Visio 2007 Professional - Microsoft improved the best
Written: Feb 22 '07 (Updated Feb 22 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: more shapes, more templates, Data Graphics function and lots and lots more
Cons: expensive, doesn't have the redesigned Office 2007 interface
The Bottom Line: Visio is an outstanding piece of software. There is hardly any documentation that you cannot do with it. I can only recommend getting it. It's that easy.
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| twofish72's Full Review: Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Professional |
Microsoft Office Visio goes into the next round with the new 2007 version. While I already found the 2003 version extremely useful, this one is even better. But lets start at the beginning.
1 - Visio - an introduction
2 - Installing the application
3 - Differences between the standard and professional version
4 - Differences to Visio 2003
5 - Usability
6 - Visio document format
7 - Who can upgrade to Visio 2007?
8 - Pricing
9 - Criticism
10 - The final verdict
1. Visio - an introduction
Microsoft's Visio is, in it's broadest sense, a planning and documentation tool. With it, you can draw any kind of plan, chart, diagram or map you have in mind. From brainstorming diagrams to industrial control systems and from data flowcharts to plumbing plans... everything is possible. The application is available as a "standard" and a "professional" version.
To make that planning and documentation process as easy as possible, Visio uses a very simple and easy to understand drawing system. You take a shape (which can be anything from a basic shape to the picture of an object) and drag it onto your work area. You can then change certain parameters like size, color or description (and tons more) to make it fit your plan. You then add more and more shapes and bingo, your plan or diagram is finished. If you think that is a too easy description of what Visio does then I can tell you it's because it IS that easy.
Visio offers the creation of presentations either with metric measurements or in US units. While that is not so important when it comes to just creating flowcharts, it is extremely useful for any technical related project like floor plans, house plans, etc.
Microsoft Visio 2007 categorizes shapes to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for.But don't think you are stuck with one template. You can take any shape out of any category and put it in your document. Additional shapes can be downloaded of the internet and imported into Visio. This way, you can document almost anything.
Visio 2007 includes the following categories of shapes (templates):
Business:
Brainstorming Diagram
Organization Chart
Pivot Diagram (Pro Version only)
Audit Diagram
Basic Flowchart
Cause and Effect Diagram
Chart and Graphs
Cross Functional Flowchart
Data Flow Diagram
EPC Diagram
Fault Tree Analysis Diagram
ITIL Diagram (Pro Version only)
Marketing Charts and Diagrams
Organization Chart Wizard
TQM Diagram
Value Stream Map (Pro Version only)
Work Flow Diagram
Engineering:
Basic Electrical (Pro Version only)
Circuits and Logic (Pro Version only)
Fluid Power (Pro Version only)
Industrial Control Systems (Pro Version only)
Part and Assembly Drawing (Pro Version only)
Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (Pro Version only)
Process Flow (Pro Version only)
Systems (Pro Version only)
Flowchart:
Basic Flowchart
Cross Functional Flowchart
Work Flow Diagram
Data Flow Diagram
IDEF0 Diagram (Pro Version only)
SDL Diagram (Pro Version only)
General:
Basic Diagram
Basic Flowchart
Block Diagram
Block Diagram with perspective
Maps and Floor Plans:
Directional Map
Directional Map 3D
Electrical and Telecom Plan (Pro Version only)
Floor Plan (Pro Version only)
Home Plan (Pro Version only)
HVAC Control Logic Diagram (Pro Version only)
HVAC Plan (Pro Version only)
Office Layout
Plant Layout (Pro Version only)
Plumbing and Piping Plan (Pro Version only)
Reflected Ceiling Plan (Pro Version only)
Security and Access plan (Pro Version only)
Site Plan (Pro Version only)
Space Plan (Pro Version only)
Network:
Basic Networking Diagram
Detailed Networking Diagram (Pro Version only)
Web Site Map (Pro Version only)
Active Directory (Pro Version only)
Conceptual Web Site (Pro Version only)
LDAP Directory (Pro Version only)
Rack Diagram (Pro Version only)
Schedule:
Calendar
Gantt Chart
PERT Chart
Timeline
Software and Database:
Database Model Diagram (Pro Version only)
UML Model Diagram (Pro Version only)
Windows XP User Interface (Pro Version only)
COM and OLE (Pro Version only)
Conceptual Web Site (Pro Version only)
Data Flow Model Diagram (Pro Version only)
Enterprise Application (Pro Version only)
Express-G (Pro Version only)
Jackson (Pro Version only)
ORM Diagram (Pro Version only)
Program Structure (Pro Version only)
ROOM (Pro Version only)
Web Site Map (Pro Version only)
If you are used to Visio 2003 you will notice a different order in the categories. Microsoft has cleaned up their list a bit to make it easier to find things.
