Selecting a Flowchart Program

When selecting a Flowchart Program investigate the cost and compare the features. There are several Flowchart Programs. I have used Visio, Corel Draw, Micrographix (now defunct) SmartDraw, and several shareware programs. Below I discuss the choices and my recommendations.

SmartDraw

SmartDraw is an outstanding product for creating flowcharts and other quality assurance management documents. The software is easy to learn and has great support. The formatting of the charts is done automatically so your not wasteing time moving symbols, placing them and aligning them in the correct spots. The software has hundreds of templates for quality assurance tools. It is $199 per user. For a business you can buy an unlimited amount of users for $2995 annually.

Flowchart Software

I recommend SmartDraw software for making flowcharts. With this software you can quickly and easily make flowcharts. If you need to create professional flowcharts use SmartDraw. They offer a free download, so you can try it without any commitment.

Shareware and Freeware Flowcharts

Although I 100% respect shareware programmers as they have amazing skills, I don’t recommend using shareware flowchart programs.

Shareware flowcharting programs don’t seem complete. They are missing key components like fishbone diagrams and creating charts. Usually customer support is questionable. Help and instruction files need improvement. Because of these problems, shareware programs may take significant amount of time to learn and apply.

Visio

Microsoft Visio is another outstanding product. For completing easy tasks such as a simple flowchart it is easy to do. There are many layers to the software including templates, autoconnect functionality, graphing and charting. Customer support is excellent. The biggest problem with Visio is the price. It is $559 dollars per user.

CorelDraw

CorelDraw is overkill for a flowcharting program. Corel bought Micrographix which was very good for flowcharting. CorelDraw is an illustration program and too difficult to learn for flowcharting. It is $429. Be prepared to take many classes to learn CorelDraw.

My Recommendation

I recommend SmartDraw. It is the best value for flowcharting software. With this software you can quickly and easily make flowcharts. If you need to create professional flowcharts use SmartDraw. If you or your company are looking for an inexpensive solution to creating flowcharts, try SmartDraw. They offer a free download for your evaluation.

Learn more about Flowcharting Working with a Flowchart program is important as it helps you create flowcharts.

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Robert Broughton
(805) 200-7979
USA
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