the ultimate in business documentation tools
Written: Nov 05 '06 (Updated Nov 05 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: lots of functions, expandable, VERY easy to use
Cons: for some very specific fields maybe to few shapes
The Bottom Line: Microsoft Office Visio 2003 is a brilliant piece of software. Easy to use, flexible, expandable and loaded with functions. Worth a look!
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| twofish72's Full Review: Microsoft Visio Professional 2003 (D8701588) |
I am a huge fan of this program so forgive me if I go overboard in this review once in a while. But honestly... Microsofts Visio 2003 Professional is hands down one of the best 2D documentation tools available, period. I say "documentation tool" because you can use it for such a wide array of tasks that I have a hard time naming the category right that Visio 2003 Pro falls in. Microsoft calls it the "Office and technical diagramming program". But in my opinion, you can do a lot more with it.
So, calming down a bit, breathing... what can Visio 2003 really do?
The capabilities
I am a System Manager for a small company and responsible (amongst other things) for documenting our computer network. This is where I got in touch with Visio first. After I found it a blast to document my network with it, I started playing around with it's features and tried to find out what else it can do. It's possibilities seem to be almost endless.
For those of you, who have never seen Visio, you basically drag and drop all sorts of shapes or icons (called stencils in Visio) from different categories onto your worksheet and label them. It's easy as that. You can manipulate almost any aspect of the shape, size, color, rotation, number of connections, direction of connections, name, etc, etc. In doing so, you can create flowcharts, network diagrams, blueprints, street maps, floor plans and a lot more. To give you an idea of what you can do, here is the category of stencils (shapes) that you have at your disposal in Visio 2003 Pro:
1. standard block shapes : Includes basic geometrical shapes for illustration purposes.
2. Brainstorming : Includes all kinds of pictures, icons, arrows necessary for documenting your brainstorming sessions
3. Building Plan : Includes all the shapes you need for a building plan, floorplan or blueprint. I wouldn't go as far as to say you won't need any architectural software anymore, but for documenting your project, this should be more than sufficient. Shapes are included for things like Alarm and Access Control, Appliances, Building Core, Bath & Kitchen, Cabinets, Cubicles, electrical and telecom, general furniture, garden, HVAC control/Equipment/Ductworks, Pipes, Plants, Plumbing, etc, etc.
4. Business Process : Includes all the shapes you need for your flowcharts and documenting business processes and analyses.
5. Charts and Graphs : general charts and graphs for marketing for example
6. Database : Includes the shapes you need for documenting your database
7. Electrical Engineering: This list is just way too long to type up here, but the list is just as extensive as the building plan one.
8. Flowchart : A special collection of shapes specifically made for flowcharts.
9. Map : Includes shapes to create landscape- or street maps for example
10.Mechanical Engineering: Again, the list would be too long.
11.Network : Includes shapes to document your computer network, the organisational and physical part. Also includes objects for Active Directory and lots of other shapes.
12.Organization : Includes the shapes you need to come up with those handy organisational charts
13.Process Engineering : Again, the list is too long.
14.Project Schedule : All the shapes you need to document on the timeline of your project.
15.Software : Includes the shapes you need to document on your software development
16.Web : Includes shapes you need to document your website.
Now it would be foolish to think or say that Visio 2003 simply contains all the shapes you will ever need to document on ANY project. But you can download new stencils and shapes off the internet. Importing them into Visio is a piece of cake.
Using Visio 2003 Pro
Even people who are not that familiar with the use of 2D designing software can work through the program and can come up with the needed diagram pretty easily. I gave it to one of our people at work, who really is not the most computer literate person (Quote: "Why do I need a network cable if I want to receive email?") and that person came up with good, clear flowcharts within no time. It is really very easy to work with. My boss gave me a organizational chart that he drew in a couple of hours on a piece of paper with a pencil. He said he would like it to look good so he can give out a printed version in his next presentation and I should see what I can do. Within 40 minutes I presented the Visio version of that chart to him and he was very pleased and astonished.
Bottom line: It's so easy to use that it is one of the few programs you probably won't need to buy additional documentation of...unless you want to dig into the deepest hidden functions of the program.
Installing the program
Insert Cd, run setup program, wait 10-20 minutes...done. Yes again, it's that easy.
Hardware Requirements
The installation needs under 200MB of memory on your harddrive when it is installed. If your system runs Office 2003 fine, then it will have no problem running Visio 2003 too. Depending on the size of the project you want to document, RAM is the only thing to keep an eye on. Most of our machines have 256 MB and Visio runs fine. Microsoft states Visio 2003 needs 128 MB RAM, I have tried it on one of our older computers and it works ok with 128 MB, but not great if you want to do a huge project. But with that low amount ouf memory, I think Windows itself is the bottleneck, not necessarily Visio.
Viewing your work
If somebody else wants to have a look at your project, he needs to have Visio too - if he wants to change it. If you just want somebody else to be able to look at it, that person either needs to have Visio Viewer, smaller application available from Microsoft, which serves kind of like an PDF-Reader for Visio files. If you don't want to or can't get that separate application, then there is the option of exporting it to different formats. JPG, BMP, TIF and WMF are available for the simpler projects, but you can also export to Visio 2002 format, AutoCAD drawing or exchange format, HTML, SVG or EMZ format.
Differences between Standard and Professional
The differences are mainly in the number of shapes available. While the standard version offers you everything you need to create flowcharts, organizational charts and project schedules, basically everything business related, the Professional Version offers you all the other shapes too (technical, developing, web, computer, etc, etc.)
Try it out
There is no way of really telling if that program is exactly what you need until you have it. Luckily Microsoft offers a 30 day trial version of Visio 2003 Professional that is a fully functional product. I can only encourage you to do that if you in any way, shape or form have a need for a piece of software that enables you to create documentation of processes in the broadest sense.
My personal opinion
Microsoft Office Visio 2003 is a brilliant piece of software. Easy to use, flexible, expandable and loaded with functions it offers you all the tools you need to create documentations for almost any possible part of your business. For the everyday tasks of documentation, you will be hard pressed finding a better product. If you look for something really specific and special in terms of getting the optimum for a specific field of work, let's say, being an architect for example, you might want to look for something else. You will be able to get a blueprint for a house done pretty fast and easily, but Visio will not be able to substitute a good 2D CAD program like AutoCAD.
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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