2. Installing the application - What do I need to run this fine piece of software?
According to Microsoft, you will not need much. The requirements are:
500 Mhz Processor
256 MB RAM
1.5 GB free space on Hard Disk
Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1
The requirements for the free HD space are actually not that high after the application is installed when all the installation files are removed. Nevertheless, it's still needed initially.
Realistically 'though, while Visio 2007 will run with this configuration, it will not run well. With a computer like that, Windows XP itself will not run overly well, so adding a little RAM might be a good idea. Keep in mind those are minimum requirements, not something Microsoft (or myself) would recommend as a good system for Visio. Get something more in the range of at least 1Ghz and 512MB and you will have more fun. Personally, I run Visio 2007 Pro on a 1.6GHz Centrino with 1 gig of RAM. No complains here - everything works perfect.
Other system recommendations/requirements from Microsoft are:
- a display with the resolution of 1024x768
Well, that's a given for any kind of presentation application. The bigger your screen, the better.
- Microsoft SharePoint Services 3.0 or SharePoint Server 2007 running on a Windows Server 2003 SP1 machine to benefit from enhanced collaboration functions.
Office Visio 2007 (standard and professional) offer collaboration capabilities with SharePoint Server 2007. Of course you need it running somewhere if you want to use that feature.
- Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
- Internet connectivity for certain functions
- In case you want to make use of the speech recognition functions, you will of course need a microphone.
3. Differences between the standard and the professional version
Basically, the standard version features all the shapes and templates you will need to plan and document your average company needs: Administration, Flowcharts, Organizational diagrams, brainstorming, the works (see list above). The standard version also features some of the improvements over the 2003 version, which we will look at later.
The Professional version features an extended list of shapes and templates and connectivity features which apply more to the engineers and people in need of "technical stuff". House planning and floor planning, network diagrams, electrical diagrams, etc. are domain of the professional version of Visio 2007. Also, if you want to make use of the new "Data Graphics" functionality (explained below) you will need the pro package.
Here is a list of all the main features and which version has which feature:
Standard and Professional Version:
AutoConnect functionality
Autodesk AutoCAD capabilities
Brainstorming diagrams
Business process diagrams
Clip art integration
Context-sensitive Help and links to task-specific templates
Flowcharts
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 integration
Microsoft Office Project integration with Visio Gantt charts and timelines
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server integration through Document Workspaces
Microsoft Visual Studio programming support, including Microsoft .NET
Multilanguage and complete Unicode support
Organization charts
PDF and XPS file support
Review mode
Save as Web page with navigation controls
Shape customization
Shape data reporting
Microsoft Tablet PC support, including digital ink
Theme support
Timelines and calendars
Wizards for generating diagrams from existing data
Workflow shapes (3-D)
XML Web services integration
Oh, by the way... the PDF and XPS file support is only available as an add-in to be downloaded from Microsoft.
Professional version only:
Building, space, and floor plans
Data-driven solution support (including data-related APIs)
Data Graphics functionality
Data Link functionality
Database modeling diagrams with reverse engineering of any Open Database Connectivity–compliant data source
Directory services diagrams
Engineering diagrams—electrical, chemical, and more
ITIL diagrams
Logical network diagrams
Network rack diagrams
PivotDiagrams
Sample diagrams
Software diagramming and reverse engineering
Value stream maps
Web site mapping and documentation including auto-generation of Web site maps
So if your primary goal is documenting business decisions, organizational hierarchies and decision processes, you do not need much more than the standard version. Anything "technical" and you probably have to take the Pro package.
4. Differences to Visio 2003 - should I stay or should I go?
Visio 2007 doesn't look like much more than 2003 at first glance. One reason for that is that the new and very slick interface from the main applications of Microsoft's Office suite is not used in Visio 2007. While that is a minus, the new Visio still offers a lot of enhancements over the older 2003 version.
Some of those new features are:
1. The auto-connect feature:
A very neat little extra. If you put a shape close to another on your worksheet and you hover your mouse pointer over it, four arrows around the shape will appear pointing in all four directions. If you hover your mouse pointer over one of these arrows, any shapes nearby and in direction of the arrow become highlighted. If you click the arrow, the two shapes automatically become connected. In addition, if no other shape is near, clicking the arrow will automatically drag a highlighted shape out of the list onto the work area and connect it. This feature can be disabled, if one wishes.
