Microsoft Visio Professional 2002 Screenshots   The Final Say! Gameplay N/A Graphics N/A Sound N/A Value 9.6 Microsoft Visio Professional 2002  - reviewed by Tory Favro & Andrew B Review Date: 14 July 2002 Review Score: 9.6/10  Distributor: Microsoft

"Comprehensive drawing tools for the serious professional." Microsoft Visio Professional 2002 encapsulates the very best that previous versions of Visio had to offer, creating  one of the best and easy to use drawing and diagram tools currently on the market. Many people would be discouraged at the thought of creating technical drawings and diagrams without years of training and experience. Visio allows you to do just that. From the workplace professional to the technical artist to the amateur architect/office space planner, Visio is the precise tool to fulfil your needs. Previously, Visio was a standalone program in the Microsoft range, however with the advent of the 2002 version, it has been fully integrated into the Microsoft Office family group and can share attributes with various parts of that software. One of the useful parts of this integration is the ability to import Visio diagrams into Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook, thereby conveying a powerful presentation package that will exude professionalism. Microsoft Visio 2002 features the following; Work with the new two in one solution Diagram software & database web sites Create building space and floorl plans Diagram IT infrastructures Diagram engineering schematics Smart shapes technology Generate detailed reports Add embedded data XML support Create scaled drawings CAD compatibility Drag and drop diagrams One of the reasons Visio is so easy to use is that there are quite a number of user friendly templates ready to be modified to suit your particular needs, whether this be as something as simple as a flow chart or to demonstrate a business strategy to exacting the dimensions of an office space, Visio will have a template that will suit your professional purposes. Unlike many other CAD programs where you are required to create your own specific set of drawing tools and pictures, Visio comes pre-programmed with specific smart shapes, these smart shapes have their own behaviours and properties to interact properly with your designs. Smart shapes can also be embedded with data, adding depths to your diagrams.

Unlike many CAD programs that can deal with three dimensional properties, it is a very important point to note that Visio is primarily a two dimensional software package, although it does have the limited ability to deal with 3D.

With this version of Visio, finally both Visio technical and Visio professional editions have been combined to take advantage of the best of both worlds. All solutions and shapes are now available in one convenient package. As would be expected when starting a new diagram, the majority of the screen space is dedicated to your drawing, however, depending on the template, there are various shapes available on docking bays ready for you to drag and drop into your drawings. This will assist the novice user of this software and also greatly assist the experienced IT professional.

There are a number of file types that Visio has the ability to save in, making it an essential part of any computer designer's repartee. These files types are suitable for use in other CAD and design programs such as Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, DWG, DXG, MicroStation Drawing and various other vector and bitmap file types. The native save types to Visio include drawing or stencil files, there is also the ability to incorporate Visio into professional web design by saving to HTML and XML provided that you are taking advantage of Microsoft's .NET support.

Another positive about the latest version of Visio is that Microsoft have realised the popularity of previous versions and have not made a great deal of alterations to its already successful and easy to use design. In other words, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Perhaps one of the most noticeable aspects of the current design is that it matches the design of the other Microsoft Office products.

In conclusion, Microsoft Visio Professional 2002 is a comprehensive and intuitive piece of design software that will suit everyone from the novice through to the professional designer. Its simplistic layout and powerful features guarantees Visio's place as an essential part of your business software.

- Tory Favro & Andrew B