and easily associate this entered data with values in the shapes contained in the container. Is this possible?
1) Set up the required properties in the shape data section.
2) Select the container, in menu "insert" chose field and insert the desired field.
3) Displaying values of the parent shape in sub-shapes is likewise easy. Find out the ID of the parent shape (*) and repeat step "2" with the following difference: chose custom formula and type in "sheet.N!prop.A". Where N is the ID of the parent shape and A the desired property.
* The container is named "Plain". Its actual ID can be found by opening its shapesheet and inserting an arbitrary cell (eg user cell) the formula "ID()".
On step 3, however, I don't know the instance value in the stencil. I want this to be coded into the stencil and taken care of on a drop. Is that just impossible?
No, it's feasable. Once you've correctly prepared the shape, you can store it as master in the stencil.
Check my previous attachment.