Microsoft Visio 2002

Product Guide

Published: March 2001

Revised: June 2002

For the latest information, please see

The Microsoft® Visio® 2002 Product Guide is designed to assist you in your evaluation of Microsoft Visio 2002. It contains key design goals, new and improved functionality, and the benefits of these new features.

Visio 2002 reflects three major areas of improvement: helping users make an increased visual impact with Visio diagrams, integrating Visio more closely with other applications, and making Visio easier for organizations to deploy, maintain, and customize. This document provides an overview of Visio and details new and improved features and their corresponding benefits.

Introduction

Microsoft Visio is a stand-alone diagramming solution that helps people visualize and communicate ideas, information, and systems. Visio helps you both define and document the complexities of your daily work life, and effectively share your ideas and information with others. When you incorporate Visio diagrams into Office documents, your message becomes more concise, people are more likely to remember main points, and cultural and technical barriers are more easily overcome.

Visio has three main roles:

  1. Complements Microsoft Office Business professionals can create information-rich diagrams that complement and extend the work they do in Office programs.
  2. Facilitates technical design, deployment, and maintenance Technical professionals can diagram and document ideas, information, and systems to facilitate IT deployments, extend the use of developer tools, and even document facilities layouts and engineering plans.
  3. Enables development of custom visual solutions Visio provides the ability to create custom shapes and stencils to support organizational standards and can be used to build wide-scale custom visual solutions.

Within each of these roles, Visio provides three key benefits. These benefits include the ability to 1) easily make an impact by quickly creating and sharing professional-looking diagrams, 2) understand ideas, information, and systems through a broad range of task-specific solutions that integrate with other Microsoft products, and 3) benefit from the diagramming standard using a single, customizable diagramming program that can be deployed across the organization.

Easily Make an Impact

Visio provides the tools you need to quickly create and share professional-looking diagrams. The familiar Microsoft Office environment makes Visio easy to learn and use. And with Visio you don’t need drawing expertise to create professional-looking diagrams. You can assemble diagrams quickly and easily by dragging pre-defined Microsoft SmartShapes® symbols from stencils onto the drawing page. Built-in borders, backgrounds, and color schemes help you add a professional look to your diagrams. Easily share diagrams by copying them into Office documents or saving them as detailed Web pages.

Understand Ideas, Information, and Systems

Visio supports a broad range of task-specific diagram types, from process flows and organization charts, to office and building layouts, to network, web, and database topologies, and more. Many diagrams can be generated automatically from data stored in Microsoft Excel, Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and other common data sources. Store data in custom property fields and generate reports, or export Visio diagrams to common exchange formats.

Benefit From the Diagramming Standard

Visio provides a single, customizable diagramming standard that is easy for organizations to deploy and maintain. Visio products share a common file format, so users can exchange diagrams across the organization, regardless of which Visio product they use. Visio Standard and Visio Professional are based on the Visio diagramming engine, which can be used to develop custom visual solutions. Plus, organizations can perform efficient wide-scale deployments with tools for installing and maintaining Visio on thousands of desktops.

The Visio family includes two products designed to meet the needs of specific groups of users:

Microsoft Visio Standard provides diagramming solutions that help business professionals—such as project managers, sales and marketing professionals, HR personnel, administrative staff, and others—visualize and share information about the people, projects, and processes they work with every day.

Microsoft Visio Professional helps technical professionals—IT, developer, and engineering professionals—visualize existing ideas, information, and systems and prototype new ones. Visio Professional also includes the business diagramming solutions found in Visio Standard.

Visio products share a common file format, so users can exchange diagrams, regardless of which Visio product they use. Visio Standard and Visio Professional also include the Visio diagramming engine for developing custom visual solutions.

Design Goals

The design goals for Visio 2002 correspond to the three themes above and include the following: increased visual impact, tighter integration with other applications, and improved deployment, maintenance, and customization.

 Increased Visual Impact 

Visio 2002 helps you easily make an impact with tools for creating better-looking diagrams than ever and sharing them in the context of your everyday business communications. The Visio 2002 product line is also easier to learn and use, with many classic Office features, as well as new features shared with Office XP. And a number of online resources make it easier than ever to boost your productivity.

