losing the sort order in custom properties shapesheet window

[LB]

I'm using Visio 2003 and applying a standard set of custom properties to all
shapes in the business process flowchart. I want to sort the list of custom
properties so that all shapes have the same order in the custom properties
view. I have modified the sortkeyr on the shapesheet, but it will not save
my changes. I'm applying 11 through 20 in that field. On reopening the
file, my changes are lost. I am hitting enter after every sortkey change and
have saved the file. Any help would be most appreciated!

 

[Paul Herber]

I'm using Visio 2003 and applying a standard set of custom properties to all
shapes in the business process flowchart. I want to sort the list of custom
properties so that all shapes have the same order in the custom properties
view. I have modified the sortkeyr on the shapesheet, but it will not save
my changes. I'm applying 11 through 20 in that field. On reopening the
file, my changes are lost. I am hitting enter after every sortkey change and
have saved the file. Any help would be most appreciated!

The sort key is alphabetic, not numeric, so items 11 to 19 will appear
between 1 and 2.

 

[Chris Roth [Visio MVP]]

Like Paul says, it's alphabetic, so I stay away from using numbers. Even
if I use 1, 2, 3, I enter "1", "2", "3".

But what I really usually do is use a trick from the very old days of
Basic programming, where we used line numbers(!)

I number my properties like this: "10", "20", "30" or "010", "020",
"030", etc.

That way, if I need to insert any new props, I've got space between 10
and 20. And if I get a huge number of properties, I've got space for up
to 100 or 1000, depending on how many digits I've got. And the leading
zeroes make sure that 11 doesn't come before 2.

--
Hope this helps,

Chris Roth
Visio MVP


Visio Guy: Smart Graphics for Visual People

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[LB]

Thanks! Using the "" makes the value remain after saving and exiting the file.