Use Format Painter across pages?

[sphealey]

Visio Professional 2003 SP2 on XP SP2

Is there any way to use Format Painter across pages?  Searching here and on the web the only suggestion I have found is to copy the shape with the desired format to the 2nd page, use it for Format Painting, and then delete it.  For my currently need that will work because most of the shapes need the same format change, but I can easily see having 27 individual formats that need to be copied to another page.

Thanks.

sPh

[Visio Guy]

Hi SPH,

Good observation! I tried opening two windows but that didn't work. It seems as though each window remembers which tool you were using. I suppose that makes sense, but won't help you so much.

The copy-shape idea is a good one. Here's a suggestion to make it easier to handle your 27 cases:

1. Make 27 rectangles
2. Give them all the formatting you need.
3. Group them together (Ctrl + G)
4. Copy or move the whole group to whichever page you need to do formatting work on.

You don't even need to ungroup the shapes to use the format painter. You can sub-select one rectangle and the painter will still work.

You subselect by first clicking the group, pausing slightly, then clicking on one of the sub-shapes. You'll see lighter-colored shape handles that help to indicate that you've selected a shape in the group.

[sphealey]

Thanks!  I appreciate your time and the hints.

sPh