When you search for a shape, a search results stencil is created to hold the found shapes. To use a shape, drag it from the results stencil onto your drawing.

If you find a shape that you want to use frequently in your drawings, you can save it on a custom stencil on your hard drive. Saving shapes is especially useful if you have a dial-up Internet connection and you want to reuse the shape without connecting to the Internet again.

Note  If you save the search results stencil to your My Shapes folder, you can quickly open it again by clicking Shapes on the File menu, pointing to My Shapes, and then clicking the custom stencil name.

In the Search for Shapes box, enter one or more words that describe the shape you are looking for. You can separate words with spaces, commas, or semicolons. You cannot use wildcard characters (such as the asterisk [*] or the question mark [?]). You can type a word in its singular or plural form. For example, the word "plants" returns shapes that have the word "plant" associated with them.

If a search returns too many shapes, try another word, or change your search options so you can search for a phrase. For example, if the word "chair" returns too many shapes, you can search for "office chair" to limit your results. You can set search options on the Shape Search tab of the Options dialog box (Tools menu).

If a search term doesn't give you the results you expect, try using a different word that might describe the shape. For example, if the word "carton" does not return any results, try "box" instead.

To search for shapes that you've created, first add search keywords to the master shape on the custom stencil.