What is new in Visio 2013

What is new in Visio 2013?



Couple of weeks ago, Microsoft Introduced Office 2013 Preview, the next generation of Microsoft Office product. Visio 2013 preview was also announced little later that is also a part of Office 2013 suite.

I've been using Visio for several years now to create my software design and architectural diagrams, flow charts and other drawings. Today, I just installed Visio 2013 and it looks awesome.

Visio 2013 comes in two flavors. The offline version is Visio Professional 2013 Preview and the online version is Visio Pro for Office 365. For Visio Pro for Office 365, all you have to do is signup for Office 365 and it will be available to you. For offline, you can download it here.

What is Visio 2013?

Microsoft Visio is a tool that helps designers, architects and developers to create diagrams and architectural diagrams. Visio 2013 provides hundreds if not thousands, of pre-existing customizable shapes and diagrams to build diagrams. New Visio 2013 has new and updated shapes and stencils, and improved and expanded themes and effects.

Visio 2013 has tools to make teamwork simpler, such as the ability to work together on the same diagram at the same time and improved commenting—in both Visio and Visio Services.

Now, to continue with Windows 8 and metro style development, Visio 2013 has improved touch support.

It also has options to make your diagrams more dynamic by linking shapes to real-time data, with an expanded set of supported sources including connectivity with SharePoint and other data sources.

Visio 2013 now has a support for updated diagramming standards, including Unified Modeling Language (UML) 2.4, Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) 2.0, and Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0.

Now, with the SkyDrive and Office 365 connectivity, we can share our diagrams with others through a browser.

Check out some more features here.

Metro Look

New Microsoft Excel 2013 is totally redesigned and reimagined with Windows 8 and Metro Style app interface. Here is new logo with the Metro look.



You will also notice new interface and Metro style fonts, navigation, colors etc.



To the Cloud

When you install Office 2013, it asks you for the cloud connectivity and connects you with the Office 365 and SkyDrive. You will have to provide your LiveID to connect to SkyDrive and all your documents will be stored in the cloud. You can see from the above image, now I can save my documents on my local computer or on my SkyDrive in the cloud.

More Templates

Now when you start Visio or create a new diagram, you will see a list of pre-loaded nicely designed templates. These templates include from your family budget to your inventory tracker to your personal money tracker. You can also search more templates online.



New Ribbon Style

Metro style ribbon. The Save option will save your document to SkyDrive if you're connected online.



Also check out new design of the footer including layout and zoom options.



Import Data from Data Sources

Similar to other Office 2013 products, Visio also lets you connect with several data sources and import data from these data sources. Some of these data sources are Excel, SQL server, SharePoint and even more.

Check out Dynamically link data sources in Visio for more details.

New Office 2013 Section on C# Corner

Are you one of the guys who jumps on a new product right away? We just launched a new section on Office 2013 where you can share articles, blogs, tutorials and even tips.

Share your blogs and articles or learn more about Office 2013 here >>