Tutorial Visio 2013 Create Database Er Diagram

So you want to learn flowcharts? Well, This flowchart tutorial will teach you all you need to know. It will cover the history of flowcharts, flowchart symbols, how to create flowcharts, flowchart best practices and we've also included a section to answer frequent questions about flowcharts. Best of all you can use our flowchart software to draw them.

Creately already has some really awesome articles and videos covering various things related to flowcharts like meanings of flowchart symbols, how to use swim lanes in flowcharts, flowchart best practices, case studies, and much more.

Flowchart Tutorial

This blog post will simply gather all that information and present it in a logical way. I've added links to different sections to make it easier to navigate. Click on the relevant link to quickly read the relevant section.

History of Flowcharts
Flowchart Symbols Meaning
How to Draw a Flowchart
Flowchart Templates and Examples
Flowchart Best Practices
Common Mistakes Made when Drawing Flowcharts
Flowchart Case Studies
Feedback on the flowcharting Guide

History of Flowcharts

Frank Gilberth introduced flowcharts in 1921, and they were called "Process Flow Charts" at the beginning. Allan H. Mogensen is credited with training business people on how to use flowcharts. Wikipedia has a great summary of the history of flowcharts, read more in this wiki section.

Flowchart Symbols

So what are the different symbols used in a flowchart?. Most people are only aware of basic symbols like processes and decision blocks. But there are many more symbols to make your flowchart more meaningful. The above image shows all the standard flowchart symbols.

The most common symbol used in a flowchart is the rectangle. A rectangle represents a process, operation, or a task. The next most common symbol is the diamond which is used to represent a decision.

There are many other flowchart symbols like Sequential access storage, Direct data, Manual input, etc. Check the flowchart symbols page for a detailed explanation of different symbols.

Although these are the standard symbols available in most flowchart software, some people do use different shapes for different meanings. The most common example of this is using circles to denote start and end. The examples in this flowchart tutorial will stick with the standard symbols.

How to Draw a Flowchart

How do you draw a flowchart? Well, our flowcharting tool is a good place to start. But before directly using the tool lets take a look at some basics.

There are four main types of flowcharts. Document flowchart, System flowchart, data flowchart, and program flowchart. Not everyone agrees with this categorization, but the core principals of drawing a flowchart remain the same. You need to consider a few things when drawing a flowchart, Check out 6 useful tips on drawing flowcharts before you start.

If you are drawing a flowchart with many responsible parties you can group them together using swim lanes. Swim lanes are a powerful technique to increase the readability of your flowchart so you should use them according to the situation. Read using swim lanes in flowcharts to learn more about the process.

The below video shows how to draw a flowchart using Creately. It is very simple to use and one-click create and connect helps you draw them faster as well. You can drag and drop symbols from the library or drag images to your diagram by doing an image search.

Flowchart Templates and Examples

Although you can start drawing flowcharts by scratch it is much easier to use templates. They help you reduce errors and reminds you about the best practices to follow. If you want to use a ready-made template, go to the flowchart examples section and click on the flowchart that best suits you. Click on the use at template after the image and you are ready to draw your flowchart.

Below are two templates out of hundreds of flowchart templates available to the user. Click on any of them to start drawing flowcharts immediately.

Meeting Flowchart Template (Click on the template to edit it online)

Student Application Process (Click on the template to edit it online)

Prisma ( Flowchart) — Prisma-Flowchart (Click on the template to edit it online)

Flowchart Best Practices

There are a few things you can do to make your flowchart universally accepted. And there are some things that you can do to make it visually pleasing to others as well.

If you're planning to share your flowchart or hoping to use it on a presentation etc. then it's wise to use standard symbols. However, it is important to remember that the idea is to give out information in an easy to understand manner. It is perfectly acceptable to use an alternative image instead of the document symbol as long as the audience understands it.

Keeping the arrow flow to one side, using the same size symbols, naming the decision blocks, processes, arrows, etc. are few things you can do to make it better. The common mistakes section covers most of these practices in detail.

Common Mistakes Made when Drawing Flowcharts

This section highlights the common mistakes made when drawing flowcharts. Some of the things mentioned here are to make it better looking and more understandable, not having them in your flowchart won't make it wrong. Since there are two posts covering these mistakes in-depth I will link to them from this flowchart tutorial.

15 mistakes you would unintentionally make with flowcharts ( Part 1 )

15 mistakes you would unintentionally make with flowcharts ( Part 2 )

Effective Use of Flowcharts – Case Studies

A flowchart tutorial isn't complete without some case studies. Below are three case studies and real-life examples on how flowcharts can help you make decisions.

Ten Flowchart Ideas for Your Business – How flowcharts can be used in making business decisions and to optimize the current business processes
Analyzing Sales Funnel with Flowcharts – How to analyze the Google analytic sales funnel using a flowchart.
Flutterscape Case Study – How one of our customers used flowcharts to enhance their processes.

Frequently Asked Questions About Flowchart

The comments section of this article is full of questions. Please note that I will not draw flowcharts for specific scenarios. Below I have answered some of the most frequently asked questions.

Q 01: What is a subprocess in a flowchart?

Answer: Sometimes complex processes are broken down into smaller sub-processes for clarity. So a flowchart can point to a different sub-process within its flow. The predefined process symbol is used to show such subprocesses.

Q 02: How are flowcharts used in computer programming?

Answer: A computer program consists of many processes and flows. Flowcharts are used to visualize the processes and make them understandable for non-technical people. They are also used to visualize algorithms and comprehend pseudo-code which is used in programming.

Comments and Feedback on the Flowchart Tutorial

I hope this flowchart tutorial will help you to come up with awesome flowcharts. Flowcharts are a great way to present complex processes in a simple to understand manner and they are used all over the world in many industries. If you have a question about drawing flowcharts or have any suggestions to improve this post, feel free to mention in the comments section.