Humble recommendation to look up Visio libraries, all over the internets. It will help with literally thousand pre-made shapes, concepts, connectors and other elements to help accent your Visio experience.
I usually use Omnigraffle, so it's been a while since I've used Visio and can't address your more usability issues, but I do wish a million times over that linking connectors in all of these programs would be more precise and less assuming I want the (very bad word)ing connector to link to the left side of an object when I wanted nothing of the sort, you programmatic fascists! Cheers, Scott On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 7:38 PM, Michael Micheletti <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm working on a product design, under pretty intense time/money/team > pressure, using Visio for design sketches. I picked Visio because I've used > it since version 1.0 (maybe I was even a beta tester, can't remember back > that far) and am fairly expert with it. I can work fast and get lots done, > and redone, which is maybe even more important. > > But today, when I attempted to copy/paste from one Visio drawing to another > Visio drawing, it pasted in a bunch of mystery shapes and junk instead of > the various dingbat font symbols and other images in my original. Yes, you > read it correctly, it failed copying from Viso to Visio. > > They say that you can boil a frog if you put it in a pot with cold water and > slowly turn up the heat. Well, then I'm a frog and Visio's finally boiled me > over. Some other fuel on the burner: > - Visio's layers dialog is application modal. What a constant endless Pain > In The Butt. > - Screen and Print visibility are controlled by separate columns of > checkboxes within said PITB layers dialog. How many times have I > printed images the first time and had to go back in and uncheck stuff there? > Probably a couple trees' worth. > - The Pan and Zoom window retains control of the keyboard when > you reposition the cursor over your drawing. Think you're going to nudge > that shape with your arrow keys now that you've zoomed in? Surprise, you're > zooming in and out again instead. I appear to be unable to learn this. And > Visio appears to be unable to learn that I want to zoom in when I use > Ctrl+Plus, and zoom out using Ctrl+Minus. > - The window and web design shapes are probably ten years old and look > really tired. Translucent windows? Ribbon controls? Galleries? 3-D controls? > Mobile phones? PDAs? Aero? Sorry. > - Connections never seem to connect how I want them to, and one false move > may reroute every one of them. > - If I ungroup a shape in order to change some component visual properties > and then regroup it, the z-index changes. > - Any website big enough to require automated tools to perform a content > inventory is too big for Visio to handle the job. > > Certainly the moment I go back to work after sending this I'll remember ten > other things that bug me, but you get the idea. Visio is no longer working > out very well as my quickie sketchpad for designing a new software > application. > > Now I'm sure that Visio can do other wonderful tasks, like layout an office > floor plan, configure equipment in a network rack, plan HVAC ducting, create > simple electrical schematics, maybe even do database modeling. But I don't > need to do any of that stuff. I'm a user interface designer. > > I have lots of alternatives for my next project. I'm good in Photoshop, but > don't normally like to sketch with it because I'm faster in Visio (mostly > because I tend to try and make things "pretty" in Photoshop, but also > because it's a pain to resize a complex screen mockup). I've made an uneasy > peace with Illustrator for symbol design work, but it frustrates me enough > that I wouldn't want to spend any more time there than I have to. I've used > InDesign to create marketing slicks and brochures, but it doesn't strike me > as optimal for software interface design. Fireworks gets a lot of good press > in this group, that may be what I try next. I'm getting increasingly adept > in Expression Blend, but it's a development tool. I sketch on paper a lot, > but mostly as quick notes to myself that no one else is expected (or able) > to read. > > Maybe Microsoft will surprise me with a tight Visio upgrade that fixes > everything that bugs me. But I doubt it. Instead, I expect them to bolt on > the ability to design staircases, or roofing tile courses, or croquet > fields, or asteroid belts, or something else equally useless to me. And > maybe that's good business if there are underserved asteroid belt designers > out there. But Visio, even though we've had some good times over the years, > I think it's time we break up. > > Ok, I'm all screeded-out now. Time to go back to work (in, um, Visio, > yes...), > > Michael Micheletti > > -- > Michael Micheletti > [email protected] > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... 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