Microsoft KB Archive/840556

= How to search for shapes and how to save the search results as a custom stencil in Visio 2003 =

Article ID: 840556

Article Last Modified on 5/10/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2003
 * Microsoft Office Visio Standard 2003

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SUMMARY
This article describes how to search for shapes and how to create a custom stencil from the shapes that are returned in the search results in Microsoft Office Visio 2003.



IN THIS TASK
 INTRODUCTION 

Search for shapes

 

Save the search results as a custom stencil

 REFERENCES



INTRODUCTION
This step-by-step article describes how to search for shapes in Visio 2003 and how to save the shapes that are returned in the search results as a custom stencil.

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Search for shapes
To search for shapes, follow these steps:  Configure the properties for your search. To do this, follow these steps: <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> Start Visio 2003 (if it is not already started).</li> On the Tools menu, click Options.</li> Click the Shape Search tab.</li> Under Search locations, specify the locations where you want to search for shapes. By default, Visio stencils that are installed on your hard disk and Visio stencils that are located in Visio Web Shapes on the Internet are searched.

Click to clear the check box that is next to the location that you do not want to search or click to select the check box next to the location that you want to search. For example, if you do not want to search the Internet, click to clear the The Internet check box.</li> Under Search for, do one of the following:  If you want the shapes that are returned in the search results to match all the search terms, click All of the words (AND).</li> If you want the shapes that are returned in the search results to match any search terms, click Any of the words (OR).</li></ul> </li> Under Results, do one of the following:  If you want the shapes that are returned in the search results listed in alphabetical order by shape name, click Alphabetically.</li> If you want the shapes that are returned in the search results listed by stencil name, click By Group.</li></ul> </li> If you want search results to display in a new window, click to select the Open results in new window check box.</li> If you want a warning message to appear when the number of shapes in the search results exceeds a specified limit, click to select the Warn when results are greater than check box, and then specify the number that you want.</li> Click OK.</li></ol> </li> Search for the shapes that you want. To do this, follow these steps: <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> <li>If the Shapes pane is not already open, on the View menu, click Shapes Window.</li> <li>In the Search for Shapes box, type one or more words that describe the shape that you want to search for. You can separate words with spaces, commas, or semicolons. For example, to find shapes that represent office chairs, type chair .</li> <li>Press ENTER.

The shapes that are returned from your search appear in the stencil in the Shapes pane.

Note If you have an Internet connection and the search properties are set to search the Internet, Visio searches Visio Web Shapes for shapes that are provided by Microsoft that meet your search criteria and displays those shapes in the results.</li> <li>Drag the shapes that you want from the stencil in the Shapes pane to your drawing page.</li></ol> </li></ol>

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Save the search results as a custom stencil
To save the search results as a custom stencil, follow these steps: <ol> <li>In the Shapes pane, right-click the title bar of the stencil, and then click Save As.</li> <li>In the Save As dialog box, specify a name and a location where you want to save the custom stencil, and then click Save. By default, the stencil is saved to the following folder on the hard disk:



</li> <li>The red asterisk in the title bar of the stencil indicates that the stencil is in edit mode. To turn off edit mode, right-click the title bar of the stencil, and then click Edit Stencil.</li></ol>

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