Some time ago I upgraded my old XP machine to a Surface Book running Win 10 and installed Office 365. Of course, Visio is not included. I just had a need for a graphics program, so I did a little checking to see what a Visio license would cost. The costs ranged from $300 to $500. Then I saw an ad for Visio 2019 Professional for $29 from a company called Key-Mart.
https://key-mart.com/product/buy-microsoft-visio-professional-2019-1-pc-license-download
I was suspicious, but figured it would be worth $29 to find out, so I bought it. The licensing was a little non-obvious, but it is installed and seems to work. Or, at least, it did until today. My other post in this section reports some problems I am having.
Does anyone know anything about Key-Mart and how they are able to offer software like Visio for $29?
I stay clear of all those.
inside 365, I believe you can request visio (I did here), it goes to admin who approves, then sent a link to install visio.
Quote from: vojo on July 24, 2020, 02:54:38 AM
I stay clear of all those.
Yes, I usually do, too, but for $29 vs $500...
The install completed without any error messages.
Quoteinside 365, I believe you can request visio (I did here), it goes to admin who approves, then sent a link to install visio.
Are you saying that Visio is available to Office 365 subscribers without an additional fee? I couldn't find anyway to do that.
Quote from: Jennifer on July 24, 2020, 03:15:41 AMAre you saying that Visio is available to Office 365 subscribers without an additional fee? I couldn't find anyway to do that.
Visio always sold separately ! It is not part of MS Office bundle.
Visio Plan 2 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/visio/visio-plan-2?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab)
Quote from: Surrogate on July 24, 2020, 06:31:02 AM
Quote from: Jennifer on July 24, 2020, 03:15:41 AMAre you saying that Visio is available to Office 365 subscribers without an additional fee? I couldn't find anyway to do that.
Visio always sold separately ! It is not part of MS Office bundle.
Visio Plan 2 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/visio/visio-plan-2?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab)
I'll have to think about Plan 1 ($5/mo). I don't use Visio that much anymore, so Plan 2 is out of the question. If my $29 version doesn't work, I'll have to look at some of the shareware graphics software and let Visio go. (sigh)
Thanks
You can try these alternatives of Visio:
- Lucidchart (web (https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/) | Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lucidchart.android.chart&hl=en) | iOS (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lucidchart-flowchart-diagram-visio-viewer/id611543423?mt=8)) / Free | Subscription
- Creately (web (https://app.creately.com/diagram/create) | Windows (https://creately.com/creately-for-windows/) | MacOS (https://creately.com/creately-for-mac-osx/) | Linux (http://creately-desktop-release.s3.amazonaws.com/creately-7.0.7-linux-x86_64.AppImage)) / Free | Subscription | Shareware
- Dia (Windows (http://sourceforge.net/projects/dia-installer/files/dia-win32-installer/0.97.2/dia-setup-0.97.2-2-unsigned.exe/download) | MacOS X (http://dia-installer.de/download/linux.html) | Linux (http://dia-installer.de/download/macosx.html)) / Freeware
- OpenOffice. Application Draw (Windows | MacOS X | Linux (https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html)) / Freeware
- LibreOffice. Application Draw (Windows | MacOS X | Linux (https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/)) / Freeware
- edraw (Windows | MacOS X | Linux (https://www.edrawsoft.com/download-edrawmax.html) | web (https://www.edrawmax.com/online/)) / Shareware
- Grapholite (Windows 7 (https://grapholite.com/Download/Grapholite.msi) | Windows 10 (PC or Tablet) (http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/grapholite-diagrams-pro/99164828-b985-44ad-af71-58827d8d8a13) | Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grapholite.diagramsdemo) | iPad (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grapholite-diagrams-flow-charts-floor-plans/id954302708?ls=1&mt=8)) / Shareware
- vecta.io (web (https://vecta.io/app/edit/demo?utm_source=vectaio&utm_medium=index&utm_content=demo&utm_campaign=vecta-demo)) / Free
- draw.io (web (https://www.draw.io/)) / Free
Not sure that you can do these things with Visio Plan 1.
Quote from: Jennifer on July 23, 2020, 08:56:12 PM
I just upgraded to Visio 2019 Professional. I'm not at all sure this is a good thing.
When I first started using it, it seemed to work more or less like my previous version, 2007. Today, something has happened. All of the following worked for a couple of days. None do now.
- I can no longer drag guides from the rulers onto the page.
- Guides that are already on the page cannot be duplicated (Ctrl+d), but they can be copied and pasted.
- Guides can be dragged, but they do not actually move until I release the drag.
- I cannot drag dimensioning shapes from the "Dimensioning - Engineering" shape list onto the page. If I try, I get a little pop-up window that says "Glue to Vertex". It disappears after a few seconds. A little yellow dot appears on the vertex (lower left corner of the sheet. If I hover over it, it says "Change Dimension Height". I am able to
Am I doing something wrong or did some setting get changed or is this software just buggy?
It is web-based application for create simple diagrams in your browser !
