Visio Containers not acting as containers after being saved to a stencil?

Hi Laura, 

Thank you for reaching out and for sharing your concern. 

What you are seeing comes down to how Visio stores "container" behavior. It is not stored in how the shape looks. It lives in a hidden ShapeSheet cell called User.msvStructureType, which must be set to "Container". When you drag a container onto a stencil, Visio saves the geometry but does not reliably carry that cell into the new master, so it comes back out as a plain shape. 

The good news is that a master you have already saved can be repaired so it keeps working as a true container. 

To fix a master you have already saved to your stencil: 

1. Turn on the Developer tab if it is not showing. Go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon, tick Developer, then select OK. 

2. In your stencil (in edit mode, with the floppy disk icon showing), right-click the container master, point to Edit Master, then select Edit Master Shape.  

3. Select the container shape in that window, then on the Developer tab select Show ShapeSheet > Shape. 
4. Scroll to the User-Defined Cells section and look for a row named User.msvStructureType:  
   • If it exists, set its value to "Container" (with the quotes). 

• If it is missing, right-click the ShapeSheet, choose Insert Section > User-Defined Cells, add a row, rename it msvStructureType, and set the value to "Container". 

5. Close the ShapeSheet, close the master edit window, and select Yes when Visio asks to update the master. 
6. Right-click the stencil title bar and select Save.  

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow the steps above and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can continue working together to resolve the issue.  

If you found the response useful, please consider marking it as accepted, as this may help other community members who are looking for similar guidance.  

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I look forward to continuing the conversation.  

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