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Process mapping - Elements activity boxes and flow lines
Process mapping - Elements activity boxes and flow lines

Process Mapping; How to map; Drawing diagrams; How to draw diagrams? Process application?

Ksawery Lisinski avatar
Written by Ksawery Lisinski
Updated over a week ago

In this article we will introduce very basics of process mapping drawing and layout principles of those. Two subjects in this article are activity box and flow lines.

This article describes how to use the software to map out your processes. You might want to first check out the article on our process mapping methodology to understand the principles first. 

Article outline:

  • Prerequisites

  • Drawing activities in activity boxes

  • Drawing flow lines

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Prerequisites

  • Registered and verified Elements account

If you have not already watched this video - it's 6 minutes long and will save you a lot of time!

Drawing activities in activity boxes

Drag “Activity Box” from the left pane, or if you prefer to close the left panel, double-click on the canvas to create an activity box. Then, double-click on an activity box to edit the text.

Drawing flow lines

Roll over an activity box (don’t click) and blue "x" (with green highlights) line handles appear outside the edge of the box.

Click and drag a line from the highlighted handle.

Select "Add Activity", "Add terminator", or "Add connector" as appropriate, or click on the canvas to leave a floating line.

To link existing boxes, drag the end of the line into the center of another activity box or to a specific anchor point.

Another way to drag lines out, add boxes, or link boxes, is first to select an existing box:

Click on the "+", then drag, let go, and select “Add activity”.

Double-click on the line text (or orange dot) to edit. Select the text and then click and drag the text or orange dot to move.

TIP Hold Ctrl down (cmd on Mac) when you click and drag from an activity box handle to reverse the direction of the line.

TIP line text does NOT auto-wrap and cannot be sized by dragging. You need to put in (or remove) any returns manually.

TIP You can also see useful edit shortcuts by clicking on the "?" icon in the top toolbar

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