Working with Connectors

Connecting Shapes and Objects with Creately is easy. With the Connector Button in the Contextual Toolbar, its 2 clicks to connect up shapes.

1. Connecting Shapes
2. Default Endpoints and Manual Gluepoints
3. Connector Contextual Toolbar De-Mystified
4. Modifying Connector paths

How do you connect objects and shapes together?

• Click the Connector button of an Object.
  
  Then position your mouse over the desired endpoint. 4 small grey dots appear on the object. These are known as the default endpoints and the connector will automatically stick to one of them if you immediately click to release the connector over the object.
  





---

Endpoints and Gluepoints

• Default Endpoints
  
  Default endpoints are not sticky. That means that moving your object around will cause our Magic Connectors to automatically re-route the connectors and reconnect to the closest default endpoint.
  

• Manual Gluepoints
  
  Manual Gluepoints can be set up on any object. After clicking on the Connect button, mouse over any part of an object for 2 secs. A small Lock icon along with a large Grey dot appears on the Object. This is known as a Manual Gluepoint. Click to release the connector endpoint and it will stick to this Manual Gluepoint. Manual Gluepoints exhibit special behaviour. When moving objects connected by Manual Gluepoints, the connectors will not automatically reconnect through the shortest path. This is also very useful when making more than 1 connection between 2 objects (e.g. in ER diagrams)
  



This video shows the difference in behaviour between a Default Endpoint and a Manual Gluepoint.

---

Connector Contextual Toolbar De-Mystified

Just like Knowledge Objects (or Shapes), our Connectors have a very useful contextual toolbar.



• Arrow Heads or Endpoint Styles
  
  The first button on the Connector Toolbar lets you pick the right connector end styles. There is a good variety of arrowheads and styles to choose from. Can't find what you want - let us know, we'll be happy to add more.
  



• Line Type
  
  You can choose to have Straight, Bent or Curved line Connectors. The default line type for each diagram type is automatically set up by Creately to facilitate fast diagramming. Creately will pick the best line type for you, but it takes just 1-Click to change the defaults from the Connector contextual toolbar.
  



• Connector Text Label (How do I add text to a Connector?)
  
  Its easy to add a Text Label to your connector. Simply click on the A button on the toolbar to go into text edit mode. Type and hit TAB to commit your label text.
  



• Connector Type
  
  Connectors have Smarts, and Connector types are just one example of how Creately makes diagramming easy. Different Knowledge Objects support different connector types, and the connection type can be selected from the drop-down selection box on the contextual toolbar. Changing the connector type will change the look of the line and endpoint styles.
  

Use Case Diagram Connectors



Entity Relationship Diagram Connectors

How to adjust or modify Connector paths?

Creately has the smartest, coolest and most-hardworking connectors on the web, and we're very proud of them. Our Magic Connectors come with special handles to let you easily modify the path of your connectors.

• Click and Drag the Blue Bars to move the connector edge along an axis.

• Green Diamonds can be clicked and dragged to add a new bend in the connector.

Watch this video to learn how to modify connector paths.