Would you please recommend (candidate) software that allows the writer to simultaneously write both the procedure (i.e., steps) and the flow chart. In other words, I would like to have the option to either first write the procedure, and have the software produce the corresponding flowchart (or vice-versa). Process Map for Basic Flowchart. Use this process map template to capture and visualize your process requirements. Specify process steps and connections in a structured format. Use pre-defined table columns to represent process metrics and metadata, and customize by adding new columns.
There are many dedicated programs that only do flowcharts, and even Microsoft creates anotherprogram called Visio that’s more flowchart savvy than mainstream Microsoft Office programs –even then, we highly recommend that you create your flowcharts within your Office program suchas Word, Excel, and PowerPoint! Why do we put forth such a recommendation? That’s because MicrosoftOffice programs already have all the abilities and options you need to create almost anytype of flowchart you need – what’s more, you don’t have to buy and learn yet another programto do something that really is so simple!
Actually, adding a flowchart within a Microsoft Office program is as simple as adding a fewshapes – we will use Microsoft PowerPoint in this example but you could really be using Word orExcel to do the same task – even theRibbon options you willencounter are the same.
If you already need to create a flowchart in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint – then the choicehas already been made for you! Alternatively, here are some thoughts that will help you decide which of these three programs work best for your flowcharts:- Word is great for simple flowcharts with few shapes as long as they all fitwithin the page constraints of Word.
- PowerPoint has similar slide constraints like Word’s page constraints –but for larger flowcharts, you can use PowerPoint’s hyperlinking options that let you spreadthe same flowchart over multiple slides.
- Excel’s large screen real estate within each worksheet does make it agreat home for detailed or complicated flowcharts.
Follow these steps to get started:
- Let’s start with a blank, new slide that just has a slide title and nothing else, asshown in Figure 1, below. If you are using Word, just substitute the blankslide area with a blank area on your document – Excel users can similarly use an available,blank range of cells in their worksheet.
Figure 1: Empty slide with a title - In PowerPoint, Word, or Excel – access the Insert tab of theRibbon and click the Shapes button – this willbring up the Shapes drop-down gallery that you see inFigure 2.
Figure 2: Shapes drop-down gallery - Within the Shapes gallery, you will find plenty of shapes that arearranged in various categories. To create flowcharts, only two of these categories matterto you – these are the Flowchart and Lines categories,highlighted in red and blue respectively within Figure 2, above.
- Let us now explore various shapes available within these categories – first letus explore the Flowchart category. There are 28 flowcharting shapesavailable here – hover your cursor over any of these shapes to see a tool tip that providesyou with the name/description of the hovered shape (see Figure 3, below).
Figure 3: Flowchart shapes are described within the tool tips you seeNote: Want to know more about all the flowchart shapes? Look at ourFlowchartSymbols: What They Represent? page. - Now select the Terminator shape within the Shapesgallery (see Figure 4).
Figure 4: Select the Terminator shape - Your cursor will turn into a crosshair – drag and draw on your slide, document, or worksheetto place an instance of the terminator, as shown in Figure 5, below.
Figure 5: Place a Terminator shape to start your flowchart - With your terminator shape still selected, start typing (we just typed “Start”).Anything you type shows up within the flowchart shape, as shown in Figure 6,below.
Figure 6: Text within your flowchart shape - Now add a shape to represent a decision. Choose the Decision (Diamond)shape option from the Flowchart category within the Shapesgallery – then drag and draw to place an instance of the shape on your slide (or document / sheet) –then type in some text – we just typed “Are you happy?”, as shown inFigure 7, below.
Figure 7: Text that makes you happy? - We now need to link the Terminator shape to the Decisionshape using a “connector” – to do so, access the Shapes gallery(see Figure 2) and select the second option within the Linescategory (see Figure 8, below). This shape is a connector that has an arrowheadat one end. We need the arrowhead end of the connector to be “connected” to yourDecision shape – and the non-arrowhead end will emanate from the Terminator shape. We won’t get into details about how connectors work in this tutorial –you can learn more about connectors in ourUsingFlowchart and Connector Shapes Together tutorial.
Figure 8: Choose a connector with an arrowhead - Figure 9 shows a connector that links both our shapes. To make sure thatyour connector indeed “connects”, select any shape, and hit any of the arrow keys on your keyboardto nudge the shape -- you will find that the connector reorients according to the new position ofyour moved shape.
Figure 9: Shapes connected to each other - Similarly, add two more shapes that connect to your existing Decision shape,as shown in Figure 10, below. We added a connected Process(rectangle) shape on the right and another connected Decision (diamond) shape atthe bottom.
Figure 10: More shapes added to the flowchart - As you can see within Figure 10, above – there are two options emanatingfrom the “Are you happy?” decision shape. Decision shapes typically have more than one outputemanating from them so as to create a decision – in this case, the decision will bebased on whether the answer to the “Are you happy?” question is Yes orNo. We therefore need to identify the two emanating connectors as Yesor No to make this flowchart sequence logical. To do that, you need to place text boxeswith Yes and No captions next to the relevant connectors – this isexplained in ourFormattingConnectors within Flowcharts tutorial.
- Once you add Yes and No captions to your connectors, yourflowchart will look similar to the one shown in Figure 11, below.
Figure 11: Flowchart with Yes and No captions - Continue adding flowchart shapes and link them with connectors. Finally, you will need toadd a 'Stop' Terminator shape to complete your flowchart, as shownin Figure 12, below.
Figure 12: Complete Flowchart - Save your documents often!
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