Visio 2019 Professional for $29 from KeyMart

[Jennifer]

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?

[vojo]

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.

[Jennifer]

I stay clear of all those.

Yes, I usually do, too, but for $29 vs $500...

The install completed without any error messages.

inside 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.

[Surrogate]

Are 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

[Jennifer]

Are 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

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

[Surrogate]

You can try these alternatives of Visio:

• Lucidchart (web | Android | iOS) / Free | Subscription
• Creately (web | Windows | MacOS | Linux) / Free | Subscription | Shareware
• Dia (Windows | MacOS X | Linux) / Freeware
• OpenOffice. Application Draw (Windows | MacOS X | Linux) / Freeware
• LibreOffice. Application Draw (Windows | MacOS X | Linux) / Freeware
• edraw (Windows | MacOS X | Linux | web) / Shareware
• Grapholite (Windows 7 | Windows 10 (PC or Tablet) | Android | iPad) / Shareware
• vecta.io (web) / Free
• draw.io (web) / Free

Not sure that you can do these things with Visio Plan 1.

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 at answers.microsoft.com: there you can find more alternative applications and their descriptions!

[Jennifer]

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)

[vojo]

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

[Surrogate]

vojo, you are right about these toy applications !

But these alternatives better than Visio Plan 1. Some of them is free.

[wapperdude]

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.

[Yacine]

No Inkscape? It is certainly more than a toy.

[Jennifer]

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

[Jennifer]

No Inkscape? It is certainly more than a toy.

Thanks. I've heard of that. I'll give it a try.

[vojo]

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.

[Surrogate]

 no 500bucks alternative?