Earlier this year, we released the ability to create new Visio diagrams from within Teams. As part of the effort to make collaborating on Visio diagrams within Teams an even better experience, we now bring you Visio as a tab to help you easily access and manage the Visio files you need or interact with the most.
Visio tabs in Teams allow team members to access services and content in a dedicated space within a channel or in a chat. This lets the team work directly with tools and data, and have conversations about the tools and data, all within the context of that channel or chat.
Owners and team members can add more tabs to a channel or chat by clicking Add a tab at the top of the channel or chat.
You can create a tab from any Visio file present in Teams with a single click, as shown below. You can either upload an existing file to a Teams channel or create a new one from within Teams.
Visio can help you in a variety of roles across industries. Here are just a few use cases to spark ideas for your company.
- Increase productivity when coauthoring a diagram in real time – Visio diagrams are typically created by multiple authors (for example, an enterprise architect, a database architect, and an application architect will work together to create an architecture diagram for a new module). By pinning the diagram as a tab, you can ensure that coauthors are able to quickly access and edit the diagram when and where needed—without wasting time on searching for the file.
- Keep important processes at your fingertips – Organizations often have processes that need to be followed to perfection. For instance, in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), customer representatives need to follow specific steps to solve user queries. When captured in a Visio file, these business processes can be added as a tab in a Teams channel for your employees to easily reference at any time, from almost any device. Diagrams can also be edited in real time with a Visio Plan 1 or Plan 2 license—with changes available to others immediately.
- Get up to speed quickly – Oftentimes, a team member who wasn’t involved in the initial creation of a diagram will need a better understanding of a diagram in order to convey a concept to outside stakeholders. For example, an Azure consultant needs to review Azure architecture with a client. By converting your diagram as a tab in Teams, you can allow team members to quickly access, review, add comments, and converse in context to gather necessary information.
- Simplify the brainstorming and iteration process – Business professionals from a wide range of industries brainstorm on business diagrams like SWOT analysis, Venn diagrams, pyramid diagrams, etc. These diagrams typically require several iterations, taking into consideration input from multiple stakeholders. By creating a tab in a relevant Teams channel or chat, you can simplify the review process by giving all stakeholders quick and easy access to your diagram(s).
Adding a tab in Teams is available to all Teams users, but editing is only available for those with a Visio Plan 1 or Plan 2 subscription. Compare plans to decide which option is best for you or try Visio Plan 2 for free for 30 days.
We invite you to submit ideas for future feature releases on our UserVoice site. For questions about recent releases, please email us at tellvisio@microsoft.com. To stay current on the latest Visio releases, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, visit our blog, and engage with us on the Visio Tech Community.
and learn about best practices directly from the product teams.