2. Insert Text box:
A one-click way to insert a text box. Slightly faster than the old 2003 way but not really that important.
3. Removal of hidden information:
Basically a cleanup function that will erase unnecessary or hidden data out of Visio documents.
4. Sample diagrams (Pro version only):
Visio now offers samples of diagrams with already put in data. Good for beginners to get a quick glimpse of the capabilities of Visio and to look up "how it's done".
5. Theme feature:
This is one of the biggies of the whole new Office 2007 suite. All new 2007 office applications have the same set of themes which you can apply to your documents. Background, fonts, colors, etc. will be changed to a theme. This way, it's possible to make different documents out of different application look like one presentation. No more "ah, this is Excel, that's Word doc and that over there is Visio." Now everything will look (more or less) uniform.
6. New Templates and shapes:
Of course with the new Visio there is also a new bunch of templates and shapes:
- ITIL Diagram (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) template
- Pivot Diagram template
- Value Stream Mapping template
Other templates have been improved with more shapes, updated ones or just better looking little pictures.
7. Data Graphics (Pro version only):
This is a really cool little gizmo. With this feature you can add data to a shape. For example, you want to show a network diagram. In that diagram all the computers need to have a box near them telling the type of CPU. Instead of putting a text box near every computer-shape you can now put the data in the computer-shape and tell Visio how to show it. Other uses are ready to go diagrams that can be filled with data, like a deployment chart for example. Very useful and smart.
8. Data Link (Pro version only):
Like Data Graphics but improved. With this function you can put data in your shapes from external sources, like Excel spreadsheets or Access databases. So say you have that network diagram and all the specs for the computers are in an external database. With this feature, you can link it together without having to type everything manually.
9. Data refresh (Pro version only):
It gets better. Data put into shapes can be refreshed automatically by Visio.
10. External Data Window (Pro version only):
Lets you view all the data attached to diagrams in spreadsheet format.
11. Task pane for Data Refresh conflicts (Pro version only):
In case there is a problem with feature no.9, this function can help you solve it.
12. Office Project 2007 and Sharepoint Server 2007 reporting (Pro version only):
Using the new Visio 2007 Pivot Diagram template you can now create extensive visual reports from those two programs. Note that the standard version still offers the Office Project and Sharepoint Server integration, but you cannot generate reports, due to the Pivot Diagram Template being a part of the Pro package only.
Personally, I have to say the Data Graphics function with the possibility to link data to external sources and even refreshing that is a really cool feature that justifies an upgrade. Of course, if your company decides to make heavy use of Sharepoint Server 2007, then there is almost no way past Visio 2007. If your main goal is just smaller documentations, diagrams or flowcharts, you can safely stick with 2003.
5. Usability - easy or painful to use?
Well, I said it earlier... VERY easy to use. Visio offers everything to make your life easy. Assistants, help functions and sample templates to get you started. When you work on a document, a snap on grid will ensure all shapes that are supposed to connect will do exactly that. Have you ever tried to come up with a flowchart in Word? Very time consuming. Here, with Visio, it's just a few mouse clicks. Literally. It offers all the help you need to come up with precise drawings and diagrams, like snap to grid, the new autoconnect feature, zoom (everything is vector based, so you won't run into any "pixel problems") and tons more.
The installation is pretty straightforward too, as there are not many options. All in all a very easy program to use. At my workplace, I have two co-workers who are able to come up with flowcharts and diagrams in no time and those people are not the most computer literate persons to say the least (and to be polite).
I have done network diagrams with Visio, flowcharts, organizational charts, even road maps and user manuals. And I haven't even scraped at the surface of Visio's capabilities. And all that without ever reading any sort of manual.
Of course, higher functions like the new Data Graphics feature might actually require you to take at least a look at the onboard help, but with the new included Samples, most of the features are explained and shown in there.
6. Visio document format - viewing your work
Visio saves every file as a visio drawing by default. Unless you have Visio yourself or a Visio Viewer (a separate piece of software), you cannot view those documents. Luckily, Visio understands other file formats too. You have the option of saving your drawing as a simple picture (jpg, png, gif, tif, bmp), as a web page or as an AutoCad file (dwg, dxf). Visio files in XML format are possible too, as are Visio 2002 compatible drawings. So if you want to share your masterpiece, you will find enough ways to do so.
