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 Book Review: Learn Visio 5.0 by Ralph Grabowski First let me get my qualifications for this review on the table. I am not a technical person or a computer whiz-kid. I can use MS Word, Quicken and have dabbled in MS Excel and other programs over the years. In order to understand an idea I need to to see the detail. I need evidence; explanations, examples; pictures and scales. In short, I have no experience with technical drawing or desire to venture into computer-aided design. I come to Visio as a complete novice with some Windows experience. I have been waiting for a couple of years for the right combination of funds and time to landscape our backyard. We'll be ready to start digging very soon, so rather than wait for my husband to design the "backyard-to-be", I decided to approach reviewing "Learn Visio 5.0" with the practical goal of being able to draw up a simple landscaping design. I put off starting this exercise for weeks – remember, I have no affinity for techie stuff – however motivated by rapid advancement toward a new backyard, today I did it. Not only was I able to create several backyard options, but I did it in a few hours and with ease. This book is fantastic! Over the years I have used various books to learn various programs. I’ve always hated learning practical skills from books. I'm one of those people who learn better by asking people for help and for a hands-on demonstration. This has been the best computer-related book I’ve used – by far. It is logically written, and I believe Ralph has done a great job at explaining difficult technical topics in easy-to-understand language. LayoutRather than chapters, this book has aptly named Modules. There’s an introduction, 37 modules, an appendix and an index. It makes sense to work through the modules as you need them, skipping sections that deal with aspects of Visio that you don't need yet. Introduction Seven pages covering topics including "Getting Started", "Starting Visio", "A Brief History of Visio" and other introductory information. The part I liked the most in the introduction was a table which compares the three different Visio v5.0 programs – namely Standard, Technical and Professional. It gives an indication of which users each version is best suited to (e.g. HR, Admin, Engineering, IT Manager). In a sentence it explains the purpose of each version, and then summarizes the "Shapes" "Wizards" and "Add-Ons" contained in each version. I found this an invaluable piece of information, simply put and far easier than trying to decipher marketing information. UsesEach module begins with Uses which briefly describes what you will learn in the module. I found this part of the module useful. Since I tackled the book with a specific objective and have not used a drawing program before, I often browsed through the table of contents to find what I thought I needed; went to that module and read the uses (which varies in length from one paragraph to one page). Instantly I knew whether I was looking in the right place or not – saving me valuable time unnecessarily reading through a whole module. Procedure This contains the guts of each module. All the information in this section is presented in digestible "learning chunks". Each "chunk" has a heading; important words are bolded, and no chunk is too long that you’ve forgotten what you started reading. Other features of this part of the module are:
This is the last part of each module. At this stage, there is a short activity that enables you to put into practice what the module has taught. Each activity starts with two or three short sentences. The first sentence is a concise explanation of what you are about to do. The other/s state/s any pre-requisite for the activity. For example "In this activity, you use the cut, copy, and paste functions. Begin by starting Visio. Then open the Basic Network template file." ( "Starting Visio" and "templates" were covered in an earlier module). The activities are easy to complete. Each instruction is short and sequentially numbered. Points are illustrated with screen captures. It’s a controlled environment – you can’t go wrong. As I’d complete each activity I’d feel my confidence increase and think "yes…I can do this!!" Appendix Contains all the Short-cut Keys and explains the Toolbar Icons. This is a comprehensive list of time-savers that appears to be unavailable elsewhere. This is information that is spread throughout the Visio documentation and having it in a handy reference section is very useful. Negative Comments I must admit there was one hitch when I was cursing and swearing. In my design I wanted to use a symbol which I know as a "Call-out". I couldn’t find "call-outs" in index nor the table of contents. I called my Visio guru who suggested I might search for "Annotations". No…couldn’t find annotations either. Eventually I found call-outs in a stencil. I spent approximately 45 min trying to incorporate a call-out in my drawing without success. The book didn’t help, and I couldn’t solve my problem by Visio’s help function either. Having spent too much time on this problem, I decided to give up on call-outs. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, so I did what I had to do in different way and gave call-outs a miss. I must say, though, this was the only problem I encountered. In the past, I’ve had many more problems trying to learn to use a program by reading a book. SummaryIn my years BC (before children) - I was a training consultant. I am impressed with Ralph’s ability to present such technical information/instruction in such an easy to understand format. I believe he achieves this primarily by:
Excellent! I got results very quickly and enjoyed doing it. Highly recommended!
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