Visions.eZine Web site
Top of the News:
Microsoft Can Buyback Shares
Microsoft is permitted to begin buying back its stock this
week after a six-month halt following its purchase of Visio. Microsoft
had halted its buyback program in January because of Securities
and Exchange Commission rules that prohibit companies from repurchasing
shares after making certain acquisitions. Microsoft bought Visio
in January for US$1.5 billion in stock.
Buybacks are a popular way to boost the value of stocks. Microsoft
initiated buybacks in the past to counter the effect of dilution
from large options grants. In April, for example, the company
doubled its annual stock option grants to its 34,000 full- time
employees.
Microsoft stocks slid to half their value since the purchase of
Visio, and only recently have begun to recover. Microsoft, however,
says it has no plans to buyback stocks. Analysts feel that with
shares recovering on their own, there may be no need to buyback
stocks. - Bloomberg News
Other Microsoft events this year include:
Microsoft Exchange & Collaboration Solutions Conference
2000, October 9-13 in Dallas TX
Developer Days 2000, October 10 in 34 cities in U.S. and
Canada
PASS 2000 North American Conference and Expo, October 25-28,
San Francisco CA
Visio 2000 was on the June release of the Universal Edition of the MSDN Subscription. Visio 2000 Standard, Visio 2000 Professional, and Visio 2000 Technical for US and International English are available for download at MSDN. Visio 2000 Enterprise Edition and localized versions of all Visio software will be included in the September release of MSDN.
According to Joel Frauenheim, Visio product manager, "Visio has been coaxed onto the Office release cycle, so in our next release due next year, we are focusing on integrating our solutions into XML." Visio programmers are examining the use of XMI (Object Management Group's XML Metadata Interchange format for exchanging UML and other models in XML) as Visio's model exchange format. A feature for the next release of Enterprise Edition is more transparent access to VisualBasic's code generation.
Micrografx shares lost a quarter of their value last week (56 cents to close at US$1.75) after it announced restructuring and layoffs amid slowing sales. Micrografx laid off 74 of its 187 employees, and split into two major operations: (1) enterprise management, headed by Ken Carraher in Portland OR; and (2) technical graphics, headed by Doug Richard in Annapolis MD. One goal is to offset weak international sales. Micrografx is known for its business and technical diagramming software, but has faced strong competition from Visio. Micrografx was the first company to ship a Windows application in 1985. Two years ago, the company shifted from consumer to business graphics without much success, including changing the product name to iGrafx. - CNET
Corel Corp. will need to make more cuts -- almost certainly including more layoffs -- if it's to climb out of the red, observers say. Barring a dramatic turnaround, Corel's cuts will have to go beyond the $40-million mark, analysts say. But neither of those remedies looks promising at this point. Like most older software, Corel's two main products have been suffering from a general decline in sales for years and Linux hasn't shown any solid evidence that it's ever going to be a serious money maker in the desktop market. But Corel is no longer providing details about its cost-cutting plan, saying it's in a "quiet period" until its $30-million cash-for-stock deal with Canaccord Capital Corp. of Vancouver has been finalized. - Globe&Mail
Marion Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company last week agreed
to pay BSA (Business Software Alliance, an anti-piracy industry
group) US$65,000 for unlicensed copies of Microsoft and Visio
software.
Microsoft says that its new Visual Studio.Net will not initially include Visual J++ (Microsoft's dialect of Java), but will emphasize C#, a Java-like language. Microsoft's license to Sun's Java expires March, 2001. "We will run [Windows.NET] with the same kind of openness that we've run Windows," says Microsoft ceo Steve Ballmer.
The final version of Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition will be posted to the MSDN Subscriber Downloads site in early August. The retail version won't be available until September. - Microsoft news server
Alibre was highlighted as a key associate for the Microsoft
.NET initiative in presentations by Microsoft ceo Steve Ballmer
during the recent Microsoft Forum 2000 event. Alibre calls itself
"the first company to offer a Web-based mechanical collaborative
product development service." Alibre was founded in 1997
by Paul Grayson, former ceo of Micrografx.
http://www.alibre.com
Intel will release a 1.13GHz Pentium III at the end
of July, but in limited quantities. The processor will ramp up
throughout the rest of this year, however, an Intel representative
said. The chip is mainly aimed at the enthusiast market, he added.
- The Register
Intel announced that their code-named processor, 'Willamette,'
will now be dubbed 'Pentium 4.' This new processor is scheduled
to be released in the second half of 2000. - BetaNews.
Intel press release at http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/dp062800.htm
Some dot-com failures are resorting to selling information their customers may have thought would remain under lock and key as they scramble to find assets that can be sold to appease creditors. At least three companies that have recently failed, Boo.com, Toysmart and CraftShop.com, have either sold or are trying to sell highly sought-after customer data that could include information such as phone and credit card numbers, home addresses, and even statistics on shopping habits. - CNET
Tip #37: Non-transparent
GIF Files
Q: "We're having a problem exporting GIF
files from Visio 5. We import the images into Visio, and add call-outs.
After exporting the image from Visio, we place the images in Framemaker.
They are, however, transparent. How do we make the callout text
transparent, but the image remain non-transparent?"
