So you want to learn flowcharts? Well, This flowchart tutorial will teach you all you need to know. It will cover the history of flowcharts, flowchart symbols, how to create flowcharts, flowchart best practices and we’ve also included a section to answer frequent questions about flowcharts. Best of all you can use our flowchart software to draw them.
Creately already has some really awesome articles and videos covering various things related to flowcharts like meanings of flowchart symbols, how to use swim lanes in flowcharts, flowchart best practices, case studies, and much more.
Flowchart Tutorial
This blog post will simply gather all that information and present it in a logical way. I’ve added links to different sections to make it easier to navigate. Click on the relevant link to quickly read the relevant section.
- History of Flowcharts
- Flowchart Symbols Meaning
- How to Draw a Flowchart
- Flowchart Templates and Examples
- Flowchart Best Practices
- Common Mistakes Made when Drawing Flowcharts
- Flowchart Case Studies
- Feedback on the flowcharting Guide
History of Flowcharts
Frank Gilberth introduced flowcharts in 1921, and they were called “Process Flow Charts” at the beginning. Allan H. Mogensen is credited with training business people on how to use flowcharts. Wikipedia has a great summary of the history of flowcharts, read more in this wiki section.
Flowchart Symbols
So what are the different symbols used in a flowchart?. Most people are only aware of basic symbols like processes and decision blocks. But there are many more symbols to make your flowchart more meaningful. The above image shows all the standard flowchart symbols.
The most common symbol used in a flowchart is the rectangle. A rectangle represents a process, operation, or a task. The next most common symbol is the diamond which is used to represent a decision.
There are many other flowchart symbols like Sequential access storage, Direct data, Manual input, etc. Check the flowchart symbols page for a detailed explanation of different symbols.
Although these are the standard symbols available in most flowchart software, some people do use different shapes for different meanings. The most common example of this is using circles to denote start and end. The examples in this flowchart tutorial will stick with the standard symbols.
How to Draw a Flowchart
How do you draw a flowchart? Well, our flowcharting tool is a good place to start. But before directly using the tool lets take a look at some basics.
There are four main types of flowcharts. Document flowchart, System flowchart, data flowchart, and program flowchart. Not everyone agrees with this categorization, but the core principals of drawing a flowchart remain the same. You need to consider a few things when drawing a flowchart, Check out 6 useful tips on drawing flowcharts before you start.
If you are drawing a flowchart with many responsible parties you can group them together using swim lanes. Swim lanes are a powerful technique to increase the readability of your flowchart so you should use them according to the situation. Read using swim lanes in flowcharts to learn more about the process.
The below video shows how to draw a flowchart using Creately. It is very simple to use and one-click create and connect helps you draw them faster as well. You can drag and drop symbols from the library or drag images to your diagram by doing an image search.
Flowchart Templates and Examples
Although you can start drawing flowcharts by scratch it is much easier to use templates. They help you reduce errors and reminds you about the best practices to follow. If you want to use a ready-made template, go to the flowchart examples section and click on the flowchart that best suits you. Click on the use at template after the image and you are ready to draw your flowchart.
Below are two templates out of hundreds of flowchart templates available to the user. Click on any of them to start drawing flowcharts immediately.
Flowchart Best Practices
There are a few things you can do to make your flowchart universally accepted. And there are some things that you can do to make it visually pleasing to others as well.
If you’re planning to share your flowchart or hoping to use it on a presentation etc. then it’s wise to use standard symbols. However, it is important to remember that the idea is to give out information in an easy to understand manner. It is perfectly acceptable to use an alternative image instead of the document symbol as long as the audience understands it.
Keeping the arrow flow to one side, using the same size symbols, naming the decision blocks, processes, arrows, etc. are few things you can do to make it better. The common mistakes section covers most of these practices in detail.
Common Mistakes Made when Drawing Flowcharts
This section highlights the common mistakes made when drawing flowcharts. Some of the things mentioned here are to make it better looking and more understandable, not having them in your flowchart won’t make it wrong. Since there are two posts covering these mistakes in-depth I will link to them from this flowchart tutorial.
15 mistakes you would unintentionally make with flowcharts ( Part 1 )
15 mistakes you would unintentionally make with flowcharts ( Part 2 )
Effective Use of Flowcharts – Case Studies
A flowchart tutorial isn’t complete without some case studies. Below are three case studies and real-life examples on how flowcharts can help you make decisions.
- Ten Flowchart Ideas for Your Business – How flowcharts can be used in making business decisions and to optimize the current business processes
- Analyzing Sales Funnel with Flowcharts – How to analyze the Google analytic sales funnel using a flowchart.
- Flutterscape Case Study – How one of our customers used flowcharts to enhance their processes.
Frequently Asked Questions About Flowchart
The comments section of this article is full of questions. Please note that I will not draw flowcharts for specific scenarios. Below I have answered some of the most frequently asked questions.
Q 01: What is a subprocess in a flowchart?
Answer: Sometimes complex processes are broken down into smaller sub-processes for clarity. So a flowchart can point to a different sub-process within its flow. The predefined process symbol is used to show such subprocesses.
Q 02: How are flowcharts used in computer programming?
Answer: A computer program consists of many processes and flows. Flowcharts are used to visualize the processes and make them understandable for non-technical people. They are also used to visualize algorithms and comprehend pseudo-code which is used in programming.
Comments and Feedback on the Flowchart Tutorial
I hope this flowchart tutorial will help you to come up with awesome flowcharts. Flowcharts are a great way to present complex processes in a simple to understand manner and they are used all over the world in many industries. If you have a question about drawing flowcharts or have any suggestions to improve this post, feel free to mention in the comments section.
