Installing Stencils and Templates

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For Microsoft Visio to find your stencil and template files, as well as any add-ons you intend to work with these files, place them in the Solutions folder (under the correct language folder in the Visio product folder). By placing your files in this folder, your stencil and template files will appear when the user clicks the Choose Drawing Type command (on the File menu, point to New, and then click Choose Drawing Type) or the Open Stencil command (on the File menu, point to Stencils, and then click Open Stencil). They'll also appear when the user starts Microsoft Visio 2002 and then chooses to create a new drawing in the Choose Drawing Type pane (on the View menu, click Task Pane).

If you want to install your stencil and template files elsewhere, you can change the default folder where Visio searches for files. To do this, click Options on the Tools menu, click the File Paths tab, and then specify the default path you want.

Moving Template Files

The file name for each stencil and drawing that opens with a template is stored in the template's workspace list as a fully qualified path and name. Problems can arise when files are moved to different computers where local or network drives are configured differently. To prevent some of these problems, Microsoft Visio checks the path as follows:

  1. When Visio is about to open a file from the workspace list, it first examines the file's stored path.
  2. If the path is exactly the same as the stored path for the file that contains the workspace list, Visio assumes that these files were meant to be in the same folder.
  3. Visio uses the current workspace file's folder to locate files.
  4. As long as you copy stencils and templates to the same folder when you must move files, Visio can locate and open all the files in a workspace list.

Protecting Stencils and Templates

The easiest way to protect stencils and templates from accidental changes is to make the files read-only. If a stencil or template is read-only, modifications cannot be saved to the file. When you create a template, open the stencil files you want to include as Read only and save the template. That way, Microsoft Visio automatically opens the stencils as read-only when a user opens the template.

When you use the Save or Save As command, you can click the Read only option (under the Save button) to save a Visio file with Microsoft Windows read-only protection. If you save a file in this way, your users cannot open it as an original—only as a copy.

Another way to protect a document is to use the Protect Document command. This command prevents a user from changing any background pages in a template; the command also protects all masters in a stencil, all shapes on the drawing, and all styles in the template if the user tries to change them. If you enter a password, a user must type the password before editing any of the checked items.

To protect a document, click Drawing Explorer Window on the View menu, right-click the document name in the Drawing Explorer, and then click Protect Document on the shortcut menu.



Developing Microsoft Visio Solutions 2001
Developing Microsoft Visio Solutions (Pro-Documentation)
ISBN: 0735613532
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 180

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