What s New in This Release | Microsoft Visio Version 2002 Inside Out (Inside Out (Microsoft))

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You won't find many new shapes in Visio 2002, although there are a few. The real difference with this release is in a more polished look up front and more refined engineering behind the scenes. It all works—this is a better-tested product than Visio 2000, and it shows in improved performance and fewer bugs. In addition, because the Visio development team is now part of Microsoft, they had access to tools used by the Microsoft Office XP team, which means that Visio integrates better than ever with Office products. Visio 2002 includes the following new shapes and templates:

3-D directional maps
Curved wall shapes for floor plans
Additional network shapes
Updated Windows user interface shapes (Visio Professional only)
Enterprise Application template (Visio Professional only)

The following new features enhance the way you work in Visio:

Better Web pages from Visio diagrams. The improved Save As Web Page command delivers crisper HTML and superior GIF and JPEG graphics. Improved hyperlinks add navigation to your diagrams, and now you can even add multiple hyperlinks to one shape. When you save your diagram as a Web page, the hyperlinks are positioned more accurately. A new HTML custom property frame saves a diagram's custom properties, too. Visio also exposes its Web functionality through its API so that developers can save multiple Visio files as HTML in a batch process.
New photo editing tools. You can refine imported bitmaps in Visio with tools for adjusting contrast and brightness. You can also directly import pictures from digital cameras.
Smoother graphics and text. New support for smooth fonts makes on-screen text easier to read in Visio, thanks to Microsoft ClearType technology. Visio also supports transparent fill colors and smoother gradients, so shapes look better.
Better data storing and reporting capabilities. Improved support for defining the custom properties stored with shapes makes it easier for you to customize and store shape specifications, asset information, and other data. Then you can use the new Report tool to define reports based on shape properties. When you generate your report, you can output it as a Visio shape, an Excel document, an HTML file, or as XML format.

Note

Many Visio solutions have been enhanced as well. For example, the Office Layout template in Visio Standard and the Building Plan solutions in Visio Professional include new curved wall shapes and smoother performance, and you can generate timelines and Gantt charts by importing project tasks and milestones from Microsoft Project. Other new, shape-specific and template-specific improvements are mentioned throughout this book in the chapters about particular solutions.

Visio includes numerous enhancements across the board to make the work environment more like other Office XP products, including the following new tools:

AutoCorrect (IntelliSense). You can insert, correct, and format text as you type, just as in Word.
Auto save and recovery. Like Word and PowerPoint, Visio now can save your drawing files automatically at specific time intervals. If an error occurs, the recovered file is opened, giving you the option of discarding the file, saving it over the original, or saving it as a separate file.
Answer Wizard Help. You can type questions in a "How Do I?" field just as you do on the Office XP menu bar. The docked Help pane tiles alongside your drawing page for easy access to answers while you work.
Clip Gallery Live. If you have Office XP installed with Visio, you can directly access the Office Clip Gallery Live from within Visio.
Common color palette. Visio diagrams look even better when added to your Office documents, because Visio now uses the same color palette as Office.
Task panes. Visio works just like Office, with easy access to important tasks in a single integrated view. From the task pane, you can perform in-depth searches across documents as well as open an existing diagram or document or create a new one.
Personalized (short) menus. Adaptable menus bring commonly used commands to the top while hiding the others. If you pause while displaying a menu, Visio expands the menu to reveal all commands. Commands you use are added to the menu, "personalizing" it.

Tip - Restore Full Visio Menus

Use the Tools, Customize command to restore menus to their Visio 2000 appearance. On the Options tab, select the Always Show Full Menus check box.

For details about new features in the Visio Setup program, see "New Installation Features."

