Visio Reviews

I build either diagrams for solutions or use Visio to create illustrations for slide decks and white papers.

There's a much better library of stencils than there used to be. But I still have to create many composite objects to illustrate a software-defined data center or software-defined networking. I like that once you create what you need, you can group that, at least within that drawing, and you have access to that new stencil object or that custom object throughout that drawing.

I do know that Microsoft has extended the ability of Visio to interact with other Microsoft applications. I know you can use Visio elements in spreadsheets and Excel. I know that doing a copy and paste from Visio into a PowerPoint slide is very easy and clean now. It used to be a nightmare.

The auto-routing feature could be better. Around 2018, the auto-routing of lines was pretty close to perfect, but it's started to go downhill from there. Keeping the lines attached to endpoints while you manipulate how they run and how they interact with other shapes or near other shapes is becoming very tedious. I would like them to give us the option of opening up the rules for auto-routing and make checkbox selections of what rules we want to apply and what rules we don't.

I've been using Visio for about 20 years.

Visio is stable. It's gotten to be much more robust since Microsoft took over. It used to freeze or crash with very complex drawings, and I haven't had a freeze or a crash in years.

I think it's scalable. I don't think I challenge what it can do the way I used to. I think Microsoft has probably improved how it uses memory, or they may have solved some memory leak problems because I did not have any issue with the size of a drawing. 

I've never reached a limit on the size of a drawing, and usually, autosave is turned on by default. Again, right about the time Microsoft acquired Visio, the autosave function took much longer than it does now. I can also open more additional applications while Visio is running, but it used to hit its limits on that. They have improved its ability to run in the same environment with other big apps.

The initial setup is getting much easier. The deployment piece was actually just part of my license. The IT team can set up definitions of which engineers get what features in Microsoft. That was completely transparent to me this time.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Visio a nine.

I am a health and safety professional. I use it for flowcharting, but I also use it for drawing diagrams. 

I will do a technical assessment of a workplace scenario of equipment as well as noise measurements, and I will use Visio to draw out the scale.

There are many images that you can put in there and data to create images of workplace exposures.

It has improved the way our organization functions.

It's a tool that helped me diagram complex procedures. More as a picture versus words. 

It also for training and letting other people know how to do that same procedure.

It works really well for flowcharting, it can label.

Also, being able to pull the finished drawing out and put it in a Word document is easy, and very useful.

It allowed me to do some things and save them really well. And I found many different things to do with it. It's beyond flowcharting.

The latest version has taken some transitioning and it's a bit of a workaround, but it's also been good. I found the ctrl 1,2,3 buttons that I didn't know about and have been very useful. If you hit ctrl 3 it lets you do your line draw.

I just uploaded the latest version and using it now, and I'm struggling with it. It's very different than the other version I have used, and I haven't done any tutorials. 

The previous version was easier. It was easy to intuitively figure out what it did. I learned it on my own and it didn't require the review of tutorials. But with this updated version, I am definitely struggling with it. I need to go through the training and go through the tutorials. So far it seems more complex, but maybe it's just different.

It may handle images well, but I don't know yet. It is something that I would like to see in this solution.

It should be easier to transition into a new version without having to spend so much time in just one area. Providing information on what has changed and how to do it would be very helpful.

I would like the option of going back to the way of doing things in the previous version. I don't understand the block system. I had the favorites that I have to build again because somehow they got lost with the upgrade.

In my favorites, I had shapes, fans, and other things. You pull up all of your basic images or search for them, and you could drag them over into your diagram.

I have been using Visio for approximately eight years.

We are using the latest version.

I have not had any issues with stability. It's a stable solution.

It is easy to scale this solution.

I have never contacted technical support.

Previously, I did not use another solution. It was a discovery. 

I came across Visio, I saw what I could do with it, and I just continued to expand my uses.

The initial setup is straightforward. With this new version, it is a bit confusing. 

With the previous version, I was able to have all of my favorites, I was able to pull objects and do an arrow as a connector, and I had to stop and learn how to do that.

I like the way it was earlier, but it could be just my learning curve.

If you have a need for flowcharting, organizing, or creating diagrams, I think you should check it out. It's worthwhile.

Based on my previous experience with the previous versions, I would rate Visio a nine out of ten.

My use case could be anything. What I like to use Visio for is business process design work. Even when we're doing a systems implementation project, I'll use it. One of the things that I tell my clients is that "Before you implement a system, you really need to check your business processes that the system is automating, to make sure that you're not automating a bad process." Therefore, we have a whole methodology on how to do business process design sessions, facilitated sessions. The outcome of those sessions is documented largely in Vizio. 

