Microsoft Visio Professional 2002 [Old Version]
by Microsoft Software

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Software Reviews of Microsoft Visio Professional 2002 [Old Version]

Customer Review: Some great new features, but look before you leap
Summary: 5 Stars

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.

Description of Microsoft Visio Professional 2002 [Old Version]

A wealth of new features awaits, with Office XP integration high on the agenda. True, Visio always worked well with Office, but now you'll find XP menus, a new task pane, Auto-Recover, Office Search, and application error reporting added to the list. Note that it also uses Microsoft's new XP registration feature, and will stop working after 10 uses if you haven't entered an activation code.

A Drawing Type Selector gets you off the starting block and lets you choose diagram styles that range from building plans, Web site diagrams, and process engineering to databases, flow charts, and physical or logical network maps. Organizational charts are much improved and a wizard helps to create new charts or import existing information from TXT and XLS formats or ODBC-compliant data sources. The curved-wall tool makes creating building layouts more fun, and you can import and export drawings in standard CAD file formats. Pictures can also be imported directly from a scanner or camera.

However, there's much more, as Visio can be programmed using VBA or C++, while project-management tools include Gantt and PERT chart creation. If you're serious about your charts and diagrams, then Visio 2002 Professional has everything you could possibly need, while the new interface makes it even easier to use. --Dave Mitchell

There is a wide range of improvements new to this version, including enhanced graphics, text, and color, as well as the ability to import and manipulate images from other sources. New online resources help users stay current and get more value from Visio 2002. Also, you can publish diagrams to the Web that are more attractive and effective. New and improved features streamline the process of rolling out and maintaining Visio 2002 across an organization. The program offers improved property reporting and database connectivity, more powerful search capabilities, and a streamlined work environment. Developers gain greater flexibility in creating custom Visio applications through support for COM add-ins, a new XML file format, and more than 90 new automation methods.

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