Installing Visio Templates and Stencils

I was recently on holiday but needed to update an installation of Visio Templates and Stencils for all languages. I use Advanced Installer in Enterprise mode so that I can edit the PublishComponent table like I have described in my earlier article ( see Using Advanced Installer with Visio VSTO Add-Ins – bVisual )Unfortunately I only had my travel laptop and could not refer to previous projects. Instead I referred to an excellent article on UnmanagedVisio, and tried the suggested Component IDs for All Versions of Templates and Stencils

However, these do not work for me using Visio Plan 2. Nothing showed up in the Visio UI. So, this article describes how it works for me using Advanced Installer.

Notice in the articles’ table that there was a sequence for Visio 2007, 2010, and 2013 with the last four digits B000, B100, and B200 for Templates and B101, B102 and B103 for Stencils. So, the logical next ones in the sequence for Visio 2016 would be:

For templates: {6D9D8B6F-D0EF-4BC0-8DD4-09DD6CE2B300}

For stencils: {6D9D8B6F-D0EF-4BC0-8DD4-09DD6CE2B301}

… and these are the ones that work for me in Visio Plan 2!

Firstly, each of the Template and Stencil files must have their own row in the Organization entries. Notice that this is the actual file name, and the Directory that they will be installed into. They get their own unique GUID too. These can then be checked in the Table Editor \ Component table.

Then each of the Templates and Stencils must have an entry in the Table Editor \ PublishComponent table. The AppData property provides the opportunity to provide a category for the templates and stencils, and to provide a more friendly name to display in the Visio UI.

Although we can create rows that will work in 32 bit or 64 bit now, the Advanced Installer project has to be set for 32 bit or 64 bit Visio. Microsoft 365 switched from defaulting to 32 bit to 64 bit Office apps a few years ago, so it is becoming increasingly rare to encounter 32 bit Visio installations. Therefore I normally create a 64 bit project first, then create a duplicate project and make the necessary changes to mark it as 32 bit. The minimum for this is found in the Package Type in Install Parameters \ Installation Options. In addition, I set the Organization \ MainFeature \ AI_ExePath to 64-bit Component or not.

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