Guide Lines in Master Shapes

[Michelle]

Can I place guide lines in a master and have them show up when the master is placed on the drawing sheet?  Can I then control when the lines are shown and not shown? 

I know I can actually draw lines and control their visibility, I was just wondering if I could do the same with guide lines.  My first try has guide lines in the master, but they do not show up when it's placed on the sheet.

TIA!
Michelle

[Visio Guy]

Hi Michele,

Visio Masters deliver a single shape onto the Visio page. If you select several shapes and drag them onto a stencil, you will create a master that consists of several shapes. But when you drag this new master onto a drawing page, Visio will group the contents just before they are dropped. By convention, shape developers pre-group multi-component shapes before turning them into masters.

So, yes, your master can contain guides, but you won't see them, because they get buried inside of the group. If you open the group, the guides will be there. You can also ungroup a master instance after it is dropped on a page. You will get a scary warning about "severing the link to the master", but it is not as bad as it sounds. After the instance is ungrouped, you will see your guides!