Draw lines and shapes with the Pencil, Line, Arc, or Freeform tools
Applies ToVisio Plan 2 Visio Professional 2024 Visio Standard 2024 Visio Professional 2021 Visio Standard 2021 Visio Professional 2019 Visio Standard 2019 Visio Professional 2016 Visio Standard 2016
  1. On the Home tab, in the Tools group, click the arrow next to Rectangle The Rectangle tool to open the Drawing Tools list, and then click the tool for the kind of shape you want to draw.

  2. Drag on the drawing page to draw the shape.

  3. To stop drawing, in the Tools group, click the Pointer Tool Pointer button.

Draw a custom shape

  1. On the Home tab, in the Tools group, click the arrow to open the Drawing Tools list, and then click either the Freeform tool, the Arc tool, or the Line tool.

  2. Use the tool to draw the first segment of the shape.

    • After you draw the segment, the shape displays vertices A shape vertex.

  3. If you need a different type of line, for example you started with a straight line and now you need an arc, switch tools.

  4. Click the vertex at the end of the last segment that you added, and then drag to draw the next segment.

    Note:  To undo a segment, press CTRL+Z. Segments are deleted in the reverse order in which they were drawn.

  5. To close the shape, drag the endpoint of the last segment that you create over the vertex at the beginning of the first segment. The shape becomes opaque, which indicates that it is a closed shape.

  6. To stop drawing, on the Home tab, in the Tools group, click the Pointer tool Pointer button.

Edit a shape

You can edit most shapes by adding, deleting, and reshaping vertices in the shape.

Delete a vertex from a shape

  1. On the Home tab, in the Tools group, open the Drawing Tools list and click the Pencil tool The Pencil tool.

  2. Select the shape, click the vertex A shape vertex that you want to delete, and then press DELETE.

Add a vertex to a shape

  1. On the Home tab, in the Tools group, open the Drawing Tools list and click the Pencil tool The Pencil tool.

  2. Select the shape, point to where you want to add the vertex, hold down the CTRL key, and then click.

Reshape a shape

  1. On the Home tab, in the Tools group, open the Drawing Tools list and click the Pencil tool The Pencil tool.

  2. Select the shape, click the vertex A shape vertex that you want to move, and then drag the vertex to a new position.

Save a custom shape as a new master shape

  1. In the Shapes window, click More Shapes, and then click New Stencil (US) or New Stencil (Metric).

  2. On the drawing page, select your custom shape and drag it into the new stencil in the Shapes window.

  3. To rename your new master shape, right-click the shape, click Rename Master, and then type a name for the new master shape.

  4. On the title bar of your custom stencil, click Save to save the changes to the custom stencil with the new master shape.

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