In this post, we describe a great way to get help with Visio: the Visio and SharePoint 2010 forums. Microsoft employees, Visio MVPs and other experts monitor these forums and answer questions. This is an excellent way to pose a question to a large audience of Visio experts.
There are two Visio and a number of SharePoint forums where you can post questions:
Each one is targeted at a different audience. We explain these forums in more detail below.
Microsoft Answers is a community-based support site where you can ask and answer questions, or just browse other's answers. Its slogan is “Real People, Real Answers”.
The Visio Answers forum is located here.
Visio shares its forum with Project, InfoPath and Access, but you can filter on Visio to see only the Visio conversations.
This forum is targeted at end users and would be a great spot to post questions on the following topics:
The Visio MSDN forum is targeted at IT Professionals using Visio and is located here.
It is also mirrored on TechNet here.
The MSDN/TechNet forum would be a great spot to post questions on the following topics:
If you need help getting started with the Visio forums, there are FAQs available for the Answers forum here and the MSDN forum here. These FAQs are a great resource for creating a profile, posting to the forums, receiving notifications and general troubleshooting. These FAQs should contain all the information you need to start asking and answering questions: if not, there’s the option to ask your own question.
If you need help with Visio Services on SharePoint, a number of SharePoint 2010 forums are available on MSDN here. As described below, each forum specializes in a particular set of issues.
SharePoint 2010 - General Questions and Answers: General questions, comments and discussions on SharePoint 2010 products and SharePoint services such as Access Services, BCS, Excel Services and Visio Services.
SharePoint 2010 - Setup, Upgrade, Administration and Operation: Discuss setup, upgrade, administration and operation for SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint services such as Access Services, BCS, Excel Services and Visio Services.
SharePoint 2010 - Using SharePoint Designer, Infopath, and other customization: Discuss using SharePoint Designer, SharePoint Gallery Solutions, templates & other customization for SharePoint 2010 and SP services such as Access Services, BCS, Excel Services, & Visio Services.
SharePoint 2010 - Using Visual Studio with SharePoint and other programming: Discuss using Visual Studio and other programming with SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint services such as Access Services, BCS, Excel Services and Visio Services.
In addition to the Visio and SharePoint 2010 forums, there are many other Microsoft forums that might relate to your particular needs. We’ve posted a list of forums that might be most useful to Visio users and developers here. You can use the navigation panel on the left of the linked page to find relevant forums for other Microsoft Office products.
In the past, Microsoft hosted a number of Visio newsgroups. Last year, however, Microsoft discontinued its newsgroup support and migrated to forums.
The decision to focus on forums was based on changes in customer habits and requirements: many Microsoft customers wanted online resources, including forums, to find help. In addition, newsgroups became less popular. Given this trend, Microsoft decided to concentrate on online help and forums. Focusing on forums reduced the number of redundant resources and centralized content, making it easier for users to find content and making community contributions more broadly available and impactful.
You can read about the details of the transition from newsgroups to forums here.
Please let us know if you have any feedback on Visio 2010, Visio Services, or suggestions for blog posts you would like to see. In addition, feel free to visit the Visio and SharePoint 2010 forums, and ask us a question there.
In a previous blog post, we explained how Visio 2010 ships with a unique single image architecture. This post explains how to deploy the three different editions of Visio 2010, and how to change the edition of Visio 2010 after you have already deployed it. In particular, the following scenarios are covered:
This post also contains links to more information on Visio 2010 deployment and customizations.
With volume licensing, Visio 2010 can be installed as Visio Standard, Visio Professional, or Visio Premium based on a product key. By default, Visio 2010 uses a Visio Premium 2010 KMS client key, which enables all the features that are available for Visio Premium 2010. If you are licensed to use Visio Standard 2010 or Visio Professional 2010, you must install the appropriate KMS client key. Different features or applications are available, depending on the kind of key that is installed. This makes it easier for you to upgrade or downgrade without having to deploy a different product edition.
For more on this single image architecture, see this blog post: Volume Activation for Visio 2010 Explained.
For more information on Office 2010 deployment in general, see the following resources:
If you’re planning on deploying Visio 2010 to your organization, and want to deploy Visio Standard or Visio Professional, you will need to change the key that Visio 2010 will be deployed with. There are two ways to do this before deployment:
Below are step by step instructions on how to use these two methods. Note that you should only use one of these methods, not both.
Note: this method can be used to install with a key for any edition of Visio, but we’ve chosen Visio Standard for the example.
