Using Visio to help share your vision efficiently
February 08, 2019
Using Visio to help share your vision efficiently
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Visio
Visio is extremely versatile and probably used in almost all groups where people document processes or systems. In my group, it is used mostly by solution architects to describe solutions and systems. I've seen it used to describe support processes as well. Words can't describe everything in an efficient manner. Sometimes, a drawing really helps understand. In these cases, Visio is great as it allows you to quickly make a visual representation.
- Visio contains a very large collection of objects that you can add to your drawing. They are regrouped in themes which makes it more easy to select. It also allows for some standards in the drawings created.
- Office integration is really awesome. You can integrate a Visio drawing in a Word document and people without Visio can still see it. Also, the users of Visio can edit the drawing from within Word which makes it very convenient.
- Visio allows us to add new anchors to objects (to attach arrows and lines). This is really convenient as sometimes the default position of anchors on an object doesn't fit your needs.
- If you can't find the object that fits your need, you can import pictures and put anchors on them. This helps you achieve the desired effect.
- Often, I have the feeling that I'm using overly complex ways of doing some things that are basic. The tool is really easy to use and loaded with options so you can easily get lost in it. Looking for some training on the tool is probably a good idea if you want to use it fully.
- When you are moving objects around, very often, your connectors will also move and won't arrange nicely.
- For example, if three connectors leave an object to go to three different objects, I would like to see these three connectors joined (or overlapped) for as long as possible on the graph. Or if you manually change the path of a connector to go under an object, as soon as you move one of the two objects linked with that connector, this will usually revert the path of the connector to the original one. For people with OCD, this is triggering.
- Visio has been part of the software used in IT for as long as I have been here. I can't really comment on the ROI but I can say that doing without it would greatly affect both the delivery time and quality of our technical documentation.
- Visio as a perpetual licence will absolutely have a positive impact on a company. If the cost structure goes towards a pay to use model (like for Office) then it's worth doing the actual math. It is possible that an alternative should be considered.
Confluence wasn't really "evaluated" but it was used instead of Visio for some time in my case. I found Confluence extremely limited and not nearly as "comfortable" to use as Visio. To be fair, Confluence isn't technically the same kind of tool as Visio. It probably makes sense that it doesn't perform as well in that field.