Product Description

This guide and accompanying tools are for developers using Microsoft Visio (R) as a platform for building diagrammatic software applications for business, I.T., science and engineering. Covers structure and behavior of Visio platform, architectures for adding functionality, and an extensive browsable reference section.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #540517 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 522 pages

From the Author
I have over 25 years of experience in electrical engineering, software development, information systems, business analysis and conceptual modeling. In each of these disciplines I mastered the formal diagrams, yet in addition I always found the need to generate drawings automatically, and to extend each diagrammatic convention in formal or informal ways to convey richer sets of detail- or summary-level concepts.

Partly to that end, I have been building solutions and tools with diagramming libraries and environments for ten years, and with Visio for over five years. I am also affiliated with the SemNet group centered at San Diego State University. Over the last 15 years this group has produced basic tools for diagramming general semantic networks and formally studying the teaching and learning benefits in making concepts and relationships explicit.

Since my first Visio book, (Visio 2000 Developer's Survival Guide) I have enjoyed developing a number of new relationships with people in the Visio business, both inside and outside Microsoft.... several of which have contributed much to the book described here.

Customer Reviews

Excellent book
I have several Visio books - most are useless for developers who write VBA/VB/VC++ code for Visio automation. For those who develop for Visio, this is a must-have book. It's simply the Visio developer's bible compared to the rest. It includes sample code, appendices of events, properties and more. I wish I had known about this book before I began visio programming because it's easy to read from beginning to end and progress your skills incrementally - now I use it as a reference.
He also lets you download software tools to use - one awesome one is a VB DLL/VSL adapter. But even without the extra software this book goes into more detail and depth than any other, except the Microsoft Devloper book (which is free online). And it's a great companion to the Msoft book, and covers things it doesn't. (including highlighting the bugs)
All in all, an excellent book and the only one worth buying.

Excellent - A must have for Visio programmers
If you want to understand Visio and how it works, this is the book. This is probably one of the best developers books I have ever bought because it helps you really understand the structure and organization of Visio so that you can automate it effectively.

The book is informative, easy to read and does a great job of educating you on the internals of Visio.

But if you are looking for a mindless cookbook, go elsewhere. There is not a lick of step-by-step, bible or dummies in this. Those all cover exactly the same novice material. This book covers what ever developer needs. I wish there were more books like this for other products.

Visio 2003 Developer's Survival Pack, NOT!
Huge disapointment. This is one of the worst technical books I have ever purchased and I wish I could have returned it. Based on its title, the book portraits itself as a guide to help Visio developers understand how to program Visio applications. It falls short on all areas: It is neither a tutorial, nor a reference guide, nor a hand-on book. I purchased the book hoping to learn how to write programs that interact with Visio. If your needs are similar to mine, do not purchase this book; you are better off using the MSDN material available over the web.