Stencils & Master Shapes

[Jennifer]

Some time ago, I got some help here with stencils. I forgot to write down the steps I took and that was with Visio 2007. I now have Visio 2019 and I am having problems again. I have a somewhat complicated shape involving a 2MB graphic image. I need to make a a bunch of pages with that shape as the background. I think what I want to do is create a stencil and then add that shape as a master shape. Am I on the right track so far?

Here's what I did and the problems I had.

• Create the background graphic shape. It consists of several different shapes. Should I make them into a group first?
• Create the stencil. Click Developer, then New Stencil. A new entry appeared in the Shapes window as Stencil3. I just noticed that I could have clicked on More Shapes in the Shapes window and then selected New Stencil.
• Rename the stencil. Right-click Stencil3 and select Properties. In the Summary tab, type the new name (XYZ) in the Title field. Click OK.
• I notice a diskette icon next to XYZ, which I assume means I need to save it. I click on that icon. It opens up a Save As dialog positioned at the "\Documents\My Shapes" folder. I type "XYZ" over "Stencil3.vssx" and click Save. The diskette icon changes to a red asterisk. I have a couple of other stencils from a long time ago. None of them have asterisks. Is there anything I need to do?
• Now I am stuck. I tried dragging the background shape over to the XYZ stencil (with the asterisk), but I get the "no entry" icon (black circle with the diagonal bar). I tried clicking and right-clicking on XYZ, but I cannot figure out how to add that shape to the stencil.

I would appreciate any help.

Thanks

-jm

[vojo]

might be better to put that big shape on a background page and reference it on foreground pages

home==>design==> lower right of page ==> page proprieties

stencil
   - create background shape:   if you really want to do it this, keep group
   - asterisks means you have made changes to this given stencil but have not saved it
        right clik ==>  save or save as
   - to add to stencil....should be just drag over....try it with a simple square
        you need to right click stencil and make sure its set to editable
        (later you can right click the square in stencil and delete it from stencil)
        next ...try putting a small image and a square as a group....drag over
        I have saved images to stencil (not 2MB though)...so that works.

I am on visio teams 365...there are other issues with visio 365....but not in this area