Stencil <> Shape Relationship

[oompa_l]

hi
when I make changes to a master shape in a stencil, these changes do not update in a shape that has already been placed on the page. is that normal? I assumed the whole point of the stencil was to maintain control over all instances. If this isn't normal, does anybody have ideas why this is happening?

thanks

[Lars-Erik]

Hey Oompa_l,

This is the normal behaviour of Visio. After you drag a shape from a stencil to a document, Visio creates a local mastershape within the document. If you want to edit all the instances of that shape in the document you should edit the instance saved within the document and not the one within the stencil.

You can find a discussion about the linking of stencils and document masters here
To edit the local stencils you will have to look them up using the document explorer, information about that is over here

- Lars

[Visio Guy]

oompa_l,

The document stencil is located under File > Shapes > Show Document Stencil, to get you going.

If you edit masters in external files, then no changes will happen in your document. You have to edit the local copies, like LE says.

[oompa_l]

thanks to both of you...such simple things have been wracking my brain.