Shapes.Item property (Visio)

Returns an item from a collection. The Item property is the default property for all collections. Read-only.

Syntax

expression.Item (NameUIDOrIndex)

expression A variable that represents a Shapes object.

Parameters

Return value

Shape

Remarks

When retrieving objects from a collection, you can omit Item from the expression because it is the default property for all collections. The following statements are equivalent to the syntax example given above:

objRet = object(index)  
objRet = object(stringExpression)

You can retrieve an object in an Addons, Documents, Fonts, Hyperlinks, Layers, Masters, MasterShortcuts, OLEObjects, Pages, Shapes, or Styles collection by passing the object's name as a string expression in a Variant.

If you retrieve a Shape object by name, the Item property searches all shapes in the Shapes collection's containing page or containing master, in addition to the collection's containing shape. Therefore, the Shape object returned by the Item property can be a shape that is not in the Shapes collection.

You can also pass the unique ID string of a Master or Shape object to the Item property. For example:

objRet = vsoShapes.Item("{2287DC42-B167-11CE-88E9-0020AFDDD917}")

If such a string is passed to the Item property of a Shapes collection, all the shapes contained in the collection are searched. Shapes within the group shapes in the containing shape are not searched.

To search all shapes in the collection, plus the shapes inside groups and the containing shape of the collection, prefix the unique ID string with an asterisk (*). For example:

objRet = vsoShapes.Item("*{2287DC42-B167-11CE-88E9-0020AFDDD917}")

For more information about passing ID strings to the Item property, see the topic for the UniqueID property in this reference.

Example

This Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro shows how to use the Item property to get a Page object from the Pages collection of the active document, and all the Shape objects in the Shapes collection of the Page object. It prints the names of all shapes on Page1 in the Immediate window.

Before running this macro, make sure that the active document has shapes on Page1.

Public Sub Item_Example() 
  
    Dim intCounter As Integer 
    Dim intShapeCount As Integer 
    Dim vsoShapes As Visio.Shapes  
 
    Set vsoShapes = ActiveDocument.Pages.Item(1).Shapes  
 
    Debug.Print "Shape Name List For..." 
    Debug.Print "Document: "; ActiveDocument.Name  
    Debug.Print "Page: "; ActiveDocument.Pages.Item(1).Name  
 
    intShapeCount = vsoShapes.Count  
 
    If intShapeCount > 0 Then 
        For intCounter = 1 To intShapeCount  
            Debug.Print " "; vsoShapes.Item(intCounter).Name  
        Next intCounter  
    Else 
        Debug.Print " No Shapes On Page"  
    End If   
 
End Sub

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