Hide/Protect Background Pages

Started by OJ McSplodge, July 18, 2008, 01:48:16 PM

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OJ McSplodge

 ??? I currently use Visio for all my drawings. At the moment, I have one background page and usually around 10 foreground pages.

The background page has the set border that I want to show on each foreground page. The border incorporates normal CAD view boxes that show drawers name, ref number, date etc. To save time in filling each page out, I have setup and linked each box on the border to input i.e. drawers name, date, ref number from the properties/summary part of the document - this way, the same text, spellings are all the same for every page. Whatever the Tab is named on the drawing, this is automatically inserted into the drawing name box of the foreground page. (hope this make sense)

My problems is, I now need to be able to hide the background page from being edited by someone else. I can do this the basic way by opening 'Drawing Explorer', then 'Shapesheet' and changing the UIVisibility from 0 to 1 (hidden) but then this doesnt stop someone changing it back from 1 to O (visible). The option does remove the background tab at the bottom but if the drawing explorer box is opened again from scratch, it shows the background page there.

My questions is, is there a VBA script or someother way in which, once my drawing is complete, I can run the script and it will hide the Background page altogether, or set it so that a password must be used to enable a change in the script.

I am not bothered about them changing the drawings on each foreground page, just want to hide the background page (border and important info). Obviously, password protecting shapes etc is not available with Visio 2007, so need to find another way to protect certain aspects of these drawings.

I tried to attached an example of template, but when zipped, it is still 400kb and too large. Any ideas on the template though would be gratefully accepted, especially on a way of not having to use the properties box (File/properties) to input data - would prefer to have it on the background sheet and then linked to the border boxes in someway but not actually show the input box on the foreground pages....

I would be most grateful for any help - I have no knowledge of VBA scripts etc, but would like to learn.

Many thanks in advance

wapperdude

There are several steps that can be used which will make it difficult to edit the background page, but, not impossible.  This is sort of a layered approach (no pun intended).

1.)  Select everything on the background page and create a group. 
      a.)  Then right click the group and select format > protection.  Check all of the placement, rotation, etc features.  This will lock down the group.
      b.)  Right click the group again, format>behavior.  In the selection box, choose Group only.
      c.)  Again right click, this time select format>layers.  Create a new layer, say "background"

2.)  Go to the menu bar > View > Layer Properties.  Select the lock option.

If someone wants to mess with the background, they'll have to undo these steps.

HTH
Wapperdude
Visio 2019 Pro