Applies ToVisio Plan 2 Visio in Microsoft 365 Visio Plan 1 Visio Professional 2024 Visio Professional 2021 Visio Professional 2019 Visio Professional 2016

More than one person can work on a Visio diagram at the same time, each person at their own computer. By coauthoring, team members can create multi-page diagrams quickly and help each other decide what the diagram should look like as they work.

Important: In order to work on a file simultaneously with another person, you must be using the same type of Visio app—either the desktop app or the web app. It's not possible for one person to edit a file in Visio for the web at the same time that another person edits that file in the Visio desktop app. 

When you save your drawing to OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online, you can work on a drawing at the same time as your colleagues. To work on a drawing at the same time, all authors on Windows need Visio Plan 2 and to be using the Visio desktop app.

Share your drawing with others and collaborate on it at the same time

  1. Open your Visio drawing in the desktop app and choose Share in the top-right corner of the ribbon when you're ready to collaborate.

    Share your drawing with others

  2. In the Share dialog box, enter the email address of the person you'd like to share the drawing with.

    Share pane dialog in Visio

    If you already have the person's contact info stored, you can just enter the name. The drop-down list lets you determine with whom you want to share your drawing.

  3. Click Send.

    If your file has already been saved to the cloud, an email invitation will be sent to your invitees. If you haven't saved your drawing to OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online, Visio prompts you to do so.

    If you haven't saved your drawing to OneDrive or SharePoint, Visio prompts you to do so.

    After you've saved your file to the cloud, the email invitation will be sent.

    Note: For more information on sharing, see Share SharePoint files or folders in Microsoft 365.

See who is working in your shared drawing

  1. Open the drawing in the Visio app and start working in it. If someone else is viewing or working in the drawing, his or her thumbnail picture appears in the top-right corner of the ribbon. Visio will alert you when people enter or leave your drawing.

    Shows the people currently working in the drawing

  2. To review and add comments, choose Comments Open the Comments pane.

    Comments within a comments pane

    You can also reply to or delete comments.

    If you want to see where someone has commented anywhere in the drawing, click on a comment icon.

    Comment icon

    To add your own comment to any shape, right-click the shape and choose Add Comment.

  3. When you’re done working, save your file.

    If your updates and other authors’ updates don't conflict, they'll be merged automatically and you don’t need to do anything else.

See prior versions of a drawing file

You can view prior versions of a Visio drawing file. You can also replace the current version of a drawing file with a prior version.

View a prior version of a drawing file

  1. Select File > Info > View Version History.

    The Versions saved for ... dialog box opens. The saved versions of the file are listed, beginning with the current version at the top.

  2. Select the version of the file you want to see.

  3. Select Open.

    A read-only view of that version is opened in a new Visio window.

  4. Select File > Close when you're done reviewing the read-only, prior version of the file.

Restore a prior version of a drawing file

  1. Select File > Info > View Version History.

    The Versions saved for ... dialog box opens. The saved versions of the file are listed, beginning with the current version at the top.

  2. Select the version of the file that you want to make into the current version.

  3. Select Restore.

    A message box asks you to confirm that you want to replace the current version of the file with the prior version that you've selected.

  4. Select OK to confirm that you want to make the change.

    The open drawing file is updated to reflect the version of the file that you chose to be the new current version.

See Also

View, create, and edit a diagram in Visio for the web

Share SharePoint files or folders in Microsoft 365

Visio for the web Help

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