Turn off Snap and Glue in MS Visio 2007 permanently

Question

Every time I create new drawing document in Microsoft Visio 2007, drawing options "Snap" and "Glue" are turned on by default.

I find both of them particularly annoying, so every time I create a new drawing I open "main menu -> Tools -> Snap & Glue" and turn these options off for that particular document.

Is there an option or setting to turn "Snap" and "Glue" off permanently for all new Microsoft Visio 2007 drawing documents?

Update: Maybe there's some way to bithack executable file (EXE or DLL) in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12?

Answer 1

I can't work out how to do this with File -> New -> New Drawing, but there is a workaround:

These settings are saved in template files. So either create a new template or; change the snap and glue settings one of the existing templates.

To create a new template:

1. Open Visio and select New -> New Drawing (US or Metric).
2. Turn Snap and Glue off as normal
3. (Optional) While you're here you might as well add any stencils you regularly use (File -> Shapes -> choose a stencil). These will be opened automatically whenever you use your template.
4. Click File -> Save As and save the file as type Template (*.vst)
5. Click File -> Close

Now to make a new document using your template click File -> New -> New Drawing From Template and choose the template you just created OR from windows explorer, simply double click on your template. Snap and glue will be turned off and your stencils will already be open.

Once you've used it once, it will appear on the Visio Getting Started.. screen under Recent Templates (not Recent Documents), for quicker access.

If you already use one of the default templates, you can simply edit that template and turn off snap & glue:

1. Find your templates directory, for Visio 2007 on XP 32-bit, mine was C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\1033
2. Template files have the extension VST so find the template you want to edit (eg. BASFLO_M.VST for Business -> Basic Flowchat (Metric). You can hold your mouse over the file to see a longer name if you're not sure. _M is metric and _U is imperial.
3. Right click the template and choose Open (not the default New)
4. Turn off snap and glue, save and close the file

Now when you make a new file from this template, it will have snap & glue turned off.

I can't find where the default template for Visio is stored (if there is one) and there is no personal macro workbook, so unfortunately I don't see a way to do this for the basic blank drawing.