Visio 2010 questions

[Jennifer]

We are about to upgrade our creaky Win XP systems. I guess we will also upgrade from Office 2007 Pro to the latest version. I am currently using Visio 2003 Pro (SP3), so I'm planning to upgrade to 2010. I have a few questions if someone would be so kind as to help out:

1. Should upgrade to V2010 now on the XP system? It seems like that would be better than installing V2003 on the new systems and then upgrading. It would also give me a chance to get up to speed on V2010, whoch would be one think I wouldn't have to worry about during the uograde. Comments?

2. Will Visio 2010 run on Win XP? Are there any problems?

3. What are the major conversion challenges in moving form V2003 to V2010?

4. I thought Visio was part of Office, but it doesn't appear that it is from the MSFT website.

[Paul Herber]

Visio 2010 should be fine on XP with all current service packs.
The file format is the same as Visio 2007 so diagrams are forward and backward compatible.
Except:
a. any new feautues of Visio 2010 will; be lost when used in Visio 2007
b. some diagram types work very differently and get converted when opened in Visio 2010 for the first time. There is no going back.
c. some special shapes e.g. containers will not work at all in Visio 2007.
So, if you convert to Visio 2010 do all your systems, don't mix and match.


4. Visio and Project have always been separate. How they can be included in Office but not included when you buy any of the Office suite combinations are a wonder of marketing.

[Jennifer]

If economics is "the dismal science", then marketing must be "the dismal profession". :-)