Convert shape to another shape with data

[lanzelot83]

Hello
I have Office 2013 professional.
I try to convert a Rectangle (with Text) shape to a self-made shape (2 rectangles. one left, one right).

What I tryied:
First I did my own shape. Did 2 rectangles and drag and dropped it to "My Shapes" where I made "Add new stancil".

When I try to conver the rectangel to my own Shape, it copies the text to the whole shape instead of putting it to the right shape




What I expect:


I tried right click on shape --> Data --> Define shape Data --> sort Key
and gave 10 to the right, 20 to the left and 30 to the whole shape

unfortunately it did not copy the text to the right rectangel. It copied the text to the whole shape

Question: How can I convert a rectangel to my own shape with copying the text to the right rectangel?

I a very happy for good information. Spent the whole afternoon in finding a solution.

[wapperdude]

How did you make you make your new shape?  Sounds like it's a group shape.  How did you transfer the data over to the new shape?

To put the info into the right shape, you need to reference that shape, not just the top, group shape.

BTW, which version of Visio?

Wapperdude

[lanzelot83]

Thanks for your answer, wapperdude!
The visio version is: Microsoft Visio Professional 2013

The reference is exactly what goes wrong. How can I do the reference correctly? I only found the "Sort Key" to give an order, but not a reference.

How did I make the new shape:
I drag and droped the 2 rectangels together to "Favorites". This is under Shapes --> Stencils

How can I do a shape with correct references correctly?

Thanks for your information

[wapperdude]

It's still unclear how you're trying to put the info into the shape?

Is this shape data in some existing shape that you want to copy to your new shape.  Is it data from an external source?  What are the steps that you go thru once you drop your new shape onto the page?

Wapperdude

[lanzelot83]

I did a document with shapes with drag and drop and typing text in it. In the example case: "This is my text123".
Because I have more than 200 rectangle shapes in my document I just want change. I would like to quick exchange the rectangel with the self-created shape with this 2 rectangels.

I do not know how to change the shape with copying the text directly in the right rectangel.

Note: I am not a high level visio user. I just use drag and drop. I think, the solution is maybe not that complicated.

[wapperdude]

It's more involved than simply dragging and dropping new shapes on the page.

Your 200 rectangle shapes each have unique text, so 1st problem is letting your newly dropped shape know which shape it's replacing.
Second, when you drag your shapes from the stencil, Visio makes them a group.  Any text added gets applied to the group, not to individual sub-shapes of that group.
At any rate, the recipient rectangle must be specifically identified so Visio knows where to put the text.

I don't have newer version of Visio, so I don't know if there is a shape replace method or not.   This might allow easy transfer of text.

It sounds like there will have to be some code development, to identify the source and target shapes, and then to do the text transfer.

[JohnGoldsmith]

@lanzelot83 do you have a demo dock that we could look at?

@wapperdude - this was a new feature in 2013 (https://blogs.office.com/2012/10/10/insights-for-developers-about-change-shape/) although I don't think it's got a lot of airtime.

Best regards

John

[wapperdude]

@JohnGoldsmith
Thanks for the info John.  I'll try to keep this in mind, but, as V2007 user of advancing maturity  , I may forget.   

That link should prove to be useful!

Wapperdude