Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of a software development kit (SDK) for Microsoft� Visio� 2002 drawing and diagramming software. This free toolkit, available online at the MSDN� developer program site, provides tools and information to assist developers in capitalizing on the Visio extensible development platform. �Visio has a long history as a development platform,� said Lori Pearce, general manager for Microsoft Visio. �Developers new to Visio were often stymied by a lack of resources. Now with the new Visio 2002 SDK, beginning to advanced developers have access to everything they need � from documentation and tools to code samples and libraries � in one location.�

Included in the SDK is an updated programmer�s reference that includes documentation on the Visio XML file format and Save as Web application programming interface (API). The SDK also offers tools to aid developers in managing the Visio solutions they create, including the Visio Event Monitor tool, Persistent Events tool and Print ShapeSheet� shape extensibility tool. These tools help developers monitor events within their Visio-based solutions and document their shape customization. Also included in the toolkit is a collection of comprehensive code samples to assist developers new to Visio. Developers can use the Code Librarian Viewer to browse, search and copy reusable procedures from the Visio 2002 database for common Visio Automation tasks, such as working with connectors, formatting shapes and working with custom shape properties.