As a long term sufferer of visio ( both my current and previous employers have had it as their default drawing package ~ 18yrs ) and given that it seems likely I will be forced to use it for some time more, I wanted to reach out to Microsoft with some suggestions that might help to get rid of all those 'visio sucks - where can I get a proper drawing program from?' messages that abound on the internet forums. So here goes:

(1) Grids:

Visio uses grids which have zoom in steps like 1:2:5:10. The ratios between these grids are irrational thereby guaranteeing that items placed on grids at different zoom levels cannot ever line up. This leads to much tedious tweaking and non right angle lines etc. To fix this the grids must follow a geometric series such as 1:2:4:8 etc. thereby guaranteeing that grids at different zoom levels align perfectly. This one fix would improve usability of the package enormously.

(2) Arcs. Visio cannot draw arcs in any useful manner. Its concept is all wrong. A circular or elliptical arc needs to have a center point and a stop and start angle, plus a size in x and y (the radius/axes). Creating say a 45 degree corner is easy if you have those controls. Then they can be stretched without distortion (visio is laughable with this). Bezier curves are no substitute here

(3) Cut and paste repetition

How visio decides where to paste things has always been a mystery to me. When I copy something and paste it, I expect to be able to paste it near where the cursor is or where I last clicked select on the page. If I press paste again it is really useful if the spacing is repeated. This makes patterns and step wise repeats easy to produce without having to use spacing wizards.

So there you are - three easy things to make visio better and save pain for those of us forced to use it. My fear is that MS are not actively developing this program and that it is set in stone. Poor show, if thats the case..

Kevin the Engineer

I suggest you make the "close X" in the upper right corner work like every other Microsoft software package. When I use the upper right close X on a Word document it only closes the current window. When I use the close X on an Outlook email or appointment it only closes the current email or appointment. HOWEVER, when I use the close X in Visio, it shuts down the entire program, not just the current drawing. This is ridiculous! Thank God for the save question on exit or I'd have lost significant progress on my current flowchart. Please fix it. Thanks!

When a MathType equation is inserted as an OLE object, it remains in its original state until 1) the Visio document is closed and reopened, 2) the equation is edited, and 3) the document is closed & reopened again. If those events happen, in that order, the equation becomes scrambled and unreadable/unusable. This is a bug in Visio causing this because it only happens after the document is closed & reopened. If an equation is inserted and edited in the same Visio session, it does not become scrambled. If it is edited later, it only becomes scrambled when the document is closed & reopened.