Microsoft Office Visio 2016 for Lifetime (/ˈvɪz.i.oʊ/ VIZ-ee-oh) (formerly Microsoft Office Visio) is a diagramming and vector graphics application and is part of the Microsoft Office family. The product was first introduced in 1992, made by the Shapeware Corporation. It was acquired by Microsoft in 2000.
Features
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.[3][4] The Professional edition features three additional diagram types, as well as intelligent rules, validation, and subprocess (diagram breakdown).[5] Visio Professional is also offered as an additional component of an Office365 subscription.[6]
On 22 September 2015, Visio 2016 was released alongside Microsoft Office 2016. 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 compliant shapes for electrical diagrams, new range of starter diagrams, and new themes for the Visio interface.[7]
Database modeling in Visio revolves around a Database Model Diagram (DMD).[8]
File formats
 
Icons for
.vsd (left) and .vss (right) files |
|
| VSD | Drawing |
|---|---|
| VSS | Stencil |
| VST | Template |
| VDW | Web drawing[9] |
| VDX | XML drawing (Discontinued[10]) |
| VSX | XML stencil (Discontinued[10]) |
| VTX | XML template (Discontinued[10]) |
| VSDX | OPC/XML drawing[10][11] |
| VSDM | OPC/XML drawing, macro-enabled[10] |
| VSSX | OPC/XML stencil[10] |
| VSSM | OPC/XML stencil, macro-enabled[10] |
| VSTX | OPC/XML template[10] |
| VSTM | OPC/XML template, macro-enabled[10] |
| VSL | Add-on |
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 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,[10] 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 Zip file.[10] VSDX and VSDM files differ only in that VSDM files may contain macros.[10] Since these files are susceptible to macro virus infection, the program enforces strict security on them.[12]
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.[citation needed] 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 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 Microsoft Project, however, it has never been officially included in any of the bundled Office suites (although it was on the disk for Office 2003 and could be installed if users knew it was there[citation needed]). Microsoft included a Visio for Enterprise Architects edition with some editions of Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Studio 2005.[13]
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 content and exact-replica network equipment shapes from 500 leading manufacturers.[14] The former has been discontinued, while the latter’s shape-finding features are now integrated into the program itself.[15] Visio 2007 was released on November 30, 2006.
Microsoft Visio adopted ribbons in its user interface in Visio 2010.[16] Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook (to some extents) had already adopted the ribbon with the release of Microsoft Office 2007.[17]
November 19, 2012: BPMN[18][circular reference] 2.0 was utilized within Microsoft Visio.
