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In case you're not already familiar with Visio, it is a 2D drawing program which relies primarily on the manipulation of intelligent, ready-made shapes called SmartShapes. However, it is much more than a simple graphics package. You can use Visio to design customized business solutions, linking your Visio drawings with spreadsheets and external databases to create fully integrated drawing systems.To give you some idea of Visio's potential, you could-Maintain an asset register by linking an inventory database to a Visiospace plan -Update the inventory by adding or deleting shapes from the plan -Generate new Visio bolt shapes from a bolt specification database -Generate a material cutting list using drawing specifications (e.g.windows, doors, staircases) -Generate customer mail-outs when specified events occur (e.g. a shape is updated) -Quickly diagram crime or accident scenes.Visio is very much a drag and drop drawing program. You create drawings by dragging SmartShapes from a series of stencils, then positioning, resizing, gluing and otherwise manipulating them. Shapes include not just traditional symbols, but also dimensions, scales, text, fills, line ends and so on. While Visio's emphasis icon pre-defined elements, you can also create your own shapes, or customize existing ones. The trade-off between Visio and normal CAD (computer-aided design) packages is that you can create diagrams in far less time with Visio, but creating custom shapes is a little trickier and more time-consuming. Visio comes with a large range of ready-made SmartShapes (1300 in Visio Standard) and you can also purchase additional shapes and add-on products if you need them. For Windows XP [*Please review compatibility/platform sections]