Sometimes, for example, if I've got a good person working on my team, I'll be with the client, facilitating the session and we'll have sticky notes on the wall that represent the process steps, and the outcomes, and the inputs, and all that stuff. We'll be moving those around. And then somebody on my team will be sitting there with Visio, recreating it as we go. If they aren't able to do that, we just take pictures of it and then recreate it in Visio. We clean it up and make it nice looking. However, we use Visio primarily for business and/or project process flows. 

It's a very good visualization tool that helps package everything professionally. It helps clients see where we're going. We're able to capture what we need to capture and we're able to manipulate it the way we want and make it look the way we want, and present it to our clients the way we want. 

One of the features I like is the automation involved in creating a process. It's really improved over the years. At this point, when you have step one - let's say it's a rectangle with step one in it - and then you're ready for step two, you can just hover the cursor over one side, and then it will automatically add an arrow going to the next box and automatically add a new box. It saves a bit of time there. It's one less aggravation to deal with when you're creating things.

The solution hasn't changed much in 20 years. It's a very meat and potatoes type of product and isn't overly designed. It's very easy to find your way through the solution, as it's not too complicated.

Occasionally, the automation feature that helps you easily add the "next step" goes crazy and it will move a bunch of stuff on me. Usually, that's very easily recoverable, however, that's just a little aggravation we have to deal with. It's like an ongoing glitch of sorts. You need to be careful when you are moving the whole image.

If there was a way to make the finished product more interactive somehow, that could be interesting.

I've been using the solution for decades. It's been a very long time.

The solution is quite stable. To my recollection, I haven't really had to deal with any crashes or big bugs. It's reliable.

I'm just a small consulting firm. Basically, it's just me and a group of trusted subcontractors that I network with across the country. The biggest project and the biggest team of people I've ever had on a project is 25.

We don't have enterprises that we deploy to. We just put it all on our computers or on our laptops and that's it.

I don't ever recall using technical support, and if I did, it was likely well over ten years ago at this point. Therefore, I can't really speak to their knowledgeability or responsiveness.

The initial setup is very straightforward. All you do is implement or install it on your laptop. It has a few defaults that I don't like, however, that I can change. For example, the process boxes might be colored purple or something, and I just want them clear, so that's not a big deal. There are some pre-settings you can adjust so that it defaults to how you need it to look every time.

I have a subscription to Microsoft 365 that automatically updates all of the versions to whatever is the most recent. I have to have a special subscription to get Visio though. Therefore, I've got one subscription to Microsoft that has all of the basic Office products, and then another one for Visio and Microsoft Project.

I did run across at one of my clients several years ago, another process building software. I don't remember the name of it. I'd have to look it up, however, I recall it was really slick and nice and cool. In my mind, it was a little too over-engineered and overly complicated for what I like to do. I'd have to be careful that we're not losing sight. We're not missing the forest for the trees when we get into the business process design. Therefore, I didn't really feel I was missing out by not adopting it.

I'm a consultant.

I tend to use the latest version of the solution. I try to keep everything up to date. That said, I'm unsure as to which version I'm on right now.

We're a small consulting shop. Right now, there's three of us and the roles are generally around facilitating business process design sessions. That's what we usually do is. Typically, I will stand up and facilitate with the client. We'll have a room full of clients - maybe 10, and sometimes it has the vendor - and our team. I will facilitate, we'll capture all of the discussions. We'll put everything on sticky notes, on a wall, with our methodology. And then my folks will capture all of that on Visio and on Microsoft Word. Then we go back to clean it all up and make it presentable. 

Overall, it's very easy to use. It's very intuitive and if you're documenting business processes, it does the trick. It's not like there's no other software out there that will do something similar or something as well. However, I've used Visio for so long. It's just a habit and I don't see any reason to try anything else.

I'd rate it ten out of ten. There's a reason I've been using it for so long. It does everything I need it to do without having too many confusing bells and whistles

I use Visio for diagramming configurations.

It has improved the way my organization functions because diagramming is almost similar to mind-mapping. It's a good way to get the message across and for people to understand at all levels.

Just the fact that a majority of the industry uses it, and you've got third-party templates that were created. All my vendors have templates for their products and services. It's also easy to use Visio.

I would help if they had something like a Microsoft Viewer. They also need to make this available across other platforms and not just Windows.

