Visio 2007 Shapes Vanish

[bluegrassstateworker]

I have Visio 2007 (Office 2007 Enterprise) and a strange thing has
happened to my drawing file. The shapes available are vanishing. I
have added the shapes back via the standard FILE | Shapes |Add but
when I save then close, then reopen the file the shapes panel contains
no categories of shapes that I just previously added. Any help
appreciated.

 

[James W.]

Well let’s make sure under File > properties >summary tab you have the “Save
workspace†box is checked. I guess you are talking about displaying stencils
for a particular drawing. If you are using a particular Visio solution the
stencil should open automatically. But in your case it sounds like you want
to customize which stencils are being opened with your drawing. This is also
assuming that you are opening the file on the same computer in which it was
created.

James W

 

[bluegrassstateworker]

Well let’s make sure under File > properties >summary tab you have the “Save
workspace” box is checked. I guess you are talking about displaying stencils
for a particular drawing. If you are using a particular Visio solution the
stencil should open automatically. But in your case it sounds like you want
to customize which stencils are being opened with your drawing. This is also
assuming that you are opening the file on the same computer in which it was
created.

James W

Well, geez-o-Pete! All that searching (Visio help, google) for a
solution and this was it. You got right to the source with just three
clicks. Thanks so much! I wont even attempt to waste any more time
wondering why someone wouldnt always want their stencils attached to
their drawing file but I am sure Microsoft has a reason ....

 

[AlEdlund]

Stencils (by themselves) can have significant intellectual captial value.
The time to make smartshapes that use code distributed with the stencil is
only one example. When you distribute the drawings you may not want to give
that away.
al

Well let’s make sure under File > properties >summary tab you have the
“Save
workspace” box is checked. I guess you are talking about displaying
stencils
for a particular drawing. If you are using a particular Visio solution the
stencil should open automatically. But in your case it sounds like you
want
to customize which stencils are being opened with your drawing. This is
also
assuming that you are opening the file on the same computer in which it
was
created.

James W

Well, geez-o-Pete! All that searching (Visio help, google) for a
solution and this was it. You got right to the source with just three
clicks. Thanks so much! I wont even attempt to waste any more time
wondering why someone wouldnt always want their stencils attached to
their drawing file but I am sure Microsoft has a reason ....

 

[Paul Herber]

Well, geez-o-Pete! All that searching (Visio help, google) for a
solution and this was it. You got right to the source with just three
clicks. Thanks so much! I wont even attempt to waste any more time
wondering why someone wouldnt always want their stencils attached to
their drawing file but I am sure Microsoft has a reason ....

If there was no way to remove the stencils from the drawing then you
can guarantee that that would be what people were clamouring for.
Particularly when sending the finished diagram to a customer for
example you only want to senf the diagram, not all the stencils as
well. You may own the stencils (or they may be purchased shapes) that
you don't want to distribute.

Even so, I wish the save workspace (as it's called) was back on the
Save dialog (but not as well hidden as it used to be). I do wish
things like this were left alone, it's OK for Microsoft, all they have
to do is update their documentation and release a new version and
forget about the previous version, everyone has to upgrade and version
X is no longer supported. Guess who it is who has to do this support.
It's poor gimboids who have to write instructions for our 3rd party
products that are different for every version of Visio.
Most of my stuff still works with Visio 2000, there are customers who
can't upgrade, either can't afford to, company policy says no, or the
older version contains some particular feature that has been removed
in "upgrades".