On a recent project, we tried sharing the wireframe workload. We ran into a problem when we realised that Omnigraffle's 'Master' canvas (behaves like a Master slide in PowerPoint) doesn't export to Visio. After searching the Omnigraffle help section and then scouring the internet to no avail, I contacted Omnigraffle for help.

Below you will find the email exchange w/ Omnigraffle as well as a proposed interim solution.

Email exchange
From: Sophie Campagne
Date: May 11, 2006 4:22 PM
Subject: OmniGraffle Pro 4.1 (v124.1) Feedback (license EVUNCDREEVZTDJLCJSQVPMWWTWCMJHJDSZU)
To: omnigraffle@omnigroup.com

I read in Omnigraffle's release notes that Visio Backgrounds are now imported as Masters in Omnigraffle. I also read that objects on master canvases now export to PDF and other formats...does this include .vdx?

I work with Omnigraffle, but my colleagues on PCs are not seeing the Master canvases when I export to .vdx. What do you suggest we do to address this?

Thank you,
Sophie Campagne

From: omnigraffle@omnigroup.com
Date: May 11, 2006 4:43 PM
Subject: [OG #74609] OmniGraffle Pro 4.1 (v124.1) Feedback (license EVUNCDREEVZTDJLCJSQVPMWWTWCMJHJDSZU)
To: Sophie Campagne

Sophie-

I'm afraid that as of right now, items on master canvases aren't exporting to the Visio XML format. It was just a complete oversight on our part, and we'll be addressing it in a future release.

In the meantime, you'll have to manually copy/paste those elements to the dependent canvases in order to have them show in Visio XML documents.

Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused,

Joel Page
Support Engineer
The Omni Group

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Interim solution: In Omnigraffle, duplicate Master canvases as regular canvases, and then apply those canvases as 'Backgrounds' in Visio (to do this in Visio, go to 'File > Page Setup' and chose the 'background' radio button).