Add data sets to shapes

A data set is a collection of data that can be associated with shapes in your drawing or master shapes on a custom stencil.

Note: The following procedure applies to both Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007 and Microsoft Office Visio Standard 2007. If you are using Office Visio Professional 2007, you can also add a set of data to shapes using the Data Link features. For more information about working with data in Visio Professional see Import data from Excel, SQL Server, SharePoint sites, and other external sources. To find out which edition of Visio you have, on the Help menu click About Microsoft Office Visio.

1. Select the shapes in a drawing, or master shapes in a custom stencil, to which you want to apply data sets.

2. If the Shape Data window is not open, on the View menu, click Shape Data Window.

3. Right-click the Shape Data window and click Shape Data Sets.

4. Select the check box next to the name of each data set you want to add to the selected shapes.

5. Do one of the following:

   • To add data to selected shapes on the drawing page, click Shapes selected in drawing.

   • To add data to selected shapes on a custom stencil, click Shapes selected in stencil.

6. If the selected shapes already have data sets, do one of the following:

   • To replace the existing data sets with the selected sets, select the Remove existing data sets check box.

   • To add the selected data sets to the existing sets, clear the Remove existing data sets check box.

7. Click Apply.

   Note: If the selected shapes are in a stencil that is not editable, you will be prompted to have Microsoft Office Visio copy the shapes to a new stencil.