1. Visio: What It Is and Why You Should Use It Jody Jacobs CIS 460 March 18, 2004

2. Background Visio was released in 1994 by the Shapeware Corporation Purchased by Microsoft for $1.9 Billion in 2000 Gone thru many iterations; Visio 2000, Visio 2002, Visio 2003

3. What it is… Visio is a tool designed for creating visual aids Visio is a program that is composed of multiple icons (aka pictures and shapes) Easy enough program that any person with any level of artistic ability can use

4. Types of Visio Software Visio comes in four distinct products:  Visio Standard  Mainstream business professionals  1300 standard and common shapes  Visio Professional  Standard + Network and computer developers  Standard shapes + 1,300 additional shapes

5. Types of Visio Software (con’t)  Visio Technical  Designed for Professionals in technical and highly specialized fields (I.e. civil, mechanical engineers  All shapes of Standard + 2, 500 technical shapes  Visio Enterprise  Technical Shapes + 14,000  Create LAN and WAN diagrams, databases, and software designs

6. Cost ProductCost Visio 2003 Standard-Full Version $180 Visio 2003 Professional-Full Version $410 Visio 2003 Technical$330 Prices as of 3/2004 according to www.bizrate.com

7. Stencils Stencils contain the building blocks of a Visio diagram Stencils group like-shapes together so that end users are able to find shapes easier and quicker.

8. Templates Visio templates are kits for building specific types of drawings. Templates set up the drawing page and formatting style best suited for an end-users drawing.

9. Templates (Con’t) Template CategoryPurpose Block Diagram Create general purpose graphics that show relationships Building Plan Arrange office space and furniture Map Draw simple street, city and state maps Network Utilizes shapes that look like network equipment to document small- or medium-sized networks Basic Flowchart Creates basic flowcharts, cross- functional flowcharts, workflow diagrams, and mapping diagrams. Organization Chart Shows reporting structures in an organization. Can utilize a org chart wizard to import employees information and creates a chart instantaneously

10. NetViz vs. Visio vs. Powerpoint  With netViz there is the option to publish to the web, so that the information created can be viewed by non netViz users, Visio offers no such facility.  Visio can be used for network drawing, but when it comes to documenting large amounts of information within those drawings netViz is the tool to consider.  It draws flat diagrams, but the hierarchical and database information is even more difficult to annotate into PowerPoint that it is into Visio.

11. Conclusion When an end-user wants to graphically show an idea, chart, flowchart or any type of idea, the best way is to use a graphics program such as Visio to get a user’s point across to another end- user.