Sync independent shapes with timeline so they show the date?

[abssorb]

Interesting, thanks for that Wapperdude. I tried adding those references.

A problem I have is I want to say, "hey little shape, always get your information from the background, no matter where you are".  The formula you have in the attachment suggests this should work, but when I create a new foreground page and copy / paste drag from menu or whatever method - My shapes always end up with REF entries in the formulae.  The shapes stop working.

My workaround is that the shape gets its information from the current page. And the current page properties get their info in turn from the background page.

At present this works - see attached.  Edit (couldn't add - will make a second post).

That way when I create a new page, only the 4x page properties I use have REF entries in them. When I fix these, these shapes all work again.  But I wish that when I create a new page, the page properties would not break. I can fix it, but the people I share the template with won't be able to.
The really weird thing is though - that the shapes continue to work even though the page properties are broken.

[abssorb]

Attachment re above Page properties.

Actually the content of this sample describe a different problem I'm working on about grouping of the shapes, but the REF problem can be replicated using this visio file and creating a new page.

Hopefully other people will find this useful also.

Edit:  Ah. Can't attach without zipping - the page just times out.  It's only 163k.

[abssorb]

I've been trying to get the grouping working for a while now.  I've explored LOCTOLOC and LOCTOPAR but can't get a result.

I can now sync independent shapes with timeline and they show the date, but this breaks when the shapes are grouped.  Grouping is pretty essential for the use it'll be put to.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[Jumpy]

What came to mind while reading this thread. Have you renamed the pages sometime in the process?
If you rename a page more than one time you'll get trouble with Name vs. NameU and NameU is what's used in the ShapeSheet as reference (if you don't use NameID like for example Sheet.123).

To the grouped shape problem. You want a shape to be synced to the timeline so that it's position on the page depends its date (like above) even if that shape is part of the group? Than you have to translate it's PinX coordinates that are coordinates of the group to coordinates of the page - Is that the problem you tryed to solve with LocToLoc  and family?

The Formula is "PinX of the group" - "LocPinX of the group" + "PinX of the shape in the group"

[abssorb]

Thanks   Useful info.

I saw threads on the NameU and I don't think I'm running into that problem just yet as there's only going to be one background sheet.

Re groups,  I tried your advice but then that breaks if the group is ungrouped and turned back into individual shapes again, or if a parent group is created and this becomes a sub-group.

I imagine that if I get the page x,y, involved this won't break so easily?