Document and Design Complex Ideas, Processes, and Systems
Visio 2003 enables easy assembly of diagrams through dragging predefined Microsoft SmartShapes® symbols coupled with powerful search capabilities to locate the right shape, whether it is on a computer or the Web. Visio includes specific tools to support the diagramming needs of business professionals, project managers, sales and marketing professionals, operations managers, IT professionals, software developers, database and Web site administrators, facilities managers, or engineers.
Block diagrams - With these drawing templates, business professionals can create a wide range of diagrams to assist in understanding and planning concepts, systems, and processes that are hierarchical, contain subset and superset relationships, include simple data flows and interactions, and depict data structures.
Brainstorming - Brainstorming is an effective method for generating ideas and creatively solving problems. It can help in developing systems of related ideas or information, such as new business strategies, book outlines, meeting minutes, or travel plans. A brainstorming diagram shows the interrelationships among topics in a hierarchy and can be thought of as a graphical illustration of a text outline.
Business Process - Business Process diagrams provide templates and tools to create common business graphics to analyze and communicate complex systems including conceptual charts, decision trees, flow diagrams, process and procedural charts, and time and activity charts. Many of the activities in Six Sigma quality improvement initiatives and ISO 9000 documentation can be presented with the diagrams in this category.
Charts and Graphs - The Charts and Graphs template provides ready-made shapes for graph elements, such as x-axis, y-axis, normal curve, and exponential curve shapes, so that they can easily be included in documents and presentations. The Charts and Graphs template can be used to create bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts, and graphs with special effects.
Marketing Charts and Diagrams - The Marketing Charts and Diagrams template can be used to create drawings for process modeling, benchmarking, simulation and improvement, path routing, time and cost analysis, activity-based costing, product portfolios, scope and marketing mix, product life and adoption cycles, market and resource analysis, and pricing matrices.
Flowchart - Flowchart templates can be used to illustrate or diagram complex business processes. Basic flowcharts can be used for top-down diagrams, information-tracking diagrams, process-planning diagrams, and structure-prediction diagrams. Audit diagrams are available for auditing accounting processes, financial management, fiscal information tracking, money management, and decision flowcharts. Cause and Effect, Cross-Functional, Total Quality Management (TQM), Work Flow, and Data Flow are among diagram types available in Flowchart templates.
Map - Directional map shapes—including clearly identifiable roadways, bus lines, and landmarks—can be used to create easy-to-read maps and route directions. Directional maps also include graphics of bridges, trees, rivers, houses, buildings, and road signs to make drawings more appealing and detailed. Three-dimensional (3-D) directional maps can be used to illustrate small geographic areas, such as villages or towns, using colorful, 3-D shapes.
Organizational Chart - Organizational charts can be used to graphically represent relationships among people, operations, functions, and activities in organizational hierarchies. The Organizational Chart template can be used to automatically create a hierarchy by dragging staff shapes on top of manager shapes, including graphics and customizable text fields with shapes, and by showing additional reporting relationships using dotted-line connectors and more. A wizard can also be used to generate organizational charts from personnel data stored in data files, making it easy to keep the charts up to date.
Project Schedule - A number of diagrams in Visio—including calendars, and Gantt and program evaluation and review technique (PERT) charts—can be used to plan and manage projects in an organization. The Visio 2003 calendar has graphics and color schemes, associated tasks and appointments, and a rich stencil of Calendar Art shapes for embellishment. Gantt charts can be created for project management, task management, schedules, timetables, agendas, project life cycles, and goal setting. PERT charts can be created for organizing tasks and establishing timeframes, as well as for showing dependent tasks.
Timeline - The Timeline diagram can be used to quickly create horizontal or vertical timelines that illustrate milestones and intervals over the life of a project or process. Visio timelines can display intervals of years, quarters, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds.
Building Engineering - Visio 2003 can be used to create building maps from any electronic image and Visio Space shapes tagged with a room number. Building maps can be used as a format to report building-wide data, a method to arrange furniture and equipment, and create and maintain seating charts. Enhancements have made it easier to create building plans—from single room plans using enhanced Room shapes to full floor plans using the new Space Plan start-up wizard.
Database - Visio 2003 provides specific solutions for Database diagrams that support the IDEF1X modeling technique, relational notations, object-relationship models, entity-level and schema-level diagrams, and product data models using EXPRESS-G notation. Diagrams can be created by dragging shapes to a drawing page or by reverse engineering an existing database structure from a variety of compatible databases, including Microsoft SQL Server™, Microsoft Access, Oracle, and IBM's DB2.
Electrical Engineering - The Electrical Engineering (EE) shapes in Visio Professional 2003 have been updated to enable easier diagram creation and to better support international EE symbol standards.
Mechanical Engineering - Visio 2003 provides two distinct templates for mechanical engineering: the Fluid Power diagram and the Part & Assembly diagram. The Fluid Power diagram enables rapid design and prototyping of hydraulic and pneumatic actuated systems, using mechanical and electronic controls. The Part & Assembly diagram supports creation of custom geometry as used in a technical drawing, with accurate and precise geometry; it is fully dimensioned and annotated as needed to communicate a design concept.
Network - Visio 2003 provides updated Network templates and shapes. Basic Network drawings can be used in presentations, proposals, and conceptual layouts. Meanwhile, Detailed Network drawings can be used for creating more complex, elaborate diagrams, including actual network configurations. The new Rack Diagram drawing provides rack and cabinet shapes, as well as rack component and Room shapes, for drawing accurate representations of network server room configurations. Rack components snap to industry-specific sizes, and snap to the rack and cabinet shapes for easy creation of rack diagrams. The three directory services templates can be used to design new directories, create alternative designs for existing directories, or create plans for updating or migrating a current network's directory service.
Process Engineering - Visio 2003 Process Engineering diagrams include two templates: one for Piping and Instrumentation diagrams, and one for Process Flow diagrams. These diagram types are used by manufacturing, control engineers, and mechanical and electrical engineers for purposes of documenting manufacturing processes and related equipment, controls, and instrumentation.
Software - Visio 2003 supports a number of Software diagrams including Unified Modeling Language (UML). UML is a system of notation for how concepts, automated processes, human interactions, and associations can be represented. Standard notation for communicating design ideas by defining various human and program activities enable clearer communication of design principles in software development.
Web diagram - Visio 2003 provides Web diagramming capabilities, including the ability to choose from a variety of text display options for site map links. It also includes the ability to substitute custom shapes, and an auto-discovery capability for links.
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