![]() ![]() There are many dedicated programs that only do flowcharts, and even Microsoft creates another program 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 such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint! Why do we put forth such a recommendation? That’s because Microsoft Office programs already have all the abilities and options you need to create almost any type of flowchart you need – what’s more, you don’t have to buy and learn yet another program to do something that really is so simple! Actually, adding a flowchart within a Microsoft Office program is as simple as adding a few shapes – we will use Microsoft PowerPoint in this example but you could really be using Word or Excel to do the same task – even the options you will encounter are the same. If you already need to create a flowchart in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint – then the choice has 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 fit within 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 spread the same flowchart over multiple slides. • Excel’s large screen real estate within each worksheet does make it a great 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, as shown in Figure 1, below. If you are using Word, just substitute the blank slide 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 the Ribbon and click the Shapes button – this will bring up the Shapes drop-down gallery that you see in Figure 2. This will detail exactly how to create a flowchart in Word 2007 and demystify the. The colors on the template. Create a Flow Chart in Microsoft Word. How to Create a Flowchart in Microsoft Word 2007. FlowBreeze is a flowchart add-in for Microsoft Excel that makes. Flowchart Templates; How to Flowchart in. Figure 2: Shapes drop-down gallery • Within the Shapes gallery, you will find plenty of shapes that are arranged in various categories. To create flowcharts, only two of these categories matter to 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 let us explore the Flowchart category. There are 28 flowcharting shapes available here – hover your cursor over any of these shapes to see a tool tip that provides you with the name/description of the hovered shape (see Figure 3, below). Figure 3: Flowchart shapes are described within the tool tips you see. Note: Want to know more about all the flowchart shapes? Look at our page. • Now select the Terminator shape within the Shapes gallery (see Figure 4). Figure 4: Select the Terminator shape • Your cursor will turn into a crosshair – drag and draw on your slide, document, or worksheet to 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 Shapes gallery – 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 in Figure 7, below. Figure 7: Text that makes you happy? • We now need to link the Terminator shape to the Decision shape using a “connector” – to do so, access the Shapes gallery (see Figure 2) and select the second option within the Lines category (see Figure 8, below). This shape is a connector that has an arrowhead at one end. We need the arrowhead end of the connector to be “connected” to your Decision 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 our tutorial. Figure 8: Choose a connector with an arrowhead • Figure 9 shows a connector that links both our shapes. To make sure that your connector indeed “connects”, select any shape, and hit any of the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the shape -- you will find that the connector reorients according to the new position of your moved shape.
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March 2018
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