Microsoft Visio

Pros

• Lot of symbols
• Easy to use
• Anchors make line re-drawing easy

Cons

• Not part of Microsoft Office
• Vendors may charge for symbols
• Not advanced enough to be considered a true CAD solution

Microsoft Visio is a software tool that allows a person to diagram networks and other systems. Microsoft Visio has a number of pros and cons that I will now discuss.

Let us start with the pros. Microsoft Visio is pretty easy to use. You simply grab the image you want on the left hand side, drag it towards the middle and release. The line drawing tool also helps connect these different shapes. You don't have to draw perfectly straight lines. The tool helps complete that for you by setting up red square "anchors". Furthermore, as you need to move these images around, any lines already anchored will be re-drawn. This allows you to re-organize your drawing without having to completely re-make all the interconnecting lines.

Another pro to Microsoft Visio is that the amount of images to use is mind boggling. Since hardware vendors want free advertising, they often release their own Microsoft Visio symbols. The idea is to make the diagram look as closely to real life as possible. Furthermore, various vendors make symbol packages so that specific types of diagrams are easy to build.

Onto the cons for Microsoft Visio. The largest con with Microsoft Visio is that it does come in the traditional Microsoft Office Standard set of tools. This means that if a person wants to use this software, often times they have to purchase it separately. This takes it out of the infrequent or once in a great while diagrammers. Another downside is that many symbol sets out there cost money. Microsoft does provide a website where you can download a lot of sets; but for advanced diagrammers; specificity is the name of the game. This means that when you need a very specific set of symbols, you may have to pay for professionally designed ones.

The final con for Microsoft Visio is that it may not be advanced enough for some diagrammers. This software is not meant as a replacement to CAD drawings and that becomes apparent. Scripting is possible, but it is very basic. This means that every time a person needs to complete a very advanced diagram, they are copying/pasting from other diagrams. This leads to unprofessional mistakes and shoddier looking work.

Pros

• Lot of symbols
• Easy to use
• Anchors make line re-drawing easy

Cons

• Not part of Microsoft Office
• Vendors may charge for symbols
• Not advanced enough to be considered a true CAD solution