I recently revised my chess and checkerboard Visio documents to work in Visio for the Web (Visio Plan 1), but now that Microsoft are providing a version of Visio free to M365 business users, I need to make some further adjustment to get them to work for these users who do not have a Visio Plan 1 or Plan 2 license. The problem is that Microsoft restricts the capabilities of the free version by white-listing Visio masters. So, the answer is to delete the masters … then the Visio document becomes editable in Visio for M365!
So, what is the downside?
Firstly, the size of the Visio document will increase when the masters in the Document Stencil are deleted.
The size is increased because Viso must remove all the inheritance of the formulas in the ShapeSheet of each shape. For example, the images below show some of the ShapeSheet of a single Chess Piece where it is an instance of a master, and where it is not. In the inherited version, there is extraordinarily little blue text to be seen. The blue text indicates that the value is stored locally in the shape, and in this example, it is only for the position and the specific shape color and icon data. However, every single formula is blue in the version without masters because Visio cannot inherit anything, so must store it all locally with the shape. Therefore, the file gets larger!
This is just a small Visio document, but on larger ones, with more shapes and more masters, this can become a genuine problem.
Secondly, the ShapeSheet developer has lost the ability of making simple edits to the master shape and having them automatically inherited by all instances, in all pages. For me, this is a fundamental issue, however, there may be some Visio diagrams that may be suitable for publishing to M365 users by removing the masters. The chess and checkerboard diagrams are suitable for this because they do not need to be maintained once published.
So, now a Visio for M365 user can edit these Visio documents and play chess or checkers with other users. Of course, the Shapes panel can be minimized because no other masters are required to enjoy them, and the shapes still retain their smartness, as described in the previous articles.
Download the files to your own OneDrive for Business, Teams, or SharePoint Online folders.
Masterless Online Checkerboards.vsdx
I look forward to the day when we can make custom masters for Visio for M365 users!
Creating a Dynamic connector master automatically
I have been creating Microsoft Visio solutions for 30 years now … my first was in 1996! I have been an advocate for custom Masters from the very start, every since I learnt how editing the Master can automatically update all of its instance shapes can be automatically updated throughout the document. Whenever you drag…
A visual exploration of Penrose Tiling in Visio
Maybe it is because I used to be a building architect, but I have always been fascinated by the relationship between numbers and visualisations. Perhaps the most famous one is the Golden Ratio which has been used as the basis of many building designs and art pieces. It is often recognised to create a harmony…
How SVG in Visio can cause a Shape.BoundingBox(…) error
I have used Visio’s Shape.BoundingBox(…) for many, many years and I cannot ever recall it failing, but I have now managed to create some shapes that cause it to error. This caused many hours of confusion, so I nearly abandoned using the method, until I discussed it with my fellow Visio MVP, John Goldsmith (see…
Are Master Shortcuts useful in Visio?
Many Visio users may not even understand the question, but this almost hidden feature has been available for many years. A Master Shortcut looks like a normal Master in a stencil, but it is merely holds a reference to another Master in a Stencil, not necessarily the same one, and has an option to add…
Jumping between Shapes in Visio
Many Visio diagrams get quite large, and sometimes it is useful to provide the ability to jump to another shape quickly in the same document, either on a different page or on the same one. Although there is an add-on provided in desktop Visio that is used by the Off-Page Reference shape provided in the…
Co-authoring and Commenting with Visio Documents
Microsoft Visio can be used in the web browser and on the desktop, but there are several licensing options available, so which ones can be used concurrently whilst supporting co-authoring and commenting? This article tests the various scenarios but assumes that the Visio documents are stored in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online\Teams. The Microsoft…