PS Thread Visio vs Lucidchart (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/visio-vs-lucidchart/4b891e31-baa1-47ea-abb7-0ed826177e17) at answers.microsoft.com (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum?sort=LastReplyDate&dir=Desc&tab=All&status=all&mod=&modAge=&advFil=&postedAfter=&postedBefore=&threadType=All&isFilterExpanded=false&page=1): there you can find more alternative applications and their descriptions!
Thanks for those links and the clarification on Visio Plan 1. My 20+ year love affair with Visio may be coming to an end. (sigh)
as you plunge into these alternatives, many of these are just toys....so in that context, heck PPT is an alternative
(toys = amateur/grade school shape visuals or simple way to plop down PNGs or or or).
Edraw is the only serious one on the list. Conceptdraw is also a serious option
Probably could consider some adobe stuff.
Last time I checked ***office.draw has a visio importer but can only handle the simplest of drawings.
(I had a real hard time making office.draw produce results for their tutorials...just gave up after about 1 month on and off).
Good luck
vojo, you are right about these toy applications !
But these alternatives better than Visio Plan 1. Some of them is free.
Fundamentally, V2019 has same core features as V2007. The most noticeable difference is the beloved ribbon introduced in 2010. Along the way to 2019, the object model was upgraded with new features, some bug fixes, some new bugs (but overall, nothing major). I've not experienced any significant performance issues requiring re-booting Visio.
So, wrt $29...if it's too good to be true, it probably is. I cannot address any Office365 related issues. But, fwiw, V2019 plays well with Office10.
No Inkscape? It is certainly more than a toy.
Quote from: wapperdude on July 24, 2020, 03:38:00 PM
Fundamentally, V2019 has same core features as V2007. The most noticeable difference is the beloved ribbon introduced in 2010. Along the way to 2019, the object model was upgraded with new features, some bug fixes, some new bugs (but overall, nothing major). I've not experienced any significant performance issues requiring re-booting Visio.
So, wrt $29...if it's too good to be true, it probably is. I cannot address any Office365 related issues. But, fwiw, V2019 plays well with Office10.
Thanks
Quote from: Yacine on July 25, 2020, 07:28:16 AM
No Inkscape? It is certainly more than a toy.
Thanks. I've heard of that. I'll give it a try.
ok....IMHO
Inkscape pros:
- rich static drawing tools
- python macros....although about the most rube Goldberg approach to macros I can think of...
- aside from canned macros, unusable...got to burn ~50 lines of Python just to get in position for actual fcn you want
inkscape cons:
- everything is very manual (drawing very manual, shading very manual)
- no real concept of smart shapes, data icons/symbols, etc...no shape properties to control shape behavior per given instance
- no application specific templates and such....to be productive and handle the minutia
So if you want to draw a picture manually - a bowl of fruit, Inkscape is great. Its just not really focused on productivity.
no 500bucks alternative?
Quote from: vojo on July 26, 2020, 02:33:42 AM
ok....IMHO
Inkscape pros:
- rich static drawing tools
- python macros....although about the most rube Goldberg approach to macros I can think of...
- aside from canned macros, unusable...got to burn ~50 lines of Python just to get in position for actual fcn you want
inkscape cons:
- everything is very manual (drawing very manual, shading very manual)
- no real concept of smart shapes, data icons/symbols, etc...no shape properties to control shape behavior per given instance
- no application specific templates and such....to be productive and handle the minutia
So if you want to draw a picture manually - a bowl of fruit, Inkscape is great. Its just not really focused on productivity.
The cons Vojo names are not specific to Inkscape, but rather to any other non-Visio solution.
Quote from: Yacine on July 27, 2020, 08:08:58 AM
The cons Vojo names are not specific to Inkscape, but rather to any other non-Visio solution.
Thanks
I don't know for sure....but I think edraw and conceptdraw are pretty similar to Visio.
IMHO, Inkscape is more of a design tool. Means, people do art with it (logo design, illustrations, etc)
Those who do business diagramming (like building plans or org charts) were never meant to be target audience of Inkscape, as far as I know.
I think Lucidcharts could be much closer alternative to Visio than Inkscape (from online alternatives)
Similarly to Visio, there you have sets of pre-built blocks (shapes) that you could use to compose the diagram.
But the issue is, many people have lots of diagrams already created in Visio that cannot be imported without loss. Lucidcharts can import Visio diagrams, but that import is not purely 1:1
Also, there are lots of 3rd party components for Visio that cannot be found for other applications (like devices, or engineering stuff like pipes etc).
Thanks for all tne suggestions
I'm usually one version behind on Visio because I buy used copies on ebay. Can usually find one for less than $100 if you shop around after a new version comes out. I make sure they are legal copies and have a disk included. Been lucky so far. Only been burned once on used software, on an Adobe product (counterfeit) and ebay reimbursed me.
Been using Visio since it first came, so I guess I like it. I do use use Inkscape to supplement Visio since it has the ability to digitize pictures and its letters are in vector format vice True Type.