Getting shape instances to update when master's dimensions are changed

[Captain Pugwash]

I have a shape master that is a rectange with some text inside it.
When I edit it to make it longer (to fit more text in it), the instances of
the master on the page do not update.
Can anyone help me with this please?

Many thanks.

 

[Russ McKenna]

You might be editing the wrong master.

Stencil files have masters, you drag these to your drawing. Visio creates a
local master and uses this for your shapes. If you edit a stencil shape, it
will not change the local master, or instances of the shape. If you change
the local master, it will update the instances. Use drawing explorer to view
your local masters.

 

[dani]

Hi Captain

You have to show the document stencil (File->Stencils->Document
Stencil), and then edit the master there.
Then, all instances will be updated.

Then you may drag the edited master on the document stencil to your
stencil containing the master that you actually wanted to change and
replace it.

Hope this helps

Daniel

 

[Captain Pugwash]

Well, I tried both of these ideas, and it still didn't work. I have been
changing the master in the document stencil all the time. I have
successfully changed other properties in the master and got it to update all
instances automatically, but it just seems to be the Width & Height
properties in the Shape Transform section that do not update on the
instances.

I need it to update all the instances of the shapes automatically, as there
are about 500 of them; so dragging out new instances from a new master is
not really an option.

Any other ideas???

Pugwash

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Editing a master will not update cells in the instance shape that have been
locally overridden. If you look at the Shapesheet, local values are shown
in blue while inherited values are black. It is quite possible that common
cells like Width and Height are local in your shapes.

Another way to update your instances is to select all of them and open the
Size & Position window from the View menu. You can type in a single value
and update every shape at once.