Microsoft Visio in second beta

Microsoft on Tuesday released a beta version of Visio 2007, its data organization and visualization tool for Microsoft Office 2007. Visio 2007 has four new feature sets: data linking, data refresh, data graphics and pivot diagrams. Richard Wolf, general manager Office Visio, demonstrated the new capabilities Tuesday at the Interop New York Exposition IT conference.

Visio 2007 is now part of the Office 2007 Beta 2 release on Microsoft's Web site. The release sparked snickers across cyberspace in July, when it became clear that Microsoft would charge interested testers $1.50 per download, an uncommon practice for software developers. Since then, Microsoft has reported that it is revamping the Office 2007 "ribbons" interface as a result of beta testers pointing out screen space issues.