1. Open up a command prompt and navigate to the directory where the Visio 2010 installation folder is 2. Open the Office Customization Tool (OCT) by calling setup.exe with the /admin switch: 3. Select “Create a new setup customization file for the following product” and choose Visio 2010. This should already be selected by default 4. In the OCT, select “Licensing and user interface” from the menu on the left 5. Select “Enter another product key” 6. Enter the Visio Standard 2010 KMS client key: 7. Click FileàSave and save the MSP somewhere. Choose a name you’ll remember like “VisioStandardKMSKey” 8. Copy this MSP file to the “updates” folder in the Visio 2010 installation folder.
1. Open up a command prompt and navigate to the directory where the Visio 2010 installation folder is
2. Open the Office Customization Tool (OCT) by calling setup.exe with the /admin switch:
3. Select “Create a new setup customization file for the following product” and choose Visio 2010. This should already be selected by default
4. In the OCT, select “Licensing and user interface” from the menu on the left
5. Select “Enter another product key”
6. Enter the Visio Standard 2010 KMS client key:
7. Click FileàSave and save the MSP somewhere. Choose a name you’ll remember like “VisioStandardKMSKey”
8. Copy this MSP file to the “updates” folder in the Visio 2010 installation folder.
Now when you deploy this installation of Visio 2010, it will use the custom MSP file that includes the Visio Standard 2010 KMS client key. This will install Visio 2010 Standard. You can also replace the key in step #6 with a Visio Professional KMS client key or a Multi Activation Key (MAK) for either of the three Visio 2010 editions.
Note: this method can be used to install with a key for any edition of Visio, but we’ve chosen Visio Professional for the example.
1. Navigate to the Visio 2010 installation folder 2. Open the “Visio.WW” folder 3. Open the “config.xml” file with a text editor like Notepad 4. Add the following line to use the Visio Professional 2010 KMS client key: <PIDKEY value="7MCW8-VRQVK-G677T-PDJCM-Q8TCP" /> 5. Save the file
1. Navigate to the Visio 2010 installation folder
2. Open the “Visio.WW” folder
3. Open the “config.xml” file with a text editor like Notepad
4. Add the following line to use the Visio Professional 2010 KMS client key:
<PIDKEY value="7MCW8-VRQVK-G677T-PDJCM-Q8TCP" />
5. Save the file
Now when you deploy this installation of Visio 2010, it will use the Visio Professional 2010 KMS client key specified in config.xml. This will install Visio Professional 2010.
You can also replace the key in step #4 with a Visio Standard KMS client key or a Multi Activation Key (MAK) for either of the three Visio 2010 editions
If you’re planning on deploying multiple editions of Visio, we suggest that you keep three copies of the Visio installation media, and use one of the methods above to customize an installation for each edition you plan on deploying.
The following are the KMS client keys for Visio 2010. These can be used to install Visio 2010, but you will still need a KMS host key with your KMS server to activate Visio installations.
Edition
Key
Visio Premium 2010
D9DWC-HPYVV-JGF4P-BTWQB-WX8BJ
Visio Professional 2010
7MCW8-VRQVK-G677T-PDJCM-Q8TCP
Visio Standard 2010
767HD-QGMWX-8QTDB-9G3R2-KHFGJ
For more on KMS activation, please see the Deploy Volume Activation of Office 2010 article.
If you’ve already deployed Visio 2010 and would like to change the edition that is deployed, you can do so through several ways, none of which require a reinstallation:
1. Use the “Change Product Key” feature on the machine where Visio is installed This can be invoked from Visio 2010’s Backstage View It can also be invoked from Add/Remove Programs à Change 2. Use the Volume Activation Management Tool 2.0 (VAMT) VAMT is a tool administrators can use to manage activations of Office 2010 on managed systems. VAMT can be used to push down a new product key. For more information on how to use VAMT, see the following resources: Download VAMT from here Full TechNet reference on VAMT and how to use it: Managing Activation Using the Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) A set of videos on how to use VAMT Deploy Volume Activation of Office 2010 – this article has more information on the methods described in this blog post, as well as how to use VAMT to change keys 3. Use a script that calls ospp.vbs on the machines you would like to change The Office Deployment Support Team blog has a great article and an example script on how to use ospp.vbs with Visio 2010
1. Use the “Change Product Key” feature on the machine where Visio is installed
2. Use the Volume Activation Management Tool 2.0 (VAMT)
3. Use a script that calls ospp.vbs on the machines you would like to change
Note: With any of the methods above, Visio may need to be rebooted up to two times before the user interface and Backstage View update to reflect the new key and edition.
Depending on your User Account Control settings (UAC), in Add/Remove Programs, Visio may still be shown as the previous edition installed.
As always, let us know if you have any feedback on Visio 2010, Visio Services, or suggestions for blog posts you would like to see.