How to create a custom template for Visio

Summary

This article describes how to create a custom template in Microsoft Office Visio.

More Information

When you want to create multiple drawing files that need a consistent look, consider creating a template on which to base all the drawings.

By creating your own template, you eliminate the need to open the appropriate stencils, create styles, and establish page settings for each drawing file, because these defaults are all contained in one place.

You can increase your efficiency by creating your own templates; the following examples demonstrate the advantages of creating a template:

• If your drawings require customized settings for any of the following, create a template with the appropriate settings in place:

  • page size or scale

  • window size or position

  • shape or text styles

  • color palette

  • snap and glue

  • printing

  
  

• If your drawings often use a standard background or set of layers, such as your company logo, create a template with the background or layers in place.

To create a template from a drawing file or an existing template, follow these steps:

1. Open the drawing, or start a new drawing based on the template that you want to modify.

2. Open any additional stencils that you want to save as part of the template.

3. Modify the drawing page settings and styles that you will want to use in drawings based on this template.
   
   For example, if you want a background page that displays your company logo, or a title block that contains fields such as the creation date of a drawing, create these items and assign them to the foreground page.

4. On the File menu, click Save As.

5. In the Save as type list, click Template (*.vst).

6. In the File name box, type a name for your template.

7. Click the arrow next to Save, and make sure that Workspace is selected (checked).

8. In the Save in list, select the folder in which you want to save the template.
   
   Tip If you want the template to appear in the list that Visio displays when you click New on the File menu, save the template in the Solutions folder or one of its subfolders.
   
   Note In Visio 2003, click the arrow next to Save, and make sure that Workspace is selected. In Visio 2007, click Save workspace on the Summary tab in the Properties window.

9. Click Save.