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I used to use Visio to create stuff, but haven't for a while.
I still use it to accept drawings (of various things) from other people
in the company and clean those up for my customer-docs purposes - mostly
trimming stuff out.
I was browsing for a free Visio substitute (with little luck - none seem
to handle Visio's native format files) and stumbled across a few other
things.
Has anybody successfully used Dia or some other substitute in a work
environment? Is there a way - other than persuading the originators to
save in a non-default format (not always easy if the originator is no
longer a fellow employee...) - to get Visio drawings in a format that
can be manipulated by Dia or by other substitute apps? When I say
successfully, I mean that you are still using it by preference.
For non-vector graphic stuff, has anybody had any joy from Paint.NET?
The GIMP is kinda overkill for the type of bitmap/photo/image tickling
that I usually perform, so I'm looking for lightweight alternatives and
that one was mentioned.
By the way, we've had conversations in this list in which some folks are
adamant that one should pick a terminology and stick with it throughout
one's customer documentation. Others think it's a good idea to include
alternative terms, so that you reach a wider audience... or don't
alienate the audience you've got. While Googling Paint.NET, I saw
search-hit summary descriptions of the same program as:
- Raster graphics editing program
- Image and photo manipulation software
- Free image editor
- Bitmap editing program
- MS Paint-like program
I think I might side with the people who would at least repeat as many
different terms as we know to indicate our products and the operations
they perform, etc. Not randomly, but more frequently than just a list of
equivalences buried in the front-matter of a User Guide (what's the
front-matter of a Help System, anyway).
- Kevin
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