What You Won't Find in This Release

In every version of Visio software since the first release, the Visio team has been careful not to remove features if at all possible. Command names may change or functionality may evolve or move within the product, but shapes and templates are usually not removed. Until this release. Several templates that used to ship with Visio Professional are no longer included with the product, although you may still be able to get them from the http://www.microsoft.com Web site. Entire products that you used to be able to purchase—Visio Technical and Visio Enterprise—are no longer available in that form, but their contents can still be found elsewhere. The net result is that the Visio product line is easier to understand, but if you were partial to Visio's geographic maps, it just became a little tougher to create them.

For details about the templates and stencils you will find in this version, see Appendix B, "Template and Stencil Reference."

Templates That Have Moved

All the templates, shapes, and add-ons that were included with Visio 2000 Technical Edition are now a part of Visio Professional 2002. Some templates that were included with Visio 2000 Standard Edition are not included with Visio Standard 2002. Instead, they have been added to Visio Professional. The templates that moved from Standard to Professional are Data Flow Diagram, IDEF0 Diagram, and SDL Diagram from the Flowchart solution.

Other templates that used to be included with Visio 2000 are no longer shipped with the product, but may be available through the Web. Microsoft plans to make the following templates available by download:

Database templates. Bachman, Chen ERD, Martin ERD, and Booch OOD.
Software templates. Fusion, Jacobsen Use Cases, Nassi-Schneiderman, Rumbaugh OMT, Shlaer-Mellor, SSADM, System Structure, and Yourdon And Coad.

Features Deleted from Visio

Some tools, wizards, and add-ons that were available in Visio 2000 have been removed from Visio 2002 or have been replaced by improved features. In some cases, Microsoft plans to make an add-on or tool available as a download; it's worth visiting the Web site to see what's available. Table 1-1 sorts out what went where.

Table 1-1. Features No Longer in Visio


Deleted Feature	Status
Custom Properties Editor	Replaced by Define Custom Properties dialog box
Chart Shape Wizard	No longer supported
Datasheets	No longer required by the redesigned Process Engineering solution
Internet Diagramming Wizard	No longer required by the redesigned Web Site Map template
Netlist Generator	May be available as a Web download
Network Database Wizard	Replaced by improved tools available in new Visio Network Tools add-on
Network Diagram Wizard	Replaced by improved tools available in new Visio Network Tools add-on
Office toolbar macros	Technology rendered irrelevant by Windows 2000 enhancements
Page Layout Wizard	No longer supported
Property Reporting Wizard	Replaced by new Report tool
Property Line add-on	No longer supported
Print ShapeSheet	May be available as a Web download
Shape Explorer	Replaced by Shape Gallery
SmartShape Wizard	May be available as a Web download
Stencil Report Wizard	May be available as a Web download
Synchronize Shapes add-on	No longer supported
Valve Builder	May be available as a Web download

Information for Visio Enterprise Customers

The advanced network diagramming and documentation solutions formerly found in Visio 2000 Enterprise Edition are now available in Microsoft Visio Network Tools. This add-on to Visio Professional also provides online access to additional network documentation updates and information via the Visio Network Center.

The database and software modeling technology that was previously found in Visio 2000 Enterprise Edition has been relocated to Microsoft Visual Studio.NET Enterprise Edition. So if you want to graphically describe database schemas and software applications and generate code based on models, you can now do so using the Application Design Workbench in Visual Studio.NET. You will find numerous updated features as well, including support for SQL Server 2000 and Visual Studio.NET programming languages.

InsideOut

Why was Visio Enterprise discontinued? This happened for several reasons; the primary reason was to simplify the Visio product line for everyone. Four editions were too confusing. The idea with the Visio Network Tools add-on is that the IT audience who uses Visio Professional can obtain new and updated solutions on a continual basis from the Visio Network Center Web site. In addition, customer research indicated that the vast majority of Visio users who need software and database modeling functionality also use Visual Studio, so Microsoft thought it made sense to integrate these two technologies.

Information for Visio Technical Customers

Visio Technical is now included in Visio Professional. The Visio 2000 Professional and Technical editions were combined into a single product in response to feedback from Visio Technical customers, whose diagramming needs span multiple technical disciplines, including both IT and facilities management.