Understanding the importance of master shapes
Throughout this book, we have mainly been creating process flowchart diagrams via automation or by dragging and dropping master shapes from a stencil onto a page. We created connections between flowchart shapes with the connector tool or by dragging out the Auto Connect arrows from one shape to another. In each case, we have been creating instances of a master shape. So, what do we mean by a master shape, and why are they so important?
We have already learned how we can drag and drop shapes from stencils, but what we do not usually see is that every time we drag and drop a master shape from a stencil, Visio checks if we have used a master shape with the same name before. If we have not used it before, then Visio automatically creates a copy of the master shape and places it into the normally hidden Document Stencil, and then drops an instance of this copy onto the page. Then, whenever we drop another instance of the same master shape...
