Visio Default Connector Behavior

Question

Hey all,

I'm having trouble with connectors when using Visio. Every time I create a new connector they default to rerouting freely and being split by shapes. I currently have to go in and manually change these 2 settings with every connector I place. It seems ridiculous to me that there isn't a way to change the default settings for every connector I place going forward.

Am I missing something or is this not possible?

Answer 1

Hi @Andy Gibbons, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

Based on your sharing, whenever creating a new connector, it reroutes freely and be split by shapes. To disable these settings, you can consider trying these steps: 

1- Enable Developer tab 

• Open Visio and go to File > Options 
• In Customize ribbon, check the box of Developer 

2- Access Document Stencil and configure the settings 

• Create a blank drawing and add a new connector  
• In the Shapes pane on the left hand, choose More shapes > Show document stencil  
• Right click the dynamic connector > Edit master > Edit master shape  

• In the new interface, click on the sample connector and go to Developer tab > Behavior 
• In the Behavior box, you will uncheck the Connector can be split by shapes under Behavior pane and set Reroute to never under Connector pane. 

• Then press OK and close the editing window (the second X button) 

Note: Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, you can try workaround and share us more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution. 

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If there's anything you need help, please feel free to reach out.  

I'm looking forward to your reply.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".  

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

I'd like to add one thing to the answer above:

Connector splitting is controlled at two different levels: per document and for the application as a whole.

What @Hendrix-C described above affects connector splitting for a single document. If you start a new document, you'll need to adjust the setting again.

If you NEVER want connector splitting to happen, you can use the setting below to turn the feature off for the Visio application.

1. Select File>Options
2. Select Advanced in the Visio Options dialog
3. Deselect Enable Connector Splitting
   
4. Select OK
5. Close and restart Visio

Connector splitting is now off for all diagrams.

Note that if you want to use connector splitting in a particular document, you'll need to enable the global option.