How to Work with Visio Shapes

I work with Visio diagrams a fair bit, and over the years I’ve gotten to know exactly what shapes I want to use for most diagrams. Microsoft have done a pretty good job of setting up the right shapes in the various stencils. However, now and then you may find you need to go hunting for that one, elusive shape. It’s ok once in a while, but if you want to keep using it, do you really want to have to go dredging through your stencils? I didn’t think so. Let’s have a look at how to make the process better.

Using Stencils to Work with Visio Shapes

At this point, I’m going to assume that you already know what stencils are and how to use them. If not, we have a course for that! Sorry, not sorry for the shameless plug, but it’s what I do!

Anyway, there are few options available.

If I start by using one of the many templates available in Visio, I’ll see the Stencils pane on the left of the screen. In there, I can see a range of shapes to use in the specific type of diagram I chose. To see more shapes, I can go to the top of the pane, then click on the More Shapes link to expand it. From here, there is a plethora of shapes to choose from.

So far, so good, but what if I don’t know what stencil the shape is in? That’s where the search comes in handy. Move to the top of the Stencils pane, then click into the Search box and type what you’re looking for.

In the example below, I typed “right arrow” and Visio returned a bunch of shapes that might fit my needs.

Moving on, I want to make sure that I can get these shapes again whenever I need them. I don’t really want to go searching every time, even though it’s a nice feature. This is where my favourites come in.

Adding Visio Shapes to your Favourites

This part is very simple. Once you’ve opened a stencil or two, you can grab whatever shapes you need and quickly add them to your Favourites. Just do the following:

1. Locate the shape in the Stencils pane.
2. Right click on the shape, then from the drop down list, select Add to My Shapes > Favourites.
3. Repeat the process to add any additional shapes.

For example, I often find myself going to the Visio Extras to find things like icons and symbols, which I then add to my favourites.

Once you have added the shapes, you can access them by going to the top of Stencil pane and selecting More Shapes > My Shapes > Favourites.

There it is, all your new favourite Visio shapes collected in one place, ready for you to use in your next masterpiece diagram!