Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a standard maintained by the Object Management Group that allows businesses to document and communicate business processes uniformly using graphical notation.

The new version of Visio supports BPMN 2.0, which is the current version of the standard, and corresponding Diagram Validation rules. Using these rules, a user can check the visual correctness of a diagram against logical rules specified in the standard. This article explains more about our new BPMN 2.0 support.

The Visio team is here at SharePoint Conference (SPC) 2012, and we're looking forward to having an exciting and fun-filled time in sunny Las Vegas.  A major theme of SPC 2012 is our new release of Office--including SharePoint, Project, and Visio--and we've got a full agenda of topics to cover.

Visualizing processes is at the heart of Visio’s DNA and in Visio 2010 we took a big step forward in that area by including support for SharePoint workflows. This lets users create a workflow in Visio, import it into SharePoint Designer, and make it an executable workflow on SharePoint.  In the new Visio we’ve added SharePoint 2013 workflows and made SharePoint Designer an even more integral part of creating workflows visually.

With the power of Click-to-Run, Visio on Demand, Identity and Roaming, your new Visio will let you get to work quicker and in more places than ever before. Now you can worry less about installations and configuring settings, and more about creating awesome diagrams. Read on to learn more.

Containers are a convenient way to visually group your shapes together and then easily work with that group. Callouts provide a simple mechanism to attach text to a shape. We’ve improved both in the new Visio. Specifically, there are more shapes to give you increased flexibility to express your information. We also updated our old and new shapes with themes, so you have many choices for customizing the look and feel of your diagram to your audience. Lastly, we streamlined the insert menus and the heading styles menu to make it easier to find, select and customize the shape you want.

Database templates have a fresh, modern look in the new Visio. In our new approach, templates focus on the on-canvas experience, which makes them great for brainstorming, free-form diagramming and collaborating on ideas.

There are  four database templates:  Chen's, Crow's Foot, IDEF1X and UML. Each template can be used to model a database system in a different notation. We'll describe the components of a database diagram and then cover each of the notations.

In the new Visio, we have re-envisioned our Unified Modeling Language (UML) templates in a fresh, modern way.  We updated our five most popular UML diagrams, with all new shapes to make it easier and faster to create beautiful, professional diagrams. Our new UML templates allow you to create class, sequence, state machine, activity and use case diagrams that match the UML 2.4 standard.  The templates focus on a freeform, on-canvas experience. Each template takes advantage of the full capabilities of Visio, including shape effects and themes, as well as collaboration and commenting to share your diagrams across your organization. In this article we'll introduce each of the new UML diagrams and present a few tips about using the new model.

Developers and IT professionals frequently use Visio to design and document software and database systems. They recognize the benefits of visualizing complex systems to understand relationships and dependencies, and Visio makes it easy to communicate and socialize designs across the team. As a result the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Database diagrams in Visio are widely used today by an enthusiastic audience, and our developer and IT community provide invaluable feedback on these diagram types. We have addressed this feedback in the new Visio with a significant refresh of the UML and Database templates. 

Learn about Visio--designed to help you make great diagrams faster--and preview the latest version. See how Visio creates flowcharts, room layouts, timelines, organizational charts and a lot more.

Click read more below to view entire webinar or watch the trailer now:

What you will learn at Tuesday's webinar:

• What Visio does for you
• New themes, effects & styles

The Visio team has signed off on the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build of the new Visio. On behalf of the team, I'd like to thank all of the users of the Customer Preview—your great feedback helped us fix bugs and refine new features. Please keep the feedback coming!

The new Visio will be available at the same time as the other Microsoft Office applications. You can find additional details, including availability information, on the Office News blog.

Thanks,
The Visio Team