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Microsoft Visio Professional 2002
All-in-one professional diagram application.
By Jon Deragon,
Visca Consulting
Tuesday, October 7, 2003; 3:00pm EST
Visio Professional fills the need for an all-in-one professional
diagram application with its ability to do just about any diagram a
business could need. Flowcharting, organization charts, floor plans,
network infrastructures, and just about any other type of diagram can
be made quickly and easily. Using its familiar Microsoft style
interface and simple to use drag and drop pre-made icons, arrows,
shapes and lines - just about anyone can produce professional looking
diagrams.
There are so many situations these days, where a visualization of what
you are proposing to a client speaks volumes. For example you are
submitting a proposal to rebuild a web presence for a client and need
to show them how it will be structured. With Visio Professional,
within a short period of time you can build a very compelling chart
that outlines how all of the web pages would be interlinked and how
the site flowed. All you need to do is drag and drop the appropriate
shapes from its "Conceptual Web Site" library of shapes, adjust their
sizing if needed, drag lines between the shapes to create the web
structure and you have a diagram! Then you can do finishing touches
like adding text labels to the shapes, increasing or decreasing line
sizes, modifying text or line colors - everything is customizable!
We were impressed by the number of shapes, icons and lines available
in each of the many category based libraries. All of which are
scalable to the size you desire and snap onto the diagram's "grid" for
easy alignment. And since its object based, its very easy to move,
remove, group and layout objects on the diagram. We were disappointed
however, that the connecting lines and arrows between objects
sometimes were prone to not straightening out properly unless "played
around" with.
There were also a handful of "cool" and useful features that popped up
here and there in the program. Web site mapping allows automated
creation of web site diagrams, just tell it a web address and Visio
will do all the work! Create standard or 3D driving direction maps
using common items like roads, building, cards, trees and gas
stations.
Installation of the program was pleasantly a non-event, taking a
surprisingly short period of time and required very little interaction
from the user. Minimum requirements for running Visio Professional are
a Pentium 200MHz with anywhere from 40MB to 176MB of memory depending
on the Windows operating system its running on and 170MB free hard
drive space. We found the program on our text box (Pentium III 800MHz,
512MB memory and 20GB free space, running Windows XP) to be fast
during diagram creation. But very sluggish when starting new diagrams
or loading existing diagram files, with even simple diagrams taking
quite some time to load.
Overall, we liked Visio Professional's ability to rapidly translate
your ideas into concise diagrams to show anyone from fellow
co-workers, to potential clients. It is a great addition to the
Microsoft Office family of products, and its feature set and
performance for the most part warranted the $499US price tag. A
slightly less feature rich "Standard" version of the program is
available, and retails for a more wallet friendly $199US. Upgrade and
competitive product pricing is also available for both versions.
About The Author
Jon Deragon is president and founder of Visca Consulting, a firm
specializing in web site design, development and usability for
businesses of all sizes. His many years in the technology industry has
enabled him to write quality, in-depth product reviews to assist
businesses make more informed technology purchases. He welcomes any
questions or comments you may have regarding his company's services,
this review or interest in having your company's products reviewed.
info@viscaconsulting.com
http://www.viscaconsulting.com/
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