I found out about Visio in 2010 as an application that would help me in designing installation plans for ventilation systems in residential buildings in Belgium. Before that, I used pen and paper and started creating plans in Word. It kinda worked, yes drawing plans in Word did what I needed back then. If I look back at it now a feeling of shame takes over. In a few hours of experimenting with Visio, I could do more than I ever did in Word.
Visio turned out to be a reliable friend and at times a not such a good friend. I spent evenings trying to have Visio doing things that now seem trivial. In teaching with Visio as a design tool for ventilation systems I now see students struggle with the same, sometimes basic, things I struggled with. The great sites of the Visio MVP's John Goldsmith, John Marshall, David Parker and Chris Roth aka “Visio Guy” helped me out so many times that I really need to mention them here. If you haven't seen their work: go and check it now.
On this site, I'm showing that Visio can be a fun tool to play with. I certainly do. So why not share?