Other supported file formats are: scalable vector graphics svg and svgz (compressed), enhanced Metafile emf and emz (compressed) and windows metafile wmf.
By the way, the Visio Viewer is available as a free download from Microsoft's website.
7. Who can upgrade to Visio 2007 Professional?
You already have an earlier version of Visio and you want to get an upgrade to the new package? Lucky you...
The following former Visio editions qualify for an upgrade to Visio 2007 Pro:
Microsoft Visio Pro 2000 & 2002
Microsoft Office Visio Pro 2003
Microsoft Visio Standard 2000 & 2002
Microsoft Visio Standard 2003
And of course, if you for some reason already bought Visio 2007 standard you can get an upgrade to Pro too. You don't have to buy a new full version. So basically, you can upgrade from any Visio version since Visio 2000 to the newest one in the Professional variant.
8. Pricing
Yeah, sadly, Visio isn't cheap. Here is the price list:
Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Professional Full Version : $559.99
Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Standard Full Version : $259.99
Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Professional Upgrade : $379.99
Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Standard Upgrade : $129.99
9. Criticism - not everything that shines is gold...or is it?
Well, there is not really much to criticise.
Personally, I still think Microsoft should expand their list of shapes more. Not the templates, but the shapes within. I am still missing some shapes for some of the templates. An example: You will find shapes for 38 (16 regular and 16 rack mounted) different server types in Visio. Mobile phones have been split up in "Cell Phone" and "Smart Phone". You even get "IMac" and "new IMac" icons. You get drowned in computer and networking icons/shapes. But you only get around 30 landmark icons/shapes if you want to do a road map. And I would like more furniture and interior decoration items for house plans.
(BUT: Lots of templates are available from the Microsoft Office website for download. Before you think it's not in Visio, check on that website.)
Secondly: Microsoft has introduced a neat little "Getting started" screen when you open Visio. Easy to access menus help you pick out a project to start. But when you close all open projects, the work area stays empty and gray. It would have been nice to have that "getting started" screen pop up again to start anew. But at least you can start it manually.
As you can see I am nitpicking here. And that is because I really haven't found big flaws in this application. Well... there might be one. I would have really liked the new Office 2007 interface in this program too. Hopefully next time.
10. The final verdict - to buy or not to buy
Visio is an outstanding piece of software. There is hardly any documentation that you cannot do with it. The fact that you can import shapes into it makes it even more flexible. A lot of computer hardware companies for example offer Visio shapes (sometimes called "stencils") for download so you can document a network containing that companies hardware.
Keep in mind though that Visio is a tool for use in a lot of different fields. I have heard people complaining that especially in the technical field it's kind of the Jack of all trades but master of none. What does that mean? An example:
While Visio is perfect to use for business documentation, the usability in some of the technical areas might be limited. I am not sure I would use Visio to come up with a plan of a house (other than a quick preview plan) or the electrical cable layout for an office building. The number of shapes are limited in that area. AutoCAD and other programs might be better suited for that job. The real pro probably would use a real CAD application.
But is it really Visio's goal to make real CAD obsolete? No. And I think people who want to use Visio for that should think twice before getting it. Visio is not an architects tool for example. But if it's your job to document emergency procedures for a company building and you need a office layout for a fire escape plan, Visio is your thing. Stuff like that is what Visio is made for. And stuff like that is what Visio is unbeaten at.
The best thing you can do is try it out yourself. On Microsoft's Website is a trial version available that is fully functional (only limited to 60 days I think). There is no better way to evaluate if you can use it or not.
One thing to keep in mind when you get Visio 2007:
From personal experience I can only tell you to get the Pro package. That has nothing to do with Visio or Microsoft, but with software in general. Why? Because even if you are perfectly fine with your standard version today, you don't know when you might want to upgrade to a newer and bigger version package later. And depending on the license agreement, it might not always be possible to upgrade from a standard version now to a professional one in the future. As I have shown, so far even earlier standard versions of Visio can be updated to Pro versions now. But do you know if Microsoft keeps it that way? And it would be a pity to be basically buying a new, more expensive full-version software package, just because you saved money earlier. So when your budget allows the Pro package, get it.
At the end of the day, all I can say is: I have it, I use it often and I am happy that I got it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
twofish72
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Member: Michael Opitz
Location: Wisconsin
Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 0 members
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