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Let's say you're creating a new Visio diagram but you want to use a particular shape that you can't find on any of the stencils that open with that diagram—a cloud shape, for example, for a block diagram. You're in luck. Just use the Search for Shapes box in the Shapes window in Visio 2003 to find the shape you want.

Search for Shapes searches the Visio stencils that are installed on your hard drive, as well as new shapes that you've added to custom stencils. If you have an Internet connection, Search for Shapes also searches the Web for new and updated Visio shapes.

To find that perfect shape

1. To control the search and how the search results are displayed, set the search properties.

   How

   1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
   2. On the Shape Search tab, set the search properties:
      • Search locations   By default, Search for Shapes searches Visio stencils on your hard drive and on the Web. To turn off a search location, in the Search locations list, click the arrow and clear the check box next to the location you don't want searched.
      • Search for   Select whether the search results must match all of the search terms (All of the words (AND)) or any of the search terms (Any of the words (OR)).
      • Sort results   Select whether you want the results shown in alphabetical order by shape name or by stencil (group) name. Select By Group to distinguish between shapes that have the same name but appear on different stencils. By Group is also useful if you want to locate the stencil that contains a shape you're searching for.
      • Open results in new window   Select this option to create a new search results stencil for every search. Clear it if you want new search results to replace any previous search results.
      • Warn when results are greater than   Select this option if you want to see a warning message when the number of shapes found exceeds the limit you specify.
   3. Click OK.
2. Open the Shapes window, if it's not already open.

   How

   • On the View menu, click Shapes Window.
3. In the Search for Shapes box, type one or more words that describe the shape you want. You can separate words with spaces, commas, or semicolons.

   For example, to find shapes that represent office chairs, type chair.

4. Click or press ENTER.

   The results are added to a search results stencil.

    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 meet your search criteria and then displays those shapes in the results. This Internet search returns only shapes provided by Microsoft.

5. When you find the shape you want, drag it onto the drawing page.

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