Microsoft Visio ( ) (formerly Microsoft Office Visio) is a diagramming and

vector graphics Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display a ...

application and is part of the

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...

family. The product was first introduced in 1992, made by the Shapeware Corporation, later renamed

Visio Corporation Visio Corporation was a software company based in Seattle, Washington, USA. Its principal product was a diagramming application software of the same name. It was acquired by Microsoft and is now in a division of that company, which continues to d ...

. It was acquired by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

in 2000. A lightweight version of Visio is now included with all commercial

SKU In inventory management, a stock keeping unit (abbreviated as SKU and pronounced or ) is the unit of measure in which the stocks of a material are managed. Or to put it another way; is a distinct type of item for sale, purchased, or tracked in ...

of Microsoft 365 and is known as ''Visio in Microsoft 365''. It has two other subscription based SKUs. ''Visio Plan 1'' includes the Visio web app whereas ''Visio Plan 2'' provides access to both the web app as well as the Desktop application.

Features

Microsoft Visio is used to create diagram types such as Flowcharts, Org Charts,

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, Network Diagrams, UML Diagrams,

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and more. It is also commonly used for scenarios such as Process Mapping and Visual Collaboration. The latest version of Visio also has

data visualization Data and information visualization (data viz or info viz) is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the graphic representation of data and information. It is a particularly efficient way of communicating when the data or information is num ...

that allows users to create diagrams from Excel data and also embed Visio diagrams in

Power BI Power BI is an interactive data visualization software product developed by Microsoft with a primary focus on business intelligence. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform. Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors t ...

dashboards. Microsoft made Visio 2013 for Windows available in two editions: Standard and Professional. The Standard and Professional editions share the same interface, but the Professional edition has additional templates for more advanced diagrams and layouts, as well as capabilities intended to make it easy for users to connect their diagrams to data sources and to display their data graphically. The Professional edition features three additional diagram types, as well as intelligent rules, validation, and subprocess (diagram breakdown). Visio Professional is also offered as an additional component of an

Office365 Microsoft 365 is a product family of productivity software, collaboration and cloud-based services owned by Microsoft. It encompasses online services such as Outlook.com, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, programs formerly marketed under the name Mic ...

subscription. On 22 September 2015, Visio 2016 was released alongside

Microsoft Office 2016 Microsoft Office 2016 (First perpetual release of Office 16) is a version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite, succeeding both Office 2013 and Office for Mac 2011 and preceding Office 2019, which in turn was succeeded by Office 2021 f ...

. A few new features have been added such as one-step connectivity with Excel data, information rights management (IRM) protection for Visio files, modernized shapes for office layout, detailed shapes for site plans, updated shapes for floor plans, modern shapes for home plans,

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

compliant shapes for electrical diagrams, new range of starter diagrams, and new themes for the Visio interface. Database modeling in Visio revolves around a Database Model Diagram (DMD).

File formats

All of the previous versions of Visio used VSD, the proprietary binary-file format. Visio 2010 added support for the VDX file format, which is a well-documented

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...

Schema-based ("DatadiagramML") format, but still uses VSD by default. Visio 2013 drops support for writing VDX files in favor of the new VSDX and VSDM file formats, and uses them by default. Created based on

Open Packaging Conventions The Open Packaging Conventions (OPC) is a container-file technology initially created by Microsoft to store a combination of XML and non-XML files that together form a single entity such as an Open XML Paper Specification (OpenXPS) document. OPC-b ...

(OPC) standard (ISO 29500, Part 2), a VSDX or VSDM file consists of a group of XML files archived inside a

Zip file ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A ZIP file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed. The ZIP file format permits a number of compression algorithms, though DEFLATE is th ...

. VSDX and VSDM files differ only in that VSDM files may contain macros. Since these files are susceptible to

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infection, the program enforces strict security on them. While VSD files use LZW-like lossless compression, VDX is not compressed. Hence, a VDX file typically takes up 3 to 5 times more storage. VSDX and VSDM files use the same compression as Zip files. Visio also supports saving files in SVG files, other diagramming files and images. However, images cannot be opened.

History

Visio began as a standalone product produced by Shapeware Corporation; version 1.0 shipped in 1992. A pre-release, Version 0.92, was distributed free on a floppy disk along with a Microsoft Windows systems readiness evaluation utility. In 1995, Shapeware Corporation changed their name to

to take advantage of market recognition and related product equity. Microsoft acquired Visio in 2000, re-branding it as a Microsoft Office application. Like

Microsoft Project Microsoft Project is a project management software product, developed and sold by Microsoft. It is designed to assist a project manager in developing a schedule, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing the budget, and anal ...

, however, it has never been officially included in any of the bundled Office suites. Microsoft included a Visio for Enterprise Architects edition with some editions of

Visual Studio .NET 2003 Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms ...

and

Visual Studio 2005 Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms such ...

. Along with Microsoft Visio 2002 Professional, Microsoft introduced Visio Enterprise Network Tools and Visio Network Center. Visio Enterprise Network Tools was an add-on product that enabled automated network and directory services diagramming. Visio Network Center was a subscription-based website where users could locate the latest

network documentation Network documentation is a form of technical documentation. It is the practice of maintaining records about networks of computers. The documentation is used to give administrators information about how the network should look, perform and where to ...

content and exact-replica network equipment shapes from 500 leading manufacturers. The former has been discontinued, while the latter's shape-finding features are now integrated into the program itself. Visio 2007 was released on November 30, 2006. Microsoft Visio adopted

ribbons A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mate ...

in its

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

in Visio 2010.

Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms includin ...

Excel ExCeL London (an abbreviation for Exhibition Centre London) is an exhibition centre, international convention centre and former hospital in the Custom House area of Newham, East London. It is situated on a site on the northern quay of the ...

PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoi ...

Access Access may refer to: Companies and organizations * ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network * Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom * Access Co., a Japanese software company * Access Healthcare, an Indian BPO se ...

and

Outlook Outlook or The Outlook may refer to: Computing * Microsoft Outlook, an e-mail and personal information management software product from Microsoft * Outlook.com, a web mail service from Microsoft * Outlook on the web, a suite of web applications ...

(to some extents) had already adopted the ribbon with the release of

Microsoft Office 2007 Microsoft Office 2007 (codenamed Office 12) is an office suite for Windows, developed and published by Microsoft. It was officially revealed on March 9, 2006 and was the 12th version of Microsoft Office. It was released to manufacturing on Novem ...

. November 19, 2012:

BPMN Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a graphical representation for specifying business processes in a business process model. Originally developed by the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI), BPMN has been maintained by the ...

2.0 was utilized within Microsoft Visio.

Versions

* Visio v1.0 (Standard, Lite, Home) * Visio v2.0 * Visio v3.0 * Visio v4.0 (Standard, Technical) * Visio v4.1 (Standard, Technical) * Visio v4.5 (Standard, Professional, Technical) * Visio v5.0 (Standard, Professional, Technical) * Visio 2000 (v6.0; Standard, Professional, Technical, Enterprise) – later updated to SP1 and Microsoft branding after Visio Corporation's acquisition * Visio 2002 (v10.0; Standard, Professional) ** Visio for Enterprise Architects 2003 (VEA 2003) – based on Visio 2002 and included with Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect edition * Office Visio 2003 (v11.0; Standard, Professional) ** Office Visio for Enterprise Architects 2005 (VEA 2005) – based on Visio 2003 and included with Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite and Team Architect editions * Office Visio 2007 (v12.0; Standard, Professional) * Visio 2010 (v14.0; Standard, Professional, Premium) * Visio 2013 (v15.0; Standard, Professional) * Visio 2016 (v16.0; Standard, Professional, Office 365) * Visio Online Plan 1 (Web based editor), Visio Online Plan 2 (Desktop, Office 365) * Visio 2019 (v16.0; Standard, Professional) * Visio 2021 (Standard, Professional) There are no Visio versions 7, 8, or 9, because after Microsoft acquired and branded Visio as a Microsoft Office product, the Visio version numbers followed the Office version numbers. Version 13 was skipped owing to

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. Visio does not have a

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version, which has led to the growth of several third-party applications which can open and edit Visio files on Mac. On 7 May 2001, Microsoft introduced ''Visio Enterprise Network Tools'' (VENT), an add-on for Visio 2002 scheduled for release on 1 July 2001, and ''Visio Network Center'', a subscription-based web service for IT professionals who use Microsoft Visio for

computer network A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...

diagramming. VENT was discontinued on 1 July 2002 because of very low customer demand.

References

External links

*
Microsoft Visio 2016 Viewer
(Internet Explorer add-in) on Microsoft Download Center
Microsoft Visio 2013 Viewer
(Internet Explorer add-in) on Microsoft Download Center
Microsoft Visio 2010 Product Overview Guide
on Microsoft Download Center
Microsoft Visio 2010: Interactive menu to ribbon guide
on Microsoft Download Center
Old versions of Visio
which has abandonware status already (only versions released by Shapeware/Visio Corporation) {{Authority control 1992 software Diagramming software Visio Technical communication tools UML tools Windows software Graph drawing software 2000 mergers and acquisitions