Lotus Symphony Gets Visio Alternative with SmartDraw Plug-In

Published: March 24, 2009

by Alex Woodie

Users of IBM's Lotus Symphony software got a new visualization aid last week when SmartDraw.com announced that its SmartDraw plug-in for Symphony is now available. The plug-in will make it easy for Symphony users to add a variety of graphics to their business documents, in a manner similar to what Microsoft Visio does for Office documents, but without the expense, the company says.

SmartDraw is a Windows-based graphics application that includes a library of more than 100 pre-built templates for various flowcharts, timelines, floor plans--even astronomy maps--that users can customize to fit their needs. The San Diego, California-based company says users can become productive with the software, which costs about $200 and has been downloaded 10 million times, with as little as five minutes of training.

With last week's plug-in announcement, Lotus Notes users now gain the capability to add SmartDraw graphics directly into their Symphony productivity suite, which includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, and presentation software.

SmartDraw says the plug-in will give Microsoft Visio some competition when it comes to quick and easy-to-use graphics software among Lotus Notes customers, who tend to not be the biggest Microsoft supporters in the first place.

"Lotus users can now create a flowchart to explain a business process, a Gantt chart to show a project schedule or an organizational chart, or any of SmartDraw’s 40 types of visuals, without a learning curve and in just minutes," says Todd Savitt, who holds the title of chief sales officer at SmartDraw.com.

For more information and free trial downloads, check out www.smartdraw.com.

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