Output of Visio Files

[Pete]

Hi All,

I have a small team that are documenting business processes using Visio
2007. The flow charts are great for understanding the big picture and
identifying inefficiencies.

However, the common feedback that we get is that they are not very useful to
front line staff who are more concerned with getting specific instructions on
what to do eg step by step (with screenshots if the process involves
software).

What we are looking to do is link to the visio output (jpg images) in Wiki
articles to allow staff to be able to see the flows as well as step by step
instructions in the one place.

I was just interested if anyone has done something similar to this with
Visio and if they had any comments or suggestions.

Thanks

Pete

 

[Paul Herber]

Hi All,

I have a small team that are documenting business processes using Visio
2007. The flow charts are great for understanding the big picture and
identifying inefficiencies.

However, the common feedback that we get is that they are not very useful to
front line staff who are more concerned with getting specific instructions on
what to do eg step by step (with screenshots if the process involves
software).

What we are looking to do is link to the visio output (jpg images) in Wiki
articles to allow staff to be able to see the flows as well as step by step
instructions in the one place.

I was just interested if anyone has done something similar to this with
Visio and if they had any comments or suggestions.

You can link shapes to other files
menu Insert -> Hyperlink
this can link to any internet/intranet address or any file.
(you may get warnings if Visio thinks the file has a dangerous
extension, like .txt files!)
There are other ways as well but this should get you started.

 

[Pete]

Yeah, I was aware of the hyperlink functionality.

I was wondering if there was anything ways of going about it rather than
doing the integration with a Wiki by itself.

I've been looking and at one point Microsoft released a paper about software
they had called Microsoft Process Manager which combined Visio with other
features. Does anyone know if that is still available? I couldn't find it
anywhere.

At this stage the Save as Web Page is a little lacking and very slow if you
have 400 different pages like we do.

Thanks for your thoughts though