How to use Microsoft Visio?

In this article, I want to show you how you can both get and also use Microsoft Visio. Visio is a diagramming and vector graphics software introduced by Microsoft and with Visio.

you can pull together flowcharts network diagrams floor plans and many other types we're going to walk through step by step so by the end of this article.

You'll be proficient and ready to start using Visio all right let's jump on the pc and get started to get Microsoft Visio.

you can simply click on that this will drop you on the main Visio home page which contains information about what you can do with Visio but in a moment I'll show you everything that you can do with Visio.

To get Visio to let's click on see plans and pricing this opens up a page where we could compare all of the different Visio options just like most software companies these days Microsoft is pushing the subscription plan for Visio.

If you don't like subscriptions in a moment I'll show what other options you have by default, there are two different Visio plans you have the descriptive name Visio Plan 1 and Visio plan 2.

What's the difference other than the cost well let's start with Visio plan one, it's five dollars per month and you get access to Visio on the web if you just have basic flowcharting or diagramming needs Visio Plan 1 will probably be sufficient.

With Visio plan 2 it's a little bit more expensive at 15 per month you get access to Visio on the web in addition to the Visio desktop app the desktop app has more functionality than the web version you're going to get more shapes more templates more styles.

You can collaborate with multiple people at the same time on the same diagram you can link diagrams to living data and you also get access to information rights management if you're in a professional setting you might need that additional functionality so Visio plan 2 might make sense for you now I mentioned we'd look back at the other options if you don't like subscriptions.

They have Visio standard 2021 and Visio professional 2021. Standard goes for USD$309.99 and professional goes for a hefty USD$579.99 so it's quite expensive what I'd recommend doing is I'd probably go with a subscription plan.

Visio Standard 2021

Visio Professional 2021

Use it for the duration of your project and you'll probably come out ahead plus the benefit of a subscription plan is you get constant updates and you're always on the latest and greatest if you're not sure which option is for you just recommend trying it out you can get a 30-day free trial of Visio.

You can see if Visio is an app that you might be interested in using once you finish installing Visio go ahead and launch the application this will drop us on the start page and if you've ever used any other office applications like word excel or powerpoint this experience will likely look very familiar at the top of the home the view you can kick-off.

A new Visio diagram if you're not quite sure what you're pulling together you can start with a blank drawing or you can start with one of these templates especially in Visio starting from a template's a very good idea.

The reason why is each template will come with an associated set of stencils those stencils will contain shapes and tools that will help you pull together your diagram now with a blank drawing.

You can pull in all those same sets of stencils but it'll require a little bit of extra effort you're not just limited to this set of templates that appears at the top if you click on more templates this will open up a more comprehensive view of all of the templates.

You have available here on the office tab, we see some of the most popular templates right at the front if I click on the templates tab over here this will show me some of the popular categories.

If I click into one of these categories I'll see a wide variety of templates now once again when I mention stencils let's say, for instance, you were to use the office layout diagram template here you'll have some stencils and shapes such as a door a window a chair and a desk and you could easily insert them into your diagram.

If you just started from blank you'd have to find those shapes and pull them in. let's click on the back you also have access to a set of sample diagrams if you need some inspiration to get started, for instance, here I could see some other examples of floor plans that others have pulled together, and yeah they look pretty good back on the home view down below you can also access recent articles or diagrams that you worked on here.

I see a recent list if I hover over an item I could pin it and I could get back to it faster in the future I could also see some more articles that others have shared with me if I want to find a Visio and maybe I don't see it immediately in the recent list down below I can also search for it now some of you might know from watching another tutorial videos that I've done I work at a company called the AtoZ cookie company and today I want to use Visio to map out our flow for making cookies we have a few different people who are involved in this process.

So I want to create a cross-functional flowchart so to create it I'll click on this once I click on it it gives me a few different themes or styles that I could create my cross-functional flowchart using.

I'll simply go with the blank one and then click on create this now drops me in a blank Visio.

We have two different options for the cross-functional flowchart. Horizontal and Vertical and we are going with the horizontal one. 

we could start mapping out what our cookie-making flow looks like the reason I started from a template is over on the left-hand side you see all of the shapes that I have available to me because I chose the cross-functional flowchart.

We get access to all of the basic flowchart shapes and I also get access to these cross-functional flowchart shapes if I just went with just a blank diagram I would then have to click on more shapes.

As we can see on the left-hand side of the artboard in Visio. We have complete access to the basic shapes and cross-functional structure.

