Visio

Creating Visio Stencils

I was trying to create a call-out as a Visio stencil.  The call-out needed to be scaled easily, the line not distorted, and the text box easily selectable.  The following steps seem to make it work.

  1. Create your line
  2. Create your text box
    • Make sure the text box stays in front of the line
    • To prevent resizing weirdness, make sure the text box edge sits next to the line and does not overlap
  3. Adjust the line properties as needed (color, thickness)
  4. Adjust the text properties as needed (spacing, text background, vertical and horizontal alignment)
  5. Group the two objects
  6. Select the grouped object
  7. Right click and select “Format” / “Behavior…”
    • In the Behavior tab
    • Uncheck “Edit text of group”
    • Group data: “Behind member shapes”
    • Select Double-Click tab
    • Select “Edit shape’s text”
    • Click OK

You now have an object you can nicely re-size, move around the grouped object, yet with a double-click get to edit the original text box’s text.

Visio Call-out