Flowchart creation — Demo video

As we noted previously, one of the most practical ways to illustrate some cyclic process is to create a flowchart. Also, usually it's the quickest way. We have tested the speed of making a simple flowchart in Grapholite by untrained user. The entire process of diagram creation was recorded as a screencast and it took less than 9 minutes. It's a good result for the user without experience. Moreover, he spend a bit of time looking at the original chart from time to time and attempting to make the diagram nice by changing default colors and positions of elements on the canvas. Also, a lot of performed operations (as seen in the video below) were non-optimal and even redundant — it's possible to do the same stuff more efficiently, e.g. using bulk selection, etc.

So, we speeded up a procedure of entering text captions and reduced some pauses. It resulted as a 4 minutes video, which is yet so slow that you can carefully trace each singe step. Even after we added a sound track into this video, it is still boring long. That means: being more experienced in using the application you could be more productive! But four minutes is already excellent.

We have gone further in speeding up the video and got the final result — 1.5 minutes long. It's too fast to achieve in real life, but it's good enough to make the following fun demo!

Note: This video it is best viewed in full screen mode.

This version is a bit fast to catch all the nuances. In oder to get detailed "true" demonstration of Grapholite on the example of this diagram, you can watch the 4-minutes version.

And don't limit yourself to just watching the demo, download Grapholite and try it for free!

Cycle Diagrams and Flowcharts

Any concept can be illustrated in different ways, using multiple types of charts. In oder to demonstrate a number of simple approaches applicable to many other subjects, we give you the following examples on the (randomly selected) topic of "Problem solving".

While problem solving process is cyclic, it is logical to represent it as a Cycle Diagram. A simple diagram of this type can be drawn by using Grapholite in a minute:

Cycle Diagram – Problem Solving in 4 Steps

Cycle Diagram – The 5 Steps of Problem Solving

Of course we are free to use another forms of presentation, we may show the developing process as a cycle, or as a "growing" arrow, etc:

Six Staged Hexagon Cycle Diagram

Yet Another Way to Show a Sequence of Steps

If you need to make your diagram more informative, you can add details. You have to get creative to present it the best way within cyclic diagram. Another practical approach is to create a Flowchart. "Practical" means pragmatical, detailed, formal and quickly implemented, as the example below:

Rational Planning Model Flowchart

Grapholite is a specialized tool to draw Flowcharts quickly. It's a practical and inexpensive solution. Also, as you can see, it is able to create a simple infographic. Ideas on this area we collect in our blog in articles labeled as examples.

Update: We have created a video demonstrating the complete process of drawing a simple flowchart. The flowchart in the example (partially) reflects one of the cycle diagrams taken from here.

Grapholite vs Visio: making the optimal choice

In the article Grapholite as alternative to Visio we've shown that Grapholite is a worthy competitor to Visio. Both applications have their pros and cons, and it's not obvious how to make the best choice. In order to facilitate this, we have created a decision making flowchart.

It represents an algorithm based on the following facts:

• Grapholite is well designed to draw Flowcharts, UML Diagrams, various Business Diagrams.
• Grapholite has significantly richer set of elements to create professional-looking BPMN Diagrams.
• Visio is a winner in drawing Office Layouts, but Grapholite's Floor Plan stencils are usually enough.
• Visio has twice as many Business Diagram types as Grapholite has, but there are workarounds:
  • Use similar diagrams. E.g. Audit Diagram is practically a regular Flowchart, although some shapes have filled-in corners. In most cases it's OK to use it as is.
  • Also it's not difficult to complete such diagrams using available shapes.
  • Draw missing shapes "manually". Don't forget that Grapholite is a vector graphics editor.
• Visio is just a viewer on Tablet devices, Grapholite is a full-featured editor.
• Last (but not least): Grapholite costs 5-10 times less than Visio!

Color Legend:

•        Neutral; none of these programs has obvious advantages
•        Grapholite is a clear favorite
•        Visio is a clear favorite
•        Pay attention, think twice making the decision

You can click on image to enlarge