How to Enable VBA in Visio

If you are performing a repetitive series of operations on a collection of similar Visio drawings, the repetitive operations can be automated.  The key to automating operations in Visio is use macros or programs written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which is built into Visio but must be enabled to be used.  When VBA is enabled you can see a Developer tab in the ribbon at the top.

Turning On VBA in Visio

To enable VBA in Visio you first need to turn on the developer tab on the ribbon at top by clicking on this sequence of menu choices

File > Options > Customize Ribbon

In the navigation bar on the left, click on the box “Customize Ribbon”

 On right hand window, check the “Developer” box, click OK

A “Developer” selection is added to the top ribbon.  Click on the Developer tab and you can see “Visual Basic” as one of the selections on the far left.  Visio also needs to have macros enabled, which is done with this key sequence.

File > Options > Trust Center

In the navigation bar on the left, click on the box “Trust Center.”

On the far right hand side of the page is a button labeled “Trust Center Settings.”  Click on it and then select the radio button labeled “Enable all macros,” then hit OK.  Visio is now configured so you can write VBA programs and then run them.