More Diagram Tutorials
- Sequence Diagram Tutorial: Complete Guide with Examples
- Business Process Modeling Tutorial (BPM Guide Explaining Features)
- Use Case Diagram Tutorial ( Guide with Examples )
Regarding conditionals – two rules interplay: the direction of the question and the meaning of the arrows. When both a desired condition (Yes) and expressed conditional (“Zipcode correct?”) are positives, and the flow moves in typical reading order (left to right), it’s super easy to follow the flow IMHO and easier to explain cascades of conditions.
Hi, I’m May. I want to write a flowchart for my thesis matlab program. How do I write? Can you please tell me how to use symbols and where can I find the examples of flowchart?
Hi May, You can find many flowchart examples in our community https://creately.com/diagram-community/examples/t/flowchart
Pls can someone help me with the flow chat of an online meter acquisition and customer service management system and the data flow chat
What is the generally accepted way to display calls to javascript in a web application. For example how to show a click event. It’s not a linear event it’s on demand so it isn’t part of the flow necessarily.
Thank you.
I would like to shorten the time and effort it takes to document and make changes to written standard operating procedures (SOP). Would you please recommend (candidate) software that allows the writer to simultaneously write both the procedure (i.e., steps) and the flow chart. In other words, I would like to have the option to either first write the procedure, and have the software produce the corresponding flowchart (or vice-versa).
can someone send some flowchart problems for icse class 6 ??
You have really helped my daughter for her exam
Hello any body can help me to make a programming flow chart for this buzzell?
num = e.g. 5 (it could be any number)
out put to be
012345
101234
210123
321012
432101
543210
highly appreciate.
Can u please tell me the functions of flowchart symbols?
Hello Danish, you can learn about the functions of flowchart symbols here https://creately.com/diagram-type/objects/flowcharts
can you draw a flow chart for; replacing a
flat tire from your car
hmm,,,, can you help me to my problem,,,,,,,make a pseudocode and flowchart that has a program called “calculator”,,
input format
“calculator program”
1.add
2.subtract
3.multiply
4.divide
5.modulus
6.power
0.exit
enter a number of your choice…
guuys i need your help,,,pm me in fb….jayen melisse maceda….
i pass this tommorow
start
enter first number
enter second number
is the division calculation?
YES/NO
IF(YES)
THEN
Check denominator==0
IF(YES)
THEN Show Math Error!
Else
NO
Show Answer
End Program
hi I’m Rogel I’m working on how to make a flowchart on libraries and I don’t know where to start. Can you give me some tips?
prepare a program to print all prime numbers between 1-7inclusive
l want the steps taken to produce a flowchart
Thanks a lot for this tutorial. Many of us take it for granted when it comes to flowcharts. But here is some stuff which really claer our doubt. Thanks again!
Hi, am Michael and am now learning the progaramming please can you help me
I have serious problems with flowchart,algorithms n programming.plss need help
i have learned a lot.thanks 4 this guide.
Thanks for the work well done. this is a great guide I learn alot. keep it up.
I always stuck and lazy to understand the definition of flowchart symbol but your post is definitely a useful reference.
Im having a hard time answering these. Can you please help me? Im new in flowcharting.
*create a flowchart that will ask for a numeric value and displays the product
*create a flowchart that ask for personal information and displays it.
Excellent post. Thanks
hlo
i am student of B.C.A and i have found a lot of difculty with flowchart,
such how to put condition.?
Hi,
We would like to create a document that is made of two parts one next to the other: on the left there will be the code of a software, and on the right there will be a flow chart of the program. Then we would like to link parts of the code on the left to the corresponding element in the flow chart. On top of the page there will be two buttons “>>” and “<>” button would reveal a part from the code on the left, and the corresponding part of the flow chart. A click on the “<> and <<. Is that doable?
The end product should be posted on a web page as html5 (not flash).
Also, we need a designer who knows how to work with Creately, as we don't have the skills or the manpower. Do you have access to a database of freelances who can do the work for us using Creately?
Can you help? Thanks,
Uzi
what this symbol mean:
—————————-\
| \
| \
| /
| /
|________________/
hey i want flw diagram of online testing
that’s good
Thanks a lot for the tutorial. Great go to place fot a quickstart.
good and very useful
im sorry to disturb you but can u tell me how to draw a flowchart that switches between two numbers a,b,please tell me its soooo important ,u can mail me the answer
omar_hammed@hotmail.com
hey can u make this into a flowchart…and how please tell me the order of symbols needed to us…Draw a flowchart that converts the input value of a dollar into its equivalent peso. Assume that one dollar is equivalent to Php44.50. Display the result.
im a newbie in flowcharting. pls i need clue to solve these problems:
(1) sketch a flowchart to implement the pseudo-code on moving average of M samples
(2) sketch flowchart to implement the pseudo-code for finding factorial of a number x
(3) sketch a flowchart to implement the pseudo-code on finding the roots of a quadriatic equation ax2+bx+c=0
Hi Jason,
Have a look at our Gantt chart templates , it’s a good place to start your research.
hi, I’m doing research on a Gantt chart but I do not know which example/template suits my requirement best any help would be highly appreciated.
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Great writing! I need to draw some flawchart and I will try to follow your suggestions
Thanks Nishadha – you done a great job of putting these together and considering all the pitfalls a flowchart newbie might face.
[…] a great alternative to Visio and the blog has some great articles on diagramming similar to this flowchart guide. 0 […]
Flowcharts are easy to remember. You give us great guide on it.
Thanks buddy for sharing.
Hi friend, I love this great drawing tool that you’ve just shared with us here. Thanks a ton for that and I will start using Creately as well.
I need help with creation a pseudocade and flowchart for car class especially when you call the accelerate and speed five times