Stencils are a collection of related shapes, which are the building blocks of all Visio diagrams.

Browse for shapes

  1. In the Shapes pane, select More Shapes.

  2. Point to a category to browse the stencils in that category.

  3. Select the stencil that contains the shapes you want.

  4. Select a blank area of the drawing page to close the menu.

  5. Select the name of a stencil to see it’s shapes.

Search for shapes

  1. In the search box, type in a keyword that describes the shape you want, and select the magnifying glassSearch icon .

  2. Select Local to see shapes displayed and categorized by their Visio stencil title.

    Or select Online to see shapes available on the web.

Add shapes

  • Drag the shape you want from the stencil onto the drawing page.

Tip: To find out how to use a shape, point to it to display instructions.



Source: Microsoft