Visio plugin vs Linux browser

[Ken Poulton]

Some users would like to use the Visio plugin, but we use both windows and Linux browsers.

What does the Visio plugin show in a Linux browser (e.g., Firefox)?

Any suggestions for how to allow Visio that is at least readable by Linux users?

[Bob Swift · Accepted solution]

The visio macro uses the Microsoft visio control which requires IE either directly or via IE tab support in FireFox and Chrome. This means the client must be Windows. A default or user specified message is displayed when IE is not available.

[Ken Poulton]

For my understanding: what is the "visio control" ? What is the advantage of using this versus writing this macro in an OS-independent fashion?

As a workaround: is there a way to show an image of the visio file for non-IE platforms rather than an error message?

[Bob Swift]

It is Microsoft provided ActiveX control and only works on Windows platforms :(. Some time ago there was an effort to look to do something that was not Microsoft dependent, but it did not pan out. If you really want cross-platform diagrams, I would avoid Visio altogether and go with Gliffy or one of the other Confluence based diagramming tools. And on more recent releases they are providing Visio import/conversion support.