2002-12-30 The missing Visio manual

Visio is much more than a drawing tool, and the recent addition of UML to its repertoire makes it even more useful, especially with the (minimal) integration with Visual Studio .NET. However, a tool this complex is not something you can pick up and use fully without some comprehensive tutorial and reference material, which is sadly missing from the online documentation. This book outlines Visio and provides a rapid summary of UML, then works through the process of getting a design into Visio and generating code from it. A single project is used for all the examples, helping greatly with comprehending how the different diagrams interact. One valuable aspect of the book is that it takes a critical look at the product, and tells you where it falls short, including a brief comparison with other UML tools. The chapter on documentation is the low point of the book, and feels like a bit of unnecessary padding, but the rest is very good.