This morning Microsoft announced that the Beta versions of Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Project 2010 and Microsoft Visio 2010 are now available! You can download Visio 2010 Beta here. This is a public Beta, so anyone can install and use it.
Changes in the Beta
Visio 2010 Beta has numerous refinements based on customer feedback from the Technical Preview. The most visible changes can be found in the Backstage View. This area has been redesigned to feel more integrated with the rest of the Ribbon, as is explained in the Office 2010 Engineering blog. Also there are several visual updates. In the screenshot below, you can see the new look of the Backstage View found under the File tab.
Saving files to SharePoint is also different in Visio 2010 Beta. Now saving to a SharePoint location, saving to a Visio Process Repository and publishing to Visio Services have been combined into a single place. You simply choose a location and then select whether to save out a standard Visio Drawing or a Visio Web Drawing.
In the other ribbon tabs, you will find visual updates to Themes and a more functional set of Callouts. For improved ease of use, we’ve refined the behaviors of several diagramming features including adjusting the sensitivity of AutoConnect.
You will also find functional and visual updates to Containers, Cross-functional Flowchart shapes, BPMN shapes, Data Graphics Legends and Wireframe shapes. If you created diagrams with these shapes in the Technical Preview, please be aware that your existing diagrams will have the Technical Preview version of the shapes while new diagrams created in the Beta will have the new versions of these shapes. Also for Cross-functional Flowchart diagrams, significant shape and functionality changes mean that Technical Preview diagrams will open in the Beta but will not be editable.
More information about the features of Visio 2010 can be found on this blog. End user help is also available on the Microsoft Office Beta site.
Visio Services Beta and Visio SDK Beta
Coinciding with the release of Visio 2010 Beta, we are releasing the Beta version of Visio Services as part of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Beta. You can download SharePoint 2010 Beta from MSDN here. In addition we are releasing a Beta version of the Visio Software Development Kit, a download for solution developers. We will provide more information about the Visio SDK Beta in an upcoming post.
Send Us Your Feedback
We encourage you to download the Beta and give us your feedback. We’re rapidly approaching the end of the Visio 2010 development cycle, and your feedback is essential to ensure a high quality final product. You can comment on the posts on the blog or use the Send a Smile tool to let us know what you think.
