Sharing space for Visio Shape

[awa123]

Hello,

I would like to know if there is a main website for sharing all types of visio shape for free

For example if i would like a 'pallet' shape or whatever, it would be nice to find it easily in a free users sharing space

I think that kind of website is probably already existing

Thanks

[wapperdude]

Largest repository of Visio stencils:  http://www.visiocafe.com/

Additional sites, just Google Visio shapes
Various manufacturers also offer stencils / shapes of their equipment.  Especially true for IT shapes, audio gear.

[Paul Herber]

Many stencil designers have their own selection of free shapes, Visio Guy has his own, there is a category on this very forum for such shapes, John Marshall has his, I've got mine, Microsoft have their own selection. Microsoft even created a repository of free and commercially available third-party shapes called Office Marketplace, but that didn't last two years.

[Surrogate]

Few years i shared my stencils at MS TechNet Gallery, but they closed this resource
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/teamblog/technet-gallery-retirement

[Nikolay]

Theoretically, this could be a useful resource.
I mean something a bit more modern than visiocafe, a site similar to those for icon/image search, like icofinder for example.
At least some shape preview and search by keyword/tag could be nice.

BTW, what happened to Visio shapes on the Office Marketplace? I thought it is still alive? Was it closed down?

[wapperdude]

I suppose that having a Shapes Cafe category would be nice.  Not sure how much effort / maintainable / security would be needed.  It seems a potential issue is that a Visio shape could be Trojan horse.

The forum already hosts a wide range of shapes from serious to whimsical.  They're just. Not nicely cataloged.

[Paul Herber]

BTW, what happened to Visio shapes on the Office Marketplace? I thought it is still alive? Was it closed down?

All closed down with no notice. No chance to edit or remove items beforehand. Left me with many dangling URLs (humorous comebacks below, please) which annoyed me intensely.

[Surrogate]

It seems a potential issue is that a Visio shape could be Trojan horse.

Hi, Wapperdude ! What do you mean?

[Paul Herber]

It seems a potential issue is that a Visio shape could be Trojan horse.

Hi, Wapperdude ! What do you mean?

Surely you know the story of the wooden horse left at the gates of Troy.
Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand shapesheets.
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes - it's either beware geeks bearing gifts, or instructions from a football coach, keep Timeo Danaos out on the left wing and put Dona Ferentes in goal.

P.S. Visio - if shapes were only in .vssx format stencil (so no macros) then they should be safe. I've never heard of any way to put malicious code in a Visio shape, but who knows.

[Surrogate]

I also dont know ways how put malicious code in a Visio shape (when used vssx-format).
I've been experimenting a bit, with the goal of protecting my stencils with Shapesheet. It's probably theoretically possible, but it doesn't make practical sense. No one wants my stencils, absolutely no one wants to steal them

[wapperdude]

It was just a thought.  Sort of stream of unconsciousness!  😱😂

[Paul Herber]

I've never heard of any way to put malicious code in a Visio shape, but who knows.

Had a thought: a specially crafted image could be used within a shape to cause a buffer overflow (or similar) that could then be used in a malicious way. <end of thinks>

[vojo]

could somebody use the user defined functions in a shape user cell to alter the page settings.
While this could be unwound back to correct settings, a laymen would have a hard time figuring out the problem.
(I hope this post does NOT spawn the dark angels of our nature into bad acts).

[Paul Herber]

A shapesheet from the Dark Side:
just duplicate the shape on the page (copy/paste or Ctrl-D to duplicate) and it's goodbye to the page (you can't even undo!)

[Surrogate]

just duplicate the shape on the page (copy/paste or Ctrl-D to duplicate) and it's goodbye to the page (you can't even undo!)

This "horrible" trick works ! But how many users these days know about the "dark power" of ShapeSheet ?

I think there are a few hundred people in the world who can do this joke 
Every year their number decreases ... Fortunately or not ?