Online flowchart generator

Last year a new course started here, compulsory for all 700-odd intermediate-year engineers at the university. On the plus side, the course coordinator was wonderful about getting the library involved in their first assignment; on the minus side… well, 700 intermediate-year engineers all desperately needing to know how to cite websites and videos in APA.

So this year I’m creating an ambitious display all about citing. It’s going to have whats, whys and hows; a three-step process; links to more online information; possibly a puzzle with prizes (must ransack the drawer of vendors’ highlighters to see if we’ve got anything fun); and a tip of the day with “ingredients”, a flowchart, and “here’s some we prepared earlier” examples.

So I needed to make flowcharts. I wasn’t going to draw them by hand or mess about with Word shapes. I remembered playing with an online flowchart generator which was awkward but workable – I just couldn’t remember the name or find it again. This was lucky, because instead I found Gliffy

Gliffy’s free demo lets you have five free flowcharts – that means five at any one time, as you can create a chart, save it as a jpg (or png or svg), ‘revise’ it into a completely new chart, rinse and repeat as many times as you like (or at least as many times as I’ve needed – 14 so far).

It’s all click-and-drag, very user friendly. Far more options than I need or understand, but easy to find the options I do need. Colours, fonts, sizes and styles are customisable. Arrows attach to boxes so things can be dragged about and stay attached to each other. Copy and paste works!

An example of one of the flowcharts I’ve been making, for how to cite journal articles in APA:

7 thoughts on “Online flowchart generator

  1. Debi K

    Hello Deborah,
    Thanks for the review of Gliffy. We are glad you found us. Let us know if you have feedback about the program, we’d love to know what we can do to REALLY impress you. Thanks again for the mention,
    Debi K at Gliffy dot Com

    Reply
  2. Text On Screen

    Thanks very much! just searching for tools … Gliffy certainly is user friendly; I have created an online website just with what is available! now I am about to link in my policies – yet to figure that one; however I am sure that it will be most useful as a collaborative venture to share! cheers! ♥

    Reply
  3. Julian

    Hi, thanks for the insights. We have created an article with information about Flow Chart generators and alternatives. Gliffy was one of the apps that we reviewed. You are welcome to see our article if you want. Additionally, I just wanted to let you know that you can use Google Docs online to create flow charts.

    Reply
  4. David

    Hello, Gliffy is great if you want to create a flowchart manually but do you know if there is a tool that can generate a flowchart after following the navigational links on an existing website? That would be tops!

    Reply
  5. Shalin

    Creately is also an good flowchart generator, where you can draw all types of flowchart diagrams. Example and templates are available for quick and easy creation.

    Reply

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