It would also be nice to have a portal within the product, with some agreement with third parties to get those templates through the Microsoft project portal and not have to go out there and spend time locating the templates. 

The only downside to Visio is the learning curve. Nobody off the street can pick it up that quick, and they have to learn it. They need to get some training, some tutorials, which applies to just about anything these days.

I have been using Visio for more than 15 years. 

Visio is a stable solution.

If they allowed cloud deployments, you could scale it laterally or vertically.

The initial setup is a lengthy process, but it's easy to install. But you have to import your templates, depending on whether you want to use generic ones or specific ones.

I think costs are on a per user basis.

I would advise potential users of Visio to explore the third-party templates and not limit themselves to what is provided because it's not enough.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Visio an eight.

I find it really easy to use. 

You can customize the process very easy. 

You can also communicate with people ad they don't even need to have the tool. They can see the processes on the internet which makes it easy to collaborate with people that don't actually choose to use the tool. 

It's easy to use generally, due to the fact that it's really basic. 

It has also a lot of Planteria, I know how to paint in it, however, you can use different samples, depending on the structures that you want to draw. It has a lot of possiblities.

I'm working with Visio Plan 2. I find some lags on this tool. For example, I cannot manage the attributes. For example, for each figure of the process map, I cannot add any further information about it. I can't add the activity or the role that I'm using to relate to other activities. It is very limited by the information that I can use. Managing data is quite limited.

I would love to see five samples for each attempt that I include in my process. I would like to be able to add some extra information. For example, to be able to add some attributes for each item. 

To be able to extract a report for business project management notations would be ideal. Another solution, ARIS, lets you configure each item that you add to the Visio model process, and you can add some attributes that we cannot currently add. For example, calls to activity, main indicators, or a lot of descriptions, etc.

After that, to be able to export a report that shows the relation between the functions and the roles that you have related would be great. If it were possible to see different functions for each role and export it, that would be ideal.

I've been using the solution for a very, very long time. It's been about ten to eleven years at this point. 

The solution is quite stable. We haven't had any issues in that respect. It doesn't crash or freeze and it's not buggy or have glitches.

I haven't needed to reach out to technical support the entire time I've used the product. It's very basic and very simple, and therefore I've never run into any issues I haven't been able to deal with personally.

I'm actually currently looking into different options as I am finding Visio's capabilities a bit dated and limiting.

I'm just a customer. I don't have a business relationship with Visio.

For how I use the solution, it's quite good and does what I need it to do. It's unique in terms of drawing processes. That said, it is getting a little bit old. There are other solutions out there that offer many more functionalities and users can work with more information on them. That's really useful. Visio, on the other hand, doesn't have the same kind of capabilities.

That's why I'm currently looking for another application to use. I want to be able to export more information from the business process management notations. Visio could potentially improve on this, and, if they don't I will have to look elsewhere for a solution that can handle this.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a six out of ten due to its general limitations at this point.

As process improvement professional I map out current state processes either at the value stream or swim lane level, at times both. With current state I identify pain points and bottlenecks do root cause analysis, identify possible solutions, and make recommendations on which ones I think would be the most effective. Then incorporate them into a proposed future state. 

Once we developed custom templates and shape libraries it provided a common look and feel that our stakeholders have come to understand, which is helping them to develop a continuous improvement mindset. 

We are all familiar with it, and it is easy to use. There is a lot of flexibility, and you can create custom templates with standard shapes. 

It would be nice if we could develop a custom database. We have looked into this functionality, but all of the other solutions that have a database are very locked down, and you have to use them their way. You can't define your own systems, tools, and inputs etc. For example, if we have systems that are used in multiple processes, and we want to know what processes use those systems we should be able to query the database for processes that include a specific system. A uses case could be system X being phased out so we need to know what processes will be impacted, so that we can ensure that those processes are all taken into account in any decisions to replace that system.

Additionally, Visio should have the ability to capture metrics such as demand, work time, cycle time, .. for each step in the process. Then those metrics should be able to be linked to a spreadsheet to enable data analysis that remains aligned with the process map so that changes remain aligned between Visio and Excel. Other systems attempt to provide this functionality, but the spreadsheet functionality is not as robust as Excel. 

I have been using Visio for six years.

It is stable.

There are no scalability issues. We are a nationwide company, and there are around 5,000 users.

I never had to contact them.

I never used another solution long-term, but I have evaluated various and continue to see Visio as the best option. 

The initial setup was easy. It has been around for so long. All of us have used it before, so it is not like it was new to us. 

