Customer Reviews

Microsoft Visio Professional 2002 [Old Version]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The newest version of Visio is the first version built completely by Microsoft since the product was acquired. It's a part of the XP family of products and an official member of the Office XP family.

Sporting the XP interface it has features that I am excited about: (1) Professional and Technical versions are combined. You get IT and facilities diagrams and wizards in the same package. (2) You can create diagrams that can export properties to XML. The possibilities are endless: exchange product data with suppliers and customers based on your own product's attributes, export bill of materials to ERP systems, manage assets and get control of total cost of ownership and export process model data to other tools. (3) You can directly scan images or download photos from digital cameras into Visio and use the new photo editing tools to enhance or modify the images to suit your needs. (4) Analyze your web site and develop a complete report of all links. A powerful feature is spotting broken links, making this a good tool for your quality assurance group.

I do not like the possible "gotchas" in the web link feature. Specifically, When you type a hyperlink in a Microsoft Office XP application (of which this version is a part), it has been reported that the application will alter what you've typed, without notifying you or giving you an opportunity to undo the "correction." Not good.

Before making a purchase decision there are issues and factors that you need to consider very carefully. As part of the XP family of products, Visio 2002, like the XP operating system and Office family, will require activation over the Internet once it's been installed. You can bring it up and use it 5 times before activation, but after that it will not work. This is Microsoft's defense against piracy, and at first glance is a sensible scheme. However, if you reinstall it you have to call Microsoft and get instructions. This is NOT a sensible scheme for a number of reasons. First, I travel, and sometimes outside of the country. Calling Redmond is not viable if my system crashes and I need to reload applications. Second, if I want to upgrade my hard drive I cannot simply reinstall this application (or any of the "XP" family applications or operating systems) because when I first activated it there is an entry made in some database somewhere that says this application is already installed and cannot be activated again. The solution is to call and have some unknown drone bypass big brother. What is this going to cause me in lost productivity?

If you need the features (and they are compelling) and can live with the possible web link problem and licensing and activation issues, then this is a worthwhile product. Think long and hard about the issues part, though, because it has ramifications that can be much more serious than I've described. On the other hand, perhaps a wave of good sense will descend upon Redmond and they come up with a more workable solution that shows they care about customers and understand stuff like total cost of ownership and the value of productivity.

Personally, I am passing this one by (along with the other XP products) until/unless there is a better way to recover from disasters like hard disk crashes or upgrade my system without the barriers that have been placed by the vendor. My productivity and sanity is worth more to me than the new features. You have my opinion and must decide for yourself.

I have used Visio at school for a little while now, and recently purchased my own copy of it. It is unbelievable how much stuff you can do with this program! If you need to create technical diagrams, floor plans, organizational charts, or even just run of the mill flow charts, you can't beat Visio 2002 Professional. This program will serve all of your charting and diagramming needs (literally). For students and teachers, a version of Visio 2002 can be a lifesaver, because it will make your life a whole lot easier when creating complicated diagrams. For others, this program can help bring a little order to chaos. Diagram your house, your schedule, timelines, anything. This software works great for it all. Most users will, however, be able to get by on the Standard version and save themselves a chunk of money. If you are not in need of as much technical diagramming power, then you have no need for this professional version.

Contrary to Emma's comments, Visio is by far the best program there is for organizational or structure charts. Word and Powerpoint take much, much longer to get things to align and link properly. I've been using Visio since long before Microsoft bought them out. I've also tried other programs in various other countries that just don't seem to get it.

A drawback on the current version is that it's much more difficult to drill down to specific shapes/text boxes included in a group than it used to be in older versions.

You could easily create any data type for any programming language. Just read the online help.

1. Open the UML diagram file that represents your system.

2. Right-click the UML System icon in the tree view, click Packages, and then click New.

3. In the Package column, type a name for the data types package (for example, Java Data Types), type or choose other package properties, and then click OK.

4. Right-click the new package, then click New, and then click Datatype.

5. Type a name for the data type, type or choose the other properties you want, and then click OK.

An icon for the new data type is added below the package in the tree view.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have added all the data types you need.

7. If you want the new data types to appear in each new system model you create, save the file as a template. In the Save As dialog box, for Save As Type, choose Template (*.vst). Open this template when you start a new model.