- Tish Visser
A: Without seeing the files involved, I can suggest two things:
Tip #38: Exporting
HTML
Q: "I prefer SmartDraw for my relatively
simple purposes, but Visio's ability to export HTML wooed me.
Unfortunately, this is the bit giving me hassle. When I export
a page to HTML, Visio puts it in a frame with the page name(s)
at the bottom. I don't particularly want the frame -- I just want
the pages. Trouble is, there seems to be no way of switching off
this feature.
"Visio creates absolute chaos. I can't just use the stuff
that's been put in the frame: the links don't work because of
the jolly JavaScript file, about which I know nothing and have
even less desire to learn (I'm an engineer, not a programmer).
FrontPage also has a bit of a nightmare when I try and open anything
created by Visio, and, of course, that's where I want to incorporate
these pages -- into my FrontPage site
"Any tips would be welcome, otherwise the whole exercise
has just become a waste of time and money!"
- Joolz Williams
A: When you check the folder where the HTML files are placed, you will notice a number of files. Visio's HTML export generates 6 files, all prefixed by the drawing's name:
Drawing11_raster.xxx - This is the raster image of the
drawing. You can have this in GIF, JPEG, or PNG. (Visio 2000 adds
the VML format, a new vector format that only Internet Explorer
v5.x can display).
Drawing11_raster.htm - This is some simple HTML code that
displays the GIF image, centered on a white background.
Drawing1.htm - This is the primary HTML file that includes
some JavaScript code for browser version checking, and creates
the frames that allows the page scroll function at the bottom
of the screen.
Drawing1_frame.htm - This HTML file includes JavaScript
for doing the page scroll function at the bottom of the page.
Drawing1_nav.htm - This HTML file includes JavaScript to
display the right-click menu for zoom and pan functions, if the
browser can handle it.
Drawing1_utils.js - JavaScript code for zoom, pan, etc.
of VML images.
You need to use Visio's HTML export if you plan to bring the
Visio image into FrontPage. Simply use GIF export, set to the
appropriate resolution.
Tip #39: Adding Buttons to GIF Export
Q: "I could export to GIF, but I don't get
the image map for all the buttons -- which is really the whole
point! I was going to link directly from my FrontPage site to
the drawing1.htm file, but the trouble with this is I cannot point
directly to a particular page
in a document.
"At least I know what all the files do now, so I might have
a poke about in the JavaScript and HTML and see what I can figure
out. Presumably right-click Zoom and Pan only applies to VML --
I can't use this, because, heretics that we are, we haven't submitted
to Microsoft's monopoly, and use Other Operating Systems (Shock
Horror!)"
- JW
A: True, the Drawing11_raster.gif does not. To get the
buttons working, add a hyperlink to the button in the drawing,
then export as HTML. When I displayed a similar drawing11_raster.htm
file in Navigator, the shape retained the hyperlink. This file
contains the image map data:
<MAP NAME="visImageMap">
<AREA SHAPE="POLYGON" ALT="http://www.visio.com"
TITLE="http://www.visio.com" HREF="http://www.visio.com"
COORDS="310,125,313,122,305,122,310,125">
Tip #40: More on HTML Export
Q: "I think I've found the crux of the problem:
there are two types of hyperlink. When I open the Drawing11_raster.htm
file, the hyperlinks work to Web pages -- no problem. However,
hyperlinks to other sheets within the same Visio document do not
work. This is because they either refer to the JavaScript file
or the original Visio document. The HTML looks like this when
I use relative references:
polygon="(204,120) (223,101)
(346,106) (365,87) (204,87) (204,120)
javascript:GoToPage(2-1)"
and like this when I use absolute references:
polygon="(14,88) (33,107)
(35,105) (16,86) (14,88)
file:///H:\VisioDocument.vsd#SheetName?zoom%3d-1"
I suppose I could just go through all these and change them
to http://nameofserver/drawing11_raster.htm but it's a pain with
a long document. Can you think of any decent workarounds?"
- JW
A: Visio allows you to use an HTML template, which is documented in its manual. This lets you specify the format and placing of various Web elements.
Tip #41: Viewing Visio Drawings on Web
Q: "I would like our clients to view their
designs on our Web site. However, when I save the drawing as a
GIF file, it takes forever; sometimes the computer just freezes
on me. These drawings are large and need to be so that users can
see the details. What would you recommend I do when it comes to
posting large Visio drawings on our site?"
- Joe Tame
A: There are several approaches you can try:
1. Instead of GIF, try using JPEG. The advantage is that the file size is usually smaller; the disadvantage is that JPEG uses "lossey" compression, which means artifacts can be introduced into the image.
2. Use "thumbnails" together with the large images. The thumbnail is a small image (roughly 100 pixels across) linked to the full-size image. The advantage is that your clients first see the relatively fast loading thumbnails, then pick the larger image to view. The disadvantage is that you have to create two GIFs for every Visio drawing -- a small one linked to the larger one.
3. If you have Visio 2000, save the drawing in VML format, short for "vector markup language." This creates a file smaller than GIF or JPEG. The advantage is that your clients can zoom and pan the image in their Web browser. The disadvantage is that VML works only with Internet Explorer v5.x.
Puzzled about Visio? Got an idea on how to make Visio work
better? Send your questions and tips to ralphg@xyzpress.com
.