Introducing early preview of smart diagrams from Visio for Windows

Thank you for the kind words.

Do sign-up and we will reach out to you with the next steps to try out the feature preview. With your feedback, great things will follow for sure. Cheers!

Once you have signed-up we will let you know how to get/ try out the feature preview.

If you have Visio Pro for Office 365 ('Go to file - > Accounts' to check the exact Visio version) then you can become part of Office Insider program and you will get the feature update automatically when it reaches Insiders. 

If you have any other Visio license, you will still be able to try this out, as mentioned we will update you with the next steps soon!

Sounds like a nice feature. Once you get the wrinkles out, you should migrate it to Excel! Although importing data from Excel is nice, the "average" user I've worked with would throw their hands in the air at the very concept.

But if you want more sales, you MUST make it easier for people to get Visio.  Why is it that there is NO Office bundle that includes "MS Office Visio"?  REALLY! At the very least it should be part of 365 Pro Plus ...  But it should be part of some more of the upper end Business bundles.  It should be part of 365 University and Home.  Remember the basic idea behind the "Office" bundle.  Make them pay for the tools they Want/Need to use, give them "free" access to other tools so they can learn them on their own time or at school rather than trying to learn on-the-job.

Why is it that Visio cannot be installed by users of "Consumer" licenses like 365 Home/Personal/University?

Even business users report problems trying to install Visio along side business licenses.  Why not create a installers that already have Visio (and Project) included with the various business bundles? Person starts install process, your system identifies that they have licenses for both, so give them a combined installed, everything running inside the single CTR environment. Make life easier for users.  Frankly, CTR SUCKS.

Dear User,

Thank you for the feedback. I will share the same with concerned person in my team who are trying to make trial, installations etc. simpler.

And yes, getting to Excel is a great idea! Are you looking at Visio process flowchart data templates to be available in Excel and diagram creation happening in Visio?

Regards,

Shashank Gandhi

Program Manager

Visio

Creating this in Visio means:

• You get Smarter shapes, not just keeping connectors attached but also storing key fields in the Shapes as Shape Data
• You can even overlay key metrics on shapes as Data Graphics once you have created the diagram from data, this can help you make your diagram a live dashboard
• Creating such diagrams from Excel data in Visio will also help you in keeping the diagram in sync with source data, as the data changes the diagram can be refreshed to show the latest state
• The initial set of templates show basic flowchart and cross-functional flowchart shapes, however going forward there can be different such templates in Visio where you would be able to generate diagrams automatically leveraging the breadth of high quality stencils (shapes) in Visio

Having said that, we are also looking for Excel integration opportunities for such scenarios.

Regards,

Shashank Gandhi

Program Manager

Since non-business licenses can't install it, people, especially students, will continue to use the Shapes feature, or SmartArt to do their flow charting and other charting that Visio is designed to do more "better".

From what I see, the key is you have to BUNDLE Visio with at least one of the business bundles, Office 365 University, Office 365 Student/Education (what ever the free school bundle is called) and 2016 Office Pro!  Forcing people to pay for it separately and then have to fight to install it is a losing proposition.  "Home" and school is where people have time to learn and "play" with tools before they have to actually use them at work.  Forcing people learn on the job is short sighted.  

Not allowing "consumers" to install is plain and simple stupid marketing, IMHO. You are overlooking a marketing opportunity and forcing people to use the free or low cost alternative applications. Which they will continue to use when they do move into business.  Yes, there is competition out there.