Template behaviors?

[Elizabeth]

I am trying to design a Visio template that I can post on a network,
which will be opened and then re-used as a basic drawing page
by many users and then resaved by them for their own purposes.

In this case, I am trying to understand what is the benefit of saving as a
..VST file?

once a user opens the VST file, add their drawings or flowcharts, and save
it--
will they be saving as another .vst file?

Or is Visio smart to let them default save from a vst as a drawing file - a
vsd?

Does vst. prevent users from saving over original templates files?

Any other benefits of using .vst, as well as the difference between .vst and
..vsd, I am trying to comprehend in creating a Visio template for an
organization.

 

[Chris Roth [MVP]]

Hi Elizabeth,

When you double-click on a .vst file, Visio automatically opens an unsaved
copy of that drawing. When the user goes to save that drawing, Visio will
default to saving it as a .vsd.

The user has to specifically change the type to "Template" in order to
re-save as a .vst.

If you're serving up a template from a central location, then your users
will benefit from having updates to the template, common look-and-feel via
background pages, company logos and standards, etc.

You could always set the template to "read only", or set permissions to keep
users from accidentally saving over the template.

--
Hope this helps,

Chris Roth
Visio MVP

More Visio shapes, articles, development info and pure diagramming fun at:
www.visguy.com

 

[Elizabeth]

Thanks. This made it clear.

If I set the template to read-only, can the users still write in the .vsd
file, after opening the .vst file? (Are there any drawbacks to setting
permissions
or creating it as a read-only?)

--Elizabeth