MSE Visio and Project

Rosa_Damascena

I've had a "personalised" offer for both at a reasonable price and think I could potentially get £24 use out of both. Does anyone have them / use either regularly and has Visio in particular helped with websites?

My other concern is that this is a means of hooking me in - subsequent upgrades may cost and want to avoid this trap. Thoughts? 

unforeseen

Visio is nothing to do with website design etc. It is a flowchart & diagramming software.
Project isn't either

DullGreyGuy

Visio has been of particular help with websites but its about drawing out the process/sales funnel or how a client wants the site to operate... its not for doing the visual design. 

Project is only really useful if you are going to invest a lot of time in learning how it works and ideally already understand the differences between lapse/man time, S2F/F2F dependencies and are working with large dedicated teams of resources. For a small personal project then Excel is fine or there are online tools that are much more user friendly. 

prowla

Project planning and solution architecting is very much part of website design & implementation, etc.

Howevver, draw.io will give you all you need for diagramming and a spreadsheet is perfrectly adequate for planning and tracking,

Heedtheadvice

Similar to the above responses....

Have used both for many a year Visio for professional and personal use and project professionally only ( generally overkill for personal requirements ).

Vision ranges from a simple shape oriented drawing package ( such as room layouts, flow charts mechanical and electrical diagrams ) to lots of built in functionality such as linking to and diagramming databases, scaled map production, measurements, layering properties and more such as including VBA programing and lots of Independent solution online. Not quite a drawing package like Autocad but not far off. Like many of the apps produced or bought (originally) by uSoft very versatile and links into other Office programs.

Bargain at 24 quid but only if you have a use fir it!!

Rosa_Damascena

Heedtheadvice said:

Similar to the above responses....

Have used both for many a year Visio for professional and personal use and project professionally only ( generally overkill for personal requirements ).

Vision ranges from a simple shape oriented drawing package ( such as room layouts, flow charts mechanical and electrical diagrams ) to lots of built in functionality such as linking to and diagramming databases, scaled map production, measurements, layering properties and more such as including VBA programing and lots of Independent solution online. Not quite a drawing package like Autocad but not far off. Like many of the apps produced or bought (originally) by uSoft very versatile and links into other Office programs.

Bargain at 24 quid but only if you have a use fir it!!

@Heedtheadvice - your post is helpful and is swaying me towards investing in the packages. Are updates charged for?

DullGreyGuy

Rosa_Damascena said:

Heedtheadvice said:

Similar to the above responses....

Have used both for many a year Visio for professional and personal use and project professionally only ( generally overkill for personal requirements ).

Vision ranges from a simple shape oriented drawing package ( such as room layouts, flow charts mechanical and electrical diagrams ) to lots of built in functionality such as linking to and diagramming databases, scaled map production, measurements, layering properties and more such as including VBA programing and lots of Independent solution online. Not quite a drawing package like Autocad but not far off. Like many of the apps produced or bought (originally) by uSoft very versatile and links into other Office programs.

Bargain at 24 quid but only if you have a use fir it!!

@Heedtheadvice - your post is helpful and is swaying me towards investing in the packages. Are updates charged for?

It depends how you buy them, for Visio... a perpetual license is normally £340 or £640 for which you will get security updates etc but it will always be 2021 (standard or professional edition) and you'd need to pay the license fee again if you want to get the 2025 version. It may be when a new version is released they will offer a discounted upgrade for a limited time but right now anyone with 2013 or 2010 would be buying in full again to get 2021

Alternatively you pay for a subscription like M365 (currently £4.10/£12.30 for standard/professional) in which case you will get both security and feature updates as they become available. 

Project is slightly different, for the desktop version there is only perpetual licenses, the subscription model is a browser based solution. 

Obviously with the price you've been offered, and assuming that isn't a monthly fee, then do your DD on whoever its come from as clearly its 10% of what the price should be would certainly raise concerns that its a direct scam or they are illegally selling corporate activation codes and so your copy won't be properly licensed. 

400ixl

Rosa_Damascena said:

Heedtheadvice said:

Similar to the above responses....

Have used both for many a year Visio for professional and personal use and project professionally only ( generally overkill for personal requirements ).

Vision ranges from a simple shape oriented drawing package ( such as room layouts, flow charts mechanical and electrical diagrams ) to lots of built in functionality such as linking to and diagramming databases, scaled map production, measurements, layering properties and more such as including VBA programing and lots of Independent solution online. Not quite a drawing package like Autocad but not far off. Like many of the apps produced or bought (originally) by uSoft very versatile and links into other Office programs.

Bargain at 24 quid but only if you have a use fir it!!

@Heedtheadvice - your post is helpful and is swaying me towards investing in the packages. Are updates charged for?

What elements of Web sites do you work with?

If you are a front end developer and not responsible for the overall deliver scheduling then neither are going to be of much use to you and a waste of money. As mentioned for the Visio side Draw.IO will do everything you likely need for free.

Neither application is really for Epics, User Stories etc and does not do wire framing for example. There are also much better tools out there for backlog management than Project.

If on the other hand you are involved in large Web architecture projects as a solution architect or project then both may be of value.

Just because it is cheaper than usual doesn't mean it is useful and worth buying over something which is free anyway.

If the offer is for a specific version of Visio (2016, 2021) then it will likely be a one off and you will only every be on that version unless you pay again to buy a new version and you won't be committed to any future purchase to keep using it. Of it is a subscription model (e.g. Visio Plan 1 for M365) then you will have to pay to keep using it for when that period of subscription runs out.

Personally, as you are scabling for why you need it, you don't really need it and can do things with other free tools.

Heedtheadvice

...and I  agree with those later posts. I hope I am not pushing you in the wrong direction with my earlier post!

I only use an old version of Visio offline now and it meets my needs. I would not update for several hundred pounds but if I had a short term pro need that used the advanced features then  sub would be  considered. Again  cheap or free ( but good) drawing  prog would meet many a domestic need and even for simple pro needs could well be adequate. I would suggest having  look at Microsoft  descriptions of the capabilities of Visio AND reviews before committing to buy to see if you really need everything for your purpose or if something else would do. On the other hand a few hundred might be a good business investment......?

abssorb

That is very cheap. 

I agree with all the above, but also add that compared to powerpoint and word, visio is very advanced and has a steep learning curve.  

Project is relatively simple once you understand the concepts.  There are better tools out there but it is absolutely the industry standard for non-software projects.  It's the "Excel" of project management scheduling.
Might be handy - but, it won't make you a project manager any more that excel will make you an accountant

Rosa_Damascena

abssorb said:

That is very cheap. 

I agree with all the above, but also add that compared to powerpoint and word, visio is very advanced and has a steep learning curve.  

Project is relatively simple once you understand the concepts.  There are better tools out there but it is absolutely the industry standard for non-software projects.  It's the "Excel" of project management scheduling.
Might be handy - but, it won't make you a project manager any more that excel will make you an accountant

I'm just after something that will ease my pain, not add to it! Efficiency is the name of the game and both could offer me that.