Flowchart widget

The Flowchart widget puts the PlexiDiagrams editor on your desk. Draw a process step by step with flowchart shapes and connectors, start from a template, or describe the process and let AI draw it for you. Tidy the layout in one click, then export it as a picture or a PDF.

A Flowchart is a real Office file. You edit it on the desk, and the same file is listed in Office, where you can open it in the full editor.

For a quick boxes-and-arrows sketch, or a Venn diagram, the lighter Diagram widget may suit you better.

Before you start

• The Flowchart widget is on every plan.
• You need a desk open.
• AI map needs AI to be set up: PlexiDesk credits while you are signed in, or your own Anthropic key. See AI credits and where your AI runs. Everything else works without AI.

Add a Flowchart

1. Open the desk you want it on.
2. Click Add widget in the centre of the header.
3. In the Draw & diagram column, click Flowchart.

Other ways to add one:

• Right-click an empty part of the desk and choose Add object > Files > Flowchart. It appears where you clicked.
• Press ⌘ K on a Mac or Ctrl K on Windows and choose Add Flowchart.

PlexiDesk creates a new diagram file for the widget, named Diagram, and opens it with one Start shape ready for you to build on. The widget starts at 720 × 520. Make it larger for more room: drag its edges, or use the + button in its title bar.

What is in the widget

From top to bottom:

• The menu bar: Insert adds any shape, or a widget from one of your desks. View > Fit to view fits the whole diagram in the widget. Help > How to diagram is a short reminder of the basics.
• The stencil tabs: Flowchart, Basic shapes, Arrows and Containers. Each tab shows its own shape buttons.
• The toolbar: the shape buttons, colours, Dashed, Templates, AI map, Arrange, Export and Fit.
• The diagram, with zoom buttons at the bottom left and a small map of the whole diagram at the bottom right.

Add shapes

Click a shape button to add that shape to the diagram. Rest the pointer on a button to see its name.

A new shape gets a starter label, such as Step or Decision?. Drag it into place.

Choose a colour

The colour swatches after the shape buttons set the colour for the next shapes you add (their tooltip says Colour for new nodes). Pick the colour first, then add the shape.

Rename a shape

1. Double-click the shape.
2. Type its label.
3. Press Enter to keep it, or Esc to cancel.

Resize a shape

Click a shape, then drag the handles that appear around it.

Connect shapes

1. Find the small dots