Stencil Global Variables

[Rig24]

Not sure how to word this one.  I have a Visio document that has about 40 tabs in it.  On each tab there are certain shapes and text boxes that need to be the same on each tab.  The bad part is that from time to time, those common shapes need to be updates.  Is there a way I can have a global variable set so I only have to change it in one place?

[Paul Herber]

Yes, quite easy:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/visio/archive/2005/05/18/47514.aspx
Create a user cell in the Document shape sheet then reference that cell in your shapes.

[aledlund]

John Goldsmith also had an article on that
http://visualsignals.typepad.co.uk/vislog/2011/11/shapes-with-global-values.html
al

[Rig24]

This works.  Thanks!

[Rig24]

follow up question.  I am putting in text for a User-defined cell "value", and it works fine.  Is it possible to put in line breaks?

[aledlund]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by line breaks
al

[JohnGoldsmith]

I'll have a stab at this.  Do you mean a carriage return?  If so you can use the CHAR() ShapeSheet function.  For example:

User.MyText ="Sausage and"&CHAR(10)&"mash"

...will give you:

Sausage and
mash

[In actual fact, 10 equates to line feed rather than carriage return (13)]

Best regards

John

[aledlund]

thanks John, there's something flaky happening with the web-site where an error message overlays some of the text in the thread.
al

[Rig24]

Again, thanks!  Appreciate the help.

[Paul Herber]

thanks John, there's something flaky happening with the web-site where an error message overlays some of the text in the thread.
al

It's only where ads show when not logged in, the page is fine in every browser (Firefox, Opera, Safari) except IE.

[aledlund]

"It's only where ads show when not logged in"
that would explain it
al