Crabby Office Lady

Visio 2007 has some impressive new and updated features that no other program has. And of course, you'll be working in that familiar Office environment, which is always...comforting. So even if you're new to Visio, take a moment to read this column: You may realize that this is the program for some of your more complicated projects.

In a nutshell, Visio is drawing and diagramming software. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Frankly, it is. For example, rather than working with complicated text formatting and tables, you can create a Visio diagram that will explain everything at a glance. And instead of static pictures, you can create data-connected diagrams that display your data and are easy to update. People use Visio for such things as figuring out how to streamline business processes, displaying hierarchies, creating floor plans and office spaces, and visualizing complicated network infrastructures (even typing that is complicated, and I barely know what it means anyway).

In other words, Visio is a pretty useful tool, and it's not hard to learn. (I know this because I've never been a Visio expert — in fact, I rarely write about it. But I have now changed my Zune, I mean my tune.) The program comes with diagrams, drawing templates, shapes, drawing tools, and even samples so you can start working right away. It's easy to get started and, frankly, Visio can be a lot of fun to just mess around with (not that I'm doing that on company time...ahem...) And then once you get the hang of it, you'll find all sorts of uses for it  — it's pretty versatile.

OK, you convinced me: Now what?

Maybe I've convinced you to keep reading. If so, let's explore what the new version of Visio has to offer. I can't cover everything, because there is a lot. So, once again, if you want to know more, head on up to the See also box in the top right corner of this column for more resources.

Before I get too deep into this, I need to tell you that Office Visio 2007 is available in two stand-alone editions, Office Visio Professional and Office Visio Standard. Visio Standard has the same basic functionality as Visio Professional but contains a subset of its features and templates. Office Visio Professional includes advanced functionality, such as data connectivity and visualization features, that Office Visio Standard does not.

For example, Visio Standard is best for folks who need to visualize, document, communicate, and share ideas using professional-looking flowcharts, office layouts, organization charts, project timelines, and so on.

Visio Professional is more for folks in IT, engineering, and software development (you know the people you made fun of in school, the smart and geeky ones, the ones who now rule the technological universe). It has more data connectivity functions and things like engineering schematics and network diagrams.

I'm guessing that most of you reading this column will just need Visio Standard, but I could be wrong, so I'll cover some of the new stuff for both editions.

What's new

In both editions, you begin a diagram with a template, which opens up a drawing page and a Shapes pane that contains stencils that you drag onto the page.

In both Visio 2007 Standard and Visio 2007 Professional

• AutoConnect  New AutoConnect functionality takes all the work out of connecting shapes. This feature automatically connects, evenly distributes, and aligns shapes for you — with only a couple easy clicks (of your mouse, not your ruby slippers).
• Sample diagrams  Visio 2007 comes with sample diagrams that have data already in them so that you can get ideas of how to create your own diagrams. It's a bit like show-and-tell, but even more to the point.
• Themes  Your diagrams are going to look fantabulous, and all you need to do is choose a color or an effect for an entire page, diagram, or multiple diagrams.
• Support for PDF and Microsoft XPS formats  Save diagrams in PDF format and the new Microsoft XPS file format to make them more portable and reach a wider audience. Disseminating your ideas on how to reorganize the company has never been so easy — although still just as dangerous as it is tempting.

And now onto some cool, new things Visio 2007 Professional offers.

In Visio 2007 Professional

• Data Link functionality  Now you can connect any Visio diagram to a wide variety of data sources, such as Excel worksheets, Access databases, and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services lists. You associate all the shapes in a diagram with data by using the Automatic Link Wizard, which matches rows in the data source with shapes in your drawing. This new functionality makes grabbing data from these sources a whole lot easier (and this is when it's OK to grab).

   Note   Don't let this functionality scare you away. We offer a three-part training course on how to do it. Look in the See also box at the top of the page for the link to the first course.

• PivotDiagrams  Just like with PivotTables, you can view your data in a more organized fashion. A PivotDiagram is a collection of shapes arranged in a tree structure that helps you to analyze and summarize data in a visual, easy-to-understand format. Look at it in hierarchical form, pick out the key messages, and then convey it all in one diagram that everyone "gets."

   Note   Don't be afraid of PivotDiagrams, either. I've included a demo so you can get an idea of how it all works.

• Data Graphics  Now you can visualize and communicate complicated information by showing your data with shapes, inside a diagram. A data graphic presents your data as a combination of textual and visual elements, such as flags and progress bars.

   Note   Check out the demo I've linked to at the top of the page to see how useful (not to mention cool) this feature is.

To wrap up, there are many more new and improved features in both editions of Visio 2007 designed to make your life (at work, anyway) more efficient and manageable. As you know, a picture tells a thousand words; a thousand words makes your audience's eyes glaze over...

"An attempt at visualizing the Fourth Dimension: Take a point, stretch it into a line, curl it into a circle, twist it into a sphere, and punch through the sphere." — Albert Einstein

About the author

Annik Stahl, the Crabby Office Lady columnist, takes all of your complaints, compliments, and knee-jerk reactions to heart. Therefore, she graciously asks that you let her know whether this column was useful to you — or not — by entering your feedback using the Was this information helpful? tool below. And remember: If you don't vote, you can't complain.