Changing flowchart appearance

You can adjust the position and alignment of process boxes to improve the appearance of the flowchart.

Adjusting the flowchart layout

As you add and connect process boxes, you can reposition the boxes by dragging them to a new location.

To automatically reposition boxes, use the Change Layout options from the toolbar:

Tree: Organizes process boxes in a tree format. Useful when each process box has a single input.

Organization Chart: Organizes simple flowcharts and is effective for flowcharts with a single input from the top.

Circular: Displays process boxes in a radial fashion. Useful for single connection-based flowcharts that lead to one output.

Hierarchical: Organizes process boxes in horizontal or vertical levels so that most links flow uniformly in the same direction. This layout often provides the most simple and visually straightforward choice.

To reposition all process boxes in a horizontal or vertical layout:

Right-click the flowchart workspace.

Choose View > Horizontal / Vertical.

If this option causes connection lines to overlap, choose View >Angled Connections twice to redraw the connection lines properly.

If this option causes process boxes to overlap, choose Horizontal / Vertical. again to return to the previous orientation, or manually move the boxes so they no longer overlap.

Aligning process boxes

To align multiple process boxes:

Select at least two process boxes by dragging a selection box around them.

Use the alignment icons in the flowchart toolbar:

Use Align Top, Align Bottom, or Align Center (Vertical) to align boxes in a row.

Use Align Left, Align Right, or Align Center (Horizontal) to align boxes in a column.

If you choose an incorrect alignment, select an option from the Change Layout menu to restore the layout. In many cases, the Hierarchical layout successfully fixes any process boxes that are overlapping. You can also select an individual process box and drag it to a new location.