Visio 2010: replace a shape

Question

In Visio 2010, how can I change the shape of a single element?

If I create a new one, I'd have to re-apply text, connections and format.

Answer 1

I asked this question directly to the Program Manager of Visio 2010 at Microsoft during an internal MS event on campus and the answer was: "This is not possible". I have been missing this feature since Visio 2003 and hope that it will be finally added in the next version of Office.

Answer 2

An update: this feature was added to Visio 2013

See: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/officedevdocs/change-shapes-in-visio-2013

Answer 3

The "Change Shape" feature was introduced in Microsoft Visio 2013. Demo:

Answer 4

Following is an Excerpt from here : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/officedevdocs/archive/2012/08/23/change-shapes-in-visio-2013.aspx

Visio 2013 introduces a "Change Shape" feature that enables you to swap out a selected shape or group of shapes in the drawing with another type of shape. The new shapes can retain the position, connections, formatting, shape text, and/or shape data of the originals.

Note: You can only replace 2D shapes with other 2D shapes (like a Decision shape for a Process shape) and 1D shapes with other 1D shapes (replacing one type of connector with another). You cannot replace a connector with a rectangle, as an example.