To find all the different shapes that we want to add to this left-hand pane now it's not that hard here, for instance, I'll click on business brainstorming and I'll check brainstorming shapes this pulls in an additional category under shapes but I don't need that for this diagram.

We uncheck that and I'll just stick with the default that I get with this template not only do I get all of these shapes on the left-hand side by choosing the cross-functional flowchart template up on top I also get this additional tab that has some controls that I could use related to a cross-functional flowchart so once again especially in Visio starting from a template is a very good idea.

okay, let's start diagramming now I mentioned that I want to pull together a flow for the AtoZ cookie company and how we make our cookies first I want to give my diagram a name.

I'm going to zoom in a little bit so it's a little bit easier to see to edit this text right up here for the title I could simply double click and I could type in the AtoZ cookie company cookie-making flow.

I selected a cross-functional flowchart because we have a number of different individuals at the AtoZ cookie company who are involved in making cookies down below I see my swim lanes and each swim lane will represent a different one of these roles for the first one, I'll simply double click on this and first off for the cookie-making flow we have management kick it off.

Next, the most important member of the team that pulls together our cookies is the kitchen staff we also have one additional role of quality control that's another important member of the team and I need to insert another swim lane for them to do that I could simply click on swim lane and I could drag it over and that will attach it to the bottom of my diagram here.

I'll type in the name I now have all the different individuals involved in the cookie making process but this is a diagramming app and I want to map out what the flow looks like now whenever we make cookies at the AtoZ cookie company management always kicks off the process so to pull in different shapes into my flow chart, I could simply select the shape and I could drag it over into my flow chart.

Now one of the nice things is when I hover the shape in I have these nice guidelines that tell me that I've centered my shape I could simply drop it there and now my shape appears if I double click on it I can insert text and I'll simply type in start for the first step in the cookie making process as the next step in our flow management then notifies the kitchen staff to kick off the cookie creation process.

So I can pull in my next step in the flow once again I can simply drag and drop the shape over however, there's an easier way to do it that I could simply hover over the first shape, there's an arrow an icon that appears around the shape and then I could choose the next step in my flow.

I'm going to click on this rectangle shape here you see it automatically inserts a connector and here now I have my shape here again I can double click on it and paste it in what the next step is and management is going to notify the kitchen staff to kick off production management really plays an important role with this company and they're really good at delegating work.

Next, this is when the kitchen staff takes over the flow, here again, I can hover over the shape and I'm going to insert my next box for the kitchen staff and they're going to kick off with mixing the ingredients now something else you could do in Visio is you're not just limited to inserting text on shapes you could also, insert text on your connectors here, for instance, I'll double click on this connector and I'll call this the keep path once the kitchen staff packages their cookies at that point we're all done I'm going to hover over and we're going to end this process.

If we decide to discard the cookies that too also ends the process I'm going to add a connector to I could go to the top bar click on the connector and here I'm going to drag a connector from discard to end as well you now have an inside look at how we make cookies at the AtoZ cookie company.

I now want to show you some additional functionality in Visio that'll help make your flowchart look amazing now one of the first things.

I want to show is you're not just limited to this simple color set let's say that maybe there's a very critical step in my process flow and I want to make sure I highlight it we want to make sure we don't cook our cookies for over 15 minutes.

Otherwise, our cookies just don't taste very good I can click on this box in my flow and then I can go up on the home ribbon over to fill and I could apply a different color here maybe I just want to give it a dark red color just to make sure the staff doesn't miss this step along with changing the look and feel of an individual object I could also change the look and feel of all of the shapes on my flow here, for instance, I'll highlight all of these and if I hover over shape styles.

I could change the style for all of my different shapes now maybe I don't want to just change the shapes maybe I want to change the overall look and feel to do that I'm going to go up to the top ribbon click on design.

I can choose from all of these different themes and then apply these themes to my cross-functional flow chart now along with selecting a theme.

I could also, choose different variants of that theme over here on the right-hand side so it's very easy to choose a look and feel that'll make your flow chart look as good as possible you can also use Visio to very easily make sure that all of your items are in alignment and that the spacing is very even between all of the different items.

let's say for For example maybe I position this step in the process up there so the spacing is a little off plus with the connectors you see this weird zig-zag effect I could simply highlight all of my shapes and then I could go up to a home on the ribbon and over on the right-hand side.

I can auto-align all of the items you still see the spacing's a little off, I could click on a position and I could also auto space alternatively I could have clicked on auto-align and space and that would have ensured that everything was aligned and spaced properly we're getting near the end and I want to call out a few final features that you can use in Visio.

It's a quick way, to learn and work with the Visio.