Better-Looking Diagrams
Smoother graphics
and text
IMPROVED / Lines and text are smoother than in previous versions, and gradient fills appear clearer when viewed electronically.
Richer color
IMPROVED / Visio now supports over 16 million colors per document.
Clip art integration
NEW / Visio provides built-in access to clip art installed with Microsoft Office, as well as tens of thousands of images, sounds, and videos available online.
Scanner and digital camera interface
NEW / Enhance Visio diagrams by importing images or photos directly from a scanner or digital camera.
Photo
editing tools
NEW / Crop, group, or change the fill, border, shadow, or transparency of imported graphics within Visio.
Diagram Sharing
Save as
Web Page
IMPROVED / Diagrams saved as Web pages include a custom properties viewer, built-in navigation, and improved hyperlink positioning. Multiple hyperlinks can be displayed for a single shape.
In-place editing within Office documents
IMPROVED / Double-click a diagram within an Office document, and get access to more Visio tools for making updates and revisions.
Easier To Learn and Use
Choose
Drawing Type
NEW / The Choose Drawing Type dialog opens when Visio is launched to help users visualize and access the appropriate diagram template.
Getting
Started Tour
NEW / The Getting Started Tour provides an introduction to Visio, a sample diagram library, and the basic steps involved in creating Visio diagrams.
Answer
Wizard Help
NEW / Answer Wizard Help enables users to type questions directly into the Ask a Question box. A list of related Help topics appears, including links to new and updated topics on the Web.
Find Shape
NEW / The Find Shape tool provides search capabilities for installed shapes as well as additional shapes available on the Web. Download new shapes by dragging them from the results pane onto the page.
Streamlined work environment
IMPROVED / The Pan and Zoom, Custom Properties, and Drawing Explorer windows can be merged into a single, page-tabbed window and docked in the stencil pane to provide additional workspace.
Search
IMPROVED / Users can now search diagrams for information contained in custom properties, shape names, and user-defined cells, in addition to shape text.
Familiar Environment
Office XP interface
IMPROVED / Visio has the new Office XP new look for improved usability and overall experience.
Personalized menus
NEW / Menus include the same personalization options that make Office applications easy to learn, prominently featuring the most-used items and keeping others easily accessible.
Task Pane
NEW / The task pane helps users open or start documents, view the contents of the clipboard, perform searches, or insert clip art (Office XP required for clip art integration).
Common
Office tools
NEW / Common Office tools such as AutoCorrect behavior, familiar keyboard shortcuts, and the Office spelling checker are now built in to Visio.
Online Resources
Tools on
the Web
NEW / Visio articles, tips and tricks, product updates, and add-on solutions on the Microsoft Office Tools on the Web site help business users increase their productivity.
Technical resources
IMPROVED / Technical Visio articles are available through MSDN®, TechNet, and the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

 More Integrated 

Individual Visio solutions help you better understand ideas, information, and systems through tighter integration with other products and technologies. Many solutions have been improved to be easier to use and to help you work more effectively.

Business Solutions: Visio Standard and Visio Professional
Microsoft Project integration
NEW / Import dates and tasks from Microsoft Project to create Visio timelines and Gantt charts.
Timeline and Gantt chart interoperability
NEW / Export dates and milestones in a timeline to create a Gantt chart, and vice versa.
Multiple, interchangeable organization chart fields
IMPROVED / Display an unlimited number of custom properties on organization charts. Users can change which properties are displayed after the diagram has been generated.
3D directional maps
NEW / Create maps of small areas and other locations requiring detailed documentation.
Office
layout shapes
NEW / New shapes represent curved walls and office cubicles.
Office shape resizing
IMPROVED / Resize office layout shapes using new dimension labels or by specifying custom property values.
Office shape behavior
IMPROVED / Doors and windows automatically fall into place when dropped on a wall shape.
CAD integration
IMPROVED / Individual CAD entities can be converted into Visio shapes.
Technical Solutions: Visio Professional
Microsoft Exchange 2000 server shapes
NEW / New shapes represent Exchange objects in Microsoft Active Directory.
Web site mapping
IMPROVED / Users have increased control over discovery and layout. A new List window enables easy navigation by displaying Web site elements in a tree view.
Web site
reports
NEW / Users can generate a complete report of all the links in a Web site, including broken links. The reporting tool can identify changes in a Web site since it was last diagrammed.
Software and database diagramming interface
IMPROVED / Users can work more quickly by adding new fields consecutively to database tables or software classes.
SQL Server
2000 support
NEW / Users can reverse engineer and diagram schema for SQL Server 2000, in addition to other databases.
Database diagram generation
IMPROVED / Building a database diagram from the Tables window is faster than in previous versions. Also, users no longer need to drag tables from the Tables window to create a diagram after reverse engineering a database.
Visual Studio.net support
NEW / Users can reverse engineer and diagram Microsoft Visual Basic® 6 and Visual C++® 6 projects. Support for Visual Basic 7, Visual C++ 7, and Visual C# will be provided through a service release when Microsoft Visual Studio®.net becomes available.
Curved walls
NEW / New shapes represent curved walls; any flat wall can be transformed into a curved wall. Users can easily change the curvature of curved wall shapes.
Wall intersection cleanup
NEW / Visio automatically cleans up wall intersections, reducing the amount of cleanup required in creating building plans.
Floor plan
data import
NEW / Users can automatically populate floor plans with data stored in Active Directory, Exchange, Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, or other ODBC-compliant data sources.
Floor plan
color by value
NEW / Visio enables users to automatically assign colors to shapes, such as offices in a floor plan, based on custom property values.
AutoCAD compatibility
IMPROVED / Visio now enables users to see all model space views supported by AutoCAD paper space.
Component attribute management
IMPROVED / The process engineering solution now displays component information in the Custom Properties window, eliminating the need for an external database.
Process engineering tagging
IMPROVED / Engineers can manually tag process engineering components and selectively retag them. Tags can also be generated based on component custom property data.
Process engineering
pipe routing
IMPROVED / Users get enhanced control of pipe layout with support for junctions, as well as splitting and healing of pipe segments by valves and other process engineering components.