Good. 

Most other tools are expensive.  

I was already using Visio for years before evaluating other options.

I advise standardizing the file naming conventions so it is easier to find what you need when you need it. 

We primarily use the solution for business process design.

The simplicity of the solution is great. It doesn't have a lot of menus, so it's easy to navigate. 

The fact that it's on-premises allows you to get fantastic speed. It's got a faster response rate, it doesn't lag, and it doesn't have any latency when you're working on it.

The solution has a very comprehensive set of icons. It has a BPMN location and a lot of other different locations you can use at the same time.

Microsoft offers great documentation of the product.

The reason we're moving from Visio to another program is the fact that you can link the library on ARIS or Signavio. These you have to save them on the save drive which as a collaboration. It's not working for us.  There needs to be better configuration at this point. We need something a bit more flexible in that sense.

The scalability is limited.

If you look at ARIS, for example, or Signavio, the flowchart combines all the details and with the click of a button I can create a process manager. That would be something that Visio could add. It would cut my workload in half. Currently, once I'm done with drawing the flowchart, I need to take it and put it in that document and then explain what the flowchart is.

We've been using the solution for four to five years at this point.

The stability is good. It's reliable. It doesn't crash on us, or freeze. I don't recall any bugs or glitches.

The scalability is average. It's not as scalable as other options. Organizations that need to expand it may run into issues.

We have about five to ten users on the solution at our company.

I've never required technical support. I can't speak to the level of service they provide.

That said, there is great documentation, so it's pretty easy to troubleshoot by referencing those if you need to.

We've tried ARIS and Signavio. We're still looking for a solution that can replace Visio for us. We're looking for something that can link our library.

In our organization, the IT department takes care of the initial setup. I wasn't part of the deployment process.

We're just a customer. We don't have a business relationship with Microsoft.

We're using either the 2015 or 2016 version of the solution.

The first question a company needs to determine how complex the processes are and how much depth, how much detail they want to document. If it's simpler and they want to get away from the flow chart and then present it somewhere else (such as on a PowerPoint or a report) Visio is a great option.

However, if you want to actually manage your processor, simulator, have a database, or have workflows in order to get approval within different departments or, for example, create documents after a flowchart, then I'd recommend other programs.

Overall, I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

I am an HRIS (Human Resources Information Systems) specialist. I use Visio for a variety of things.  

• I do work charts on it.  
• I do WiX (Windows Installer XML).  
• I do all swim lane mappings.  
• I do process mapping.  

That pretty much covers it.  

The ability to do my mappings is the most valuable feature in the solution. It is the reason I have and use the product.  

I am fairly happy with the program. That would be about 90 percent happy. There is not really much that is wrong with it.  

The only problem I tend to have is that sometimes when I am moving objects around within the interface I lose the formatting or it changes type or linking. You have just got to get used to the connectors not staying in the right spots or how they behave as you work with it and know how to repair it. When you are moving stuff around the joins sometimes just do not go where you want them to. That is the join arrow or shapes or connectors might intuit what you are trying to do in another way than you might intend.  

It is an issue with learning the user interface and working within the behaviors of the program. When you move stuff around and it might move off the visible page, you just have to know to resize to make it fit in the view again. That part of the interface could be more intuitive or left to the control of the user.  

We have been using Visio for least eight years although I think it is closer to ten, actually.  

It is a pretty stable solution. I do not experience much in the way of bugs or glitches.  

I do not really have experience with scalability when it comes to this solution. In my department, it is just me using the program. Outside my department, I guess our IT department and our business analysts use it. I know because we are involved in doing some work with the IT department and they use Vizio extensively. I would say there are like five or six business analysts in that area who use it. I guess if you need to scale usage, you buy another license.  

I have not had to contact technical support.  

Before using Visio, we did not use to do a lot of process mapping and our work charts were done in Excel. I was already fairly familiar with Visio, so that is why we got a Vizio. Vizio is a part of the package for the Microsoft suite, but it is an additional cost. So Vizio is not in the standard package but it is a product that is very compatible with familiar components in the Microsoft Office suite.  

The initial setup and installation were easy. It was even less than an hour, I think.  

Visio is about a $180 dollars to purchase. It is a one-time licensing fee.  

The only real comment I have for people thinking of adopting Visio is that it is pretty easy to use if you are looking for this type of solution.  

On a scale from one to ten (where one is the worst and ten is the best), I would rate Vizio as an eight-out-of-ten.