I recently upgraded to this new version of Visio and I'm very much pleased with its intuitive user interface that provides an array of tools for presenting information visually. Whether its an Office layout or computer network, Visio 2002, bridges the gap when it comes to defining how data is understood and interpreted in different scenarios. The update to this application has adapted most of the common elements of Microsoft Office, which makes it very easy to learn and share among other Office applications. Integration with Word and PowerPoint is flawless. The shapes are many and satisfactory to build that particular diagram. Simple drag and drop adds to the simplicity of the program. Visio 2002 does have some drawbacks though, this includes the consistency in terms of the components of the application with other Office applications. For instance, the WordArt gallery is actually the old type and not the new one with the more inviting colourful WordArt you are probably accustomed to using in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. The application still needs to improve on how the user can manuvre connectors if they are building networks. Visio 2002 Professional is very flexible, I even use it to create flyers and time lines that are usually used in Project management. It provides a comprehensive set of tools to make diagraming an essential tool in most IT work spaces, for the average user though forking out the amount for this product may not be recommended, but with the array of tools it provides, it is truly a solution for any organization.

I have owned this version for two weeks. To date, I have only used the tool to create an organizational chart and to map databases and websites. The results are spectacular.
The diagrams were precise and detailed.

Although I am a first time user, the intuitive drawing tools allowed me to concentrate on my work, not the program. Being a part of the XP family helped. With the familiar Office tool bar, it was a no-brainer for me to orient myself to the product and its feature. It is easy to create diagrams and export them to or from other products in the XP office suite or to the internet in XML.

In my mind the activation argument is over-blown. Microsoft is entitled to piracy protection. The only information the user is required to submit during the process is the country of origin. The program's graphics, enhanced text and color options more than make up for this inconvenience.

There is not a better single source documentation tool on the market.

But it doesn't go far enough. Visio is one of those really cool, fun, products that you start to use and then you say "ok, but where do I go from here?"

One quite bizarre example is the database module for ER diagramming: It will REVERSE engineer a database beautifully, but... why would I want to do that if I can't use the diagram for anything but documentation purposes? So you think to yourself, "well, ok, I have ERwin, so I'll just export it to that...", but then you find out that Visio can IMPORT an ERwin model, but not export one??? What a strange omission! If Visio could export an ERwin model, I could buy ONE seat of a $4000 forward engineering database tool, and innumerable seats of $400 Visio! Then I could export to ERwin, forward engineer, and have my whole team using a very approachable, inexpensive tool to boot! I don't know, maybe even Microsoft if afraid of the mighty, abusive, litigous Computer Associates! This is kind of like the Dead Sea of software products: It will take you in, but you'll never get out!

In the software portion, it also is pretty much a dead end for forward engineering, although very cool and complete for documentation purposes, but Microsoft is also very tight with Rational and doesn't want to upset that apple cart either. One thing I was disappointed about was that nothing showed up as far as Java, C#, or .NET data types. I thought this was a little weird, as that's kind of the reason I upgraded. I didn't install it on my .NET server though, so maybe if you do that it picks that up, but to leave out Java is a little bit of an omission, I think.

On the plus side, the interface is beautiful, it does everything but the kitchen sink documentation wise, the shapes and the way they interact is downright magical, and the thing below about the software registration is really overblown: The only thing they make you provide is the country you reside in. In fact, it says right on the CD case "Don't lose this number! You must use it EVERY TIME you install this software." Microsoft is realistic: they know that you will most likely put it on at least two of your computers, and they're not in panic mode.

Bottom line: The best "single source" documentation tool ever devised is Visio 2002.

As a Project Manager in charge of diverse areas, ranging from software development responsibilities to administration of a production area, I've found this tool to be of extreme use since day one. This application allows to draw on a "white" canvas diagrams in ways that exceed any other tool in the market, including flowcharts, floor plans, office layouts, network diagrams, database ORMs, organization charts, etc. You name it and the software comes with a template of standard shapes for you to drag and drop, unite with arrows/lines as needed, and put out a professional-looking diagram in a matter of minutes (you need to put in the brainwork, no discussion about that, of course!)

If you are going to compare Visio with anything else, the "closest" thing would be the very limited charting capabilities offered by PowerPoint (no wonder Microsoft acquired the company that created Visio!) This is no substitute (never was meant to be) for Adobe Illustrator or any similar graphics program. Hands down, without a doubt, this is the de facto standard for drawing professional diagrams of all types in no time!

My boss is really into technology, and he bought this and claims it's great, so he asked me to do up an organization chart in Visio (he's capable of doing it himself, but doesn't want to waste his time on things he can delegate, understandably).

I'm pretty fast at working out how to use new programs, and, since this was a Microsoft one and I'm used to Office, I worked out quickly how to use it. However, I found it tedious to use, especially for such a simple chart. I ended up opening Word and just doing the chart up in there instead, since it was a lot faster.

If you're doing up a lot of complex charts, then this sounds like the program for you. But if you're only doing up simple charts, stick with MS Word and don't spend your money on this. I know I won't be using it again.

One would hope that a company with Microsoft's resources could produce a piece of working software and Visio does work. However, excluding Java from UML diagrams is such an outrageous affront to half the programming community that it's a 1 for me.