Changing style of Windows UI Controls templates

[John Distai]

Hi,

I work with the Windows UI Controls shapes quite frequently, and appreciate all the features.  As an example of the features, the "List Box" shape has the ability to show enabled and disabled states, display vertical and horizontal scroll bars, and enable or disable those scroll bars.  These items can be changed through the right-click menu.

I'd like to modify these shapes to change some of the line and background colors, but I'd still like to keep the features.  Any idea how I modify these templates?
I've tried "Edit Master" and all I see is a blank screen.  Any help is appreciated!


Thanks!

[Paul Herber]

Probably not a good idea to edit the masters directly, better by far to copy the shape to a new stencil.
First, drop the shape onto a page, try using the Themes or Fill and Line drop-downs to give the styles you want, then create a new stencil (exact menus depend on which Visio version you have), drop your modified shape into the stencil and save it into the My Shapes folder.

[John Distai]

I tried that.  No luck.  I can change the color if I ungroup the object.  However, I lose the right click menu functionality for enabling and disabling.

Would a change in a ShapeSheet be necessary?

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

[Paul Herber]

Which version of Visio? The instructions I gave were for Visio 2010, other versions are different.

[John Distai]

I have Visio Pro 2010.  I had to copy the shapes from Visio Pro 2007.

[Paul Herber]

Ah, the Visio 2007 shapes are *very* different.
Open the drawing explorer window, find the shape on the appropriate page, expand the shape, the 1st and 2nd items are the ones you want, select each part in turn within the explorer window and then ribbon Developer -> Protection, and remove format protection. Repeat for the next item. The first item provides the foreground colour, the 2nd provides the border. Select the individual parts and use the Fill control on the ribbon.

[John Distai]

Thanks. 

That allowed me to edit it.  When I closed the modified shape it asked me to update all instances of the original Master.  I couldn't save otherwise.

How do I make a copy of the master so that when I modify it I don't foul up the original?