Adjusting flowchart appearance
You can adjust the position and alignment of process boxes to improve the appearance of the flowchart. All of these changes are visual. They do not affect the flow of data. The direction of the connection lines between processes determines the data flow.
This procedure assumes that you have a flowchart open for editing.
Follow these steps to adjust the appearance of a flowchart.
1.
To reposition all processes in a flowchart, click the Change Layout icon Process chart with arrow that points down icon and select an option.
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Tree: Organizes process boxes in a tree format. Useful when each process box has a single input.
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Organization Chart: Organizes simple flowcharts and is effective for flowcharts with a single input from the top.
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Circular: Arranges process boxes in a radial fashion. Useful for single connection-based flowcharts that lead to one output.
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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.
2.
To reposition all process boxes to a horizontal or vertical layout:
a.
Right-click the flowchart workspace.
b.
Choose View > Horizontal / Vertical or click the Horizontal / Vertical icon Process chart icon in the toolbar.
If this option causes connection lines to overlap, choose View > Angled Connections twice to redraw the connection lines properly.
3.
To align two or more process boxes, drag a selection box around at least two processes, then use the alignment icons in the flowchart toolbar.
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To align boxes in a row: Use the Align Top icon Box at top with second box and arrow that points up icon, the Align Bottom icon Box at bottom with second box and arrow that points down icon, or the Align Center (Vertical) icon Side by side boxes of different sizes with centers aligned along a dotted horizontal line icon.
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To align boxes in a column: Use the Align Left icon Box at left with second box and arrow that points left icon, the Align Right icon Box at right with second box and arrow that points right icon, or the Align Center (Horizontal) icon Stacked boxes of different sizes with centers aligned along a dotted vertical line icon.
If you choose an incorrect alignment, select an option from the Change Layout menu to restore the layout. In many cases, the Hierarchical layout fixes overlapping process boxes.
You can also select an individual process box and drag it to a new location.
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