Openning a .vss file in Visio ActiveX?

[Gilgil0886]

I am using a Visio ActiveX component hosted in a form. Is there a way
to open a stencil so that the ActiveX itself shows only the stencil?
(similar to what happens when you double click a .vss file)?

Thanks,
Gil

 

[Chris Roth [MVP]]

Wow Gil! Good question!

I've never tried this. I wouldn't be suprised if you *can't* do this. The
Visio control seems very very document-centric. Before you even start, you
have a blank Visio drawing open! I tried closing the document and got an
error "The document can't be closed while doing in-place editing"

You *can* open a stencl file (*.vss), but Visio will just show the drawing
that is in the stencil. Every Visio file contains a drawing page and a
stencil. The file extensions .vss and .vsd just instruct Visio what to show.
Normally, the drawing page in a stencil is blank.


--
Hope this helps,

Chris Roth
Visio MVP

www.wanderkind.com/visio

 

[JuneTheSecond]

By the way, how would you mind just open a stencil with Shell command.
It iis open outside the form.
Shell("C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Visio11\VISIO.EXE C:\Documents and
Settings\yoda\My Documents\MyStencil.vss")

 

[Gilgil0886]

Thanks for your replies!

The reason I am trying to do this, is a look & feel change we try to
make in our application. I tried but couldn't change the look & colors
of the tabs, scroller etc. in the Shapes Window, and so I decided to
create my own Tab Control, each page hosting a Visio ActiveX control
with a different stencil (custom made 'Shapes' window...).
I guess the only solution now would be to create a stencil-like
document, and catch the events to make it act like a stencil...

 

[Chris Roth [MVP]]

Hey Gil,

You could open the stencils "invisibly" either by hiding the shapes window,
or by actually setting using visOpenHidden with OpenEx.

Then, you could build your own list box or tree control, etc. that shows the
masters that you want. Using IDataObject on drag and drop, you can set the
drag-data with a Visio master object. In this way, you can make any kind of
"stencil" that you want!


--
Hope this helps,

Chris Roth
Visio MVP

www.wanderkind.com/visio