As many of you know I am on a Mobile-Only adventure. Yet, one of the biggest reasons I still have to access a PC via RDP is because I need to use Microsoft Visio. Well, that may be coming to an end. This past week I stumbled across DroidDia. DroidDia is a diagramming app for Android that allow users to create flowcharts, org charts, venn diagrams, network diagrams, etc – many of the same functions that are available in Microsoft Visio. This is fantastic news for mobile productivity.
As in Visio, shapes are key to being able to represent your information. DroidDia comes stock with many of the essential shapes – flowchart, computers, people, places, etc. If you don’t like the ones provided, or have custom ones that you want to use, it is possible to select them from images on the phone. Here are a few screenshots of the shapes:
Computer Shapes
People Shapes
Flowchart Shapes
To add a shape to the page you just long-hold on a square on the sheet, then select the type of shape you need. You can quickly add and move shapes around on the page. To take additional actions on the shape, you only need to long-hold on the shape which will bring up the shape context menu. You can then perform functions such as copy, resize, change properties, etc.
Shape Context Menu
To draw a line from one shape to the next you click the line button and then long-hold the desired connecting shape. Once the line is drawn you can bring up the properties screen of the line to change end-points, size, color, etc.
You can easily add text to the page as well:
Diagrams can even be exported as a PNG for sharing with others. DroidDia looks fantasic when my smartphone is connected to a monitor. DroidDia is currently in alpha but it already shows some great promise as an alternative for Visio on Android. This has the potential to be a fantastic productivity app – allowing users of mobile devices to create content and not just consume it. Be sure to check it out!
Benjamin Robbins is a Principal at Palador, a consulting firm that focuses on providing strategic guidance to enterprises in the areas of mobile strategy, policy, apps, and data. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.
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