 More Available and Maintainable 

Visio features several improvements that make it a stronger diagramming standard than ever. A streamlined product line simplifies purchase decisions for organizations, while other improvements enable improved customization and tighter interoperability. Finally, familiar deployment technologies enable organizations to deploy and maintain Visio on thousands of desktops.

Streamlined Product Line
Visio Standard
IMPROVED / Designed for business professionals. Includes Visio 2000 Standard solutions, plus new and improved features.
Visio Professional
IMPROVED / Designed for business and technical professionals. Includes Visio Standard, plus all solutions formerly available in Visio Professional and Visio Technical.
Multi-Language Support
Available in
13 languages
NEW / Visio Standard and Visio Professional are available in 13 languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish. Visio Network Tools is available in English, French, German, and Japanese.
Interoperability and Customization
XML file
format
NEW / The new XML file format enables interoperability with other XML-enabled applications and facilitates storage and exchange of diagram-based information, including data not associated with a page or shape.
Object model
NEW / Over 90 new Automation properties and methods provide access to more Visio diagram data.
COM add-ins
NEW / Visio enables developers to extend and enhance Visio programmatically through COM add-ins.
Visual Basic for Applications 6.3
NEW / Developers can extend and enhance Visio functionality using built-in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) 6.3.
Digital signatures for VBA projects
NEW / Microsoft Authenticode® technology allows developers to digitally sign the VBA projects in their solutions using a digital certificate that identifies the developer as a trusted source. If a signed project has been altered, a user can choose to disable macros in a Visio document.
VBA installation options
NEW / Administrators and/or users have the option of removing Visual Basic for Applications from Office installations on a user, group, or organization-wide basis.
Developing
Visio Solutions
NEW / This helpful guide provides many resources for developing custom Visio solutions. It is now available on the Microsoft Developer Center at
Reduced User Downtime
Auto Update
NEW / The Auto Update utility analyzes a user’s Visio installation, recommends relevant updates, and makes them immediately available for download and installation.
Document recovery
NEW / Users can choose to save their current files at the time an error occurs in an application. As a result, users spend less time recreating their diagrams.
Application
error reporting
NEW / For added assurance and diagnostic help, users can prompt Visio to automatically report application errors to Microsoft.
Application and document recovery
NEW / Users can choose to safely shut down a non-responding application while initiating recovery of the document.
Auto Recover
NEW / Users can choose how often files are automatically saved. If an error occurs, the recovered file is opened, and users have the option of discarding the file, saving it over the original, or saving it as a separate file.
Deployment and Maintenance
Windows Installer
NEW / Like Office, Visio can be deployed using Windows® Installer technology. Windows Installer simplifies desktop management. End users can install additional Visio features on demand—features are added only as needed or as disk space allows. IT administrators can use Install on Demand to determine which features to deploy to different groups of users, thus improving manageability. In addition, the self-repair feature reduces support costs—Visio detects and fixes missing or corrupt files, so users don’t waste time troubleshooting.
Custom Installation Wizard
NEW / Visio uses the Office Installation Wizard, which provides control over customized installations, including silent and unattended installations.
SMS-based deployment
NEW / Systems Manager Server (SMS) support simplifies installation. Organizations can create packages for automatic deployment to specified user groups on the local network and at remote sites.
Secure Windows Environment
NEW / System administrators can more effectively install and run Visio in a secure Windows environment. Features such as install on demand and detect and repair are now accessible to users without local administrator privileges. Multiple, concurrent users will benefit from improved Terminal Server support.
Visio
Resource Kit
NEW / This Web-based tool guides administrators through specific scenarios to ease deployment efforts.

System Requirements

The following components are required to install and use Microsoft Visio:

 Visio Standard 2002 

To use Microsoft Visio Standard the recommended system is Windows 2000 Professional on a computer with a Pentium III processor and 128MB of RAM. The minimum system requirements include: