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

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application and is part of the

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Business. The product was first introduced in 1992 by former American software company Visio Corporation, and its latest version is Visio 2024.

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

acquired the assets of Visio Corporation in 2000 and thus also inherited the licensing agreements for the Visio application. A lightweight version of Visio is now included with all commercial SKU 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 and the Desktop application.

Features

Microsoft Visio is used to create diagram types such as

flowcharts A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents a workflow or process. A flowchart can also be defined as a diagrammatic representation of an algorithm, a step-by-step approach to solving a task. The flowchart shows the steps as boxes of va ...

, org charts, floor plans, network diagrams, UML diagrams,

mind map A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information into a hierarchy, showing relationships among pieces of the whole. It is often based on a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated represe ...

s 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/vis or info viz/vis) is the practice of designing and creating Graphics, graphic or visual Representation (arts), representations of a large amount of complex quantitative and qualitative data and i ...

that allows users to create diagrams from Excel data and also embed Visio diagrams in Power BI 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 subscription. On September 22, 2015, Visio 2016 was released alongside

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. A few new features were added, including one-step connectivity to 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,

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-compliant shapes for electrical diagrams, new range of starter diagrams, and new themes for the Visio interface. Database modelling 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 data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

Schema-based ("DatadiagramML") format, but still uses VSD by default only. 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 (OPC) standard (ISO 29500, Part 2), a VSDX or VSDM file consists of a group of XML files archived inside a

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. VSDX and VSDM files differ only in that VSDM files may contain macros. Since these files are susceptible to macro virus infection, the program enforces strict security on them. While VSD files use LZW-like

lossless compression Lossless compression is a class of data compression that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data with no loss of information. Lossless compression is possible because most real-world data exhibits statisti ...

, 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 by the program.

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

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, 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 and

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

. 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, the goal of which is to maintain computer networks A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to ...

content and exact-replica network equipment shapes from 500 leading manufacturers. Visio Enterprise Network Tools was discontinued in July 2002. The following year, Microsoft released a patch which gave Enterprise Network Tools users access to the network equipment shapes via Visio's built-in Find Shape feature. Visio 2007 was released on November 30, 2006. Microsoft Visio adopted ribbons in its

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in Visio 2010.

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, Excel, PowerPoint,

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and

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(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 Novemb ...

. November 19, 2012: BPMN 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) – originally released only Visio, later updated to SP1 and Microsoft branding after Visio Corporation's acquisition * Visio 2002 (v10.0; Standard, Professional) – first version of Visio overall to be a Microsoft Office application after Visio Corporation's acquisition ** 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) * Visio 2024 (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 also skipped owing to triskaidekaphobia. Visio does not have a

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

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 collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

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

Notes

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 Discontinued Microsoft software