Templates Stencils and Shapes
Visio templates can be used for establishing the drawing environment best suitable for a specific type of drawing such as the stencils, drawing page's orientation, grid size within the drawing area, etc.
Templates
Visio templates can be used for establishing the drawing environment best suitable for a specific type of drawing such as the stencils, drawing page's orientation, grid size within the drawing area, etc. Visio diagramming templates are grouped by categories, such as Block Diagram, Building Plan, Business Process, Charts and Graphs, Flowchart, Organization Chart, etc.
Fig 2: Visio Templates
Stencils and Shapes
Visio diagrams are created by placing various Shapes and connecting them to each other as needed. All available shapes in Visio are grouped into Stencils. Each stencil comprises of related shapes that can be added to any type diagram. Based on the drawing template chosen, one or more stencils are automatically opened in the stencils pane by Visio.
Fig 3: Organization Chart Stencils
Figure 3 depicts the stencil group that is automatically made available when working with, for example, Organization Chart Template. Any number of additional stencils can be added to the group provided by Visio.
To add additional stencil:
- Select File from the main menu
- Click on Shapes from the file menu
- A pop out window opens on the right with a list of all the stencils available in Visio.
- Select the Stencil that you want by clicking on it.
Shapes can then be added from the stencil pane to the drawing page by dragging individual shapes to the desired location within the page.
Visio also provides you with the option of creating New Stencils with the shapes of your choice. You can create custom stencils containing shapes copied from existing stencils or custom shapes. An advanced user can create custom shapes either from scratch or by inheriting the properties and behavior of existing shapes.
