Visio 2007

Visio Experts

bVisual Microsoft Visio & MapPoint Solution Providers

This page will list some of the new things in Visio 2007.

So what is new in Visio 2007?

You may be able to obtain a copy of the Visio Beta 2 from here.

General

Microsoft has several resources for Visio 2007, a User Guide, demo and a course Course 4629: (What's New in Microsoft® Office Visio® 2007).

Bill Morein, Chris Castillo and Eric Rockey have several blog entries on some of the new features.

The new UI

Unlike Access 2007, Excel 2007, Outlook 2007, PowerPoint 2007 and Word 2007, Visio 2007 does not have a new UI. The new UI is such a radical change, that it makes sense to limit the number of products involved.

Shape Data

(The new name of Custom Properties)

Data Link

It allows you to link data to shapes from Excel, Access, SharePoint, and OLEDB/ODBC data sources. What separates this feature from the previous Import Data Wizard is that Data Link has an API that developers can program against. We no longer have to programmatically create custom properties and set values. Data Link takes care of that and provides a easy mechanism for refresh. The Visio 2007 Data Link API also allows you to link your drawing to XML data.
This option isn't available to end users, but you can leverage this new feature in your custom Visio applications. It allows you to link data to shapes from XML that adheres to the classic ADO schema. (You can easily transform ADO.NET datasets to ADO. We'll also have a sample in the Visio SDK that'll show how to do that.) Once you have your data in Visio shapes, you can surface that information easily with the new Data Graphics feature in Visio 2007. These are cool annotation shapes like flags, progress bars, and smiley faces. In previous versions of Visio, you would have had to do some tricky custom shape development to get the same results. Now, it is an out-of-the-box feature that also has an API.

Eric Rockey on Data Link.

Data Graphics

These are the annotation icons that decorate Visio shapes depending on Shape Data (formerly known as Custom Properties). Visio power-users can create new Data Graphic icon sets.

Eric Rockey on Data Graphics.

Themes

The new Themes feature allows you to specify consistent formatting across a drawing (Text, Line, Fill and Fill Pattern, Connector, Shadow, foreground and background colours and Accent colours 1 through 5). There are new shapesheet formulas to support Themes. Though all shapes will support themes (most of the features already exist in the current shapes), the new Workflow shapes are the most compatible. The Accent colours is the feature missing from existing shapes. Shapes can be modified to support Themes or protect shapes from Themes.

MSDN on Themes. Eric Rockey on Themes.

Pivot Diagrams

Pivot Diagrams provide a visual equivalent of Pivot Tables (found in Excel). You can use Pivot Diagrams to drill down and analyze key performance metrics. Because this pivot-data is in Visio, you can create high-impact visual reports and presentations using the Visio features you know and love.

Pivot Diagrams can be created from several data sources such as: Excel, Access, SharePoint Lists, SQL Server, SQL Analysis Services and OLEDB/ODBC data sources

Eric Rockey on Pivot Diagrams.

New Shapes

Visio 12 will include two new out-of-the-box diagram templates: Value Stream Mapping and ITIL. Both aimed at process improvement.

Auto Connect

Visio has added a new feature that makes connecting new shapes even easier.

Eric Rockey on Auto Connect.

Insert Text Box

Visio 2007 adds an Insert Text Box command to the Insert menu, which allows you to add a single piece of text to the drawing without switching to the Text tool.

Office 2007 Integration

Outlook 2007	-	The ability to preview Visio diagrams in the Outlook preview pane. Basically, the Visio Viewer is integrated directly inside of Outlook 2007.
Excel 2007	-	One-click creation of the new Visio 2007 Pivot Diagrams from Excel.
Project 2007	-	Visual reporting based on Pivot Diagrams to report on projects and resources.
SharePoint 2007	-	View SharePoint 2007 Workflow status reports based on Pivot Diagrams.

Visio Viewer

The Visio Viewer will be installed by default whenever Outlook 2007 is installed. This is part of a new Outlook 2007 feature; automatic preview of attachments directly in the Outlook reading pane. Visio will be one of the supported file formats and the way this will work is through the Viewer.

The viewer has been around for a few releases and will still be available as a free download.

Acrobat files

Visio 2007 diagrams will also be able to export to PDF and XPS (XML Paper Specification) (for Windows Vista). A special PDF writer will no longer be required.

API

Themes API

Data Import and Refresh API - Import data

Data Linking API - Link data to shapes

Data Graphics API - Display data using Data Graphics

Auto-connect API - enable/disable auto-connect behavior

Events

MouseMove event fires now during drag/drop.

New SDK

Visio add-in or add-on wizard for Visual Studio 2005

Visio Code Samples Library -- the old Code Librarian interface has finally been retired!

New code samples in the Visio Code Samples Library

New events available to monitor in the Event Monitor

Visio Solution Publishing Tool allows you to specify for which version of Visio (Visio 2007 or Visio 2003 and below) your solution is intended. It also lets you mark your custom templates as a "featured template" to show up in the new Visio 2007 Getting Started screen.

You can dowload a copy of the SDK from here.

AutoCad

Visio 2007, like Visio 2003, supports the AutoCAD 2000 file format for reading and writing DWG and DXF. Visio does not support Autodesk's DWF format.

Visio's DXF support does not extend to other Office applications. You can embed a Visio diagram containing a DXF drawing inside another Office document though. Also the Visio Viewer is capable of displaying Visio diagrams with DXF in them, so that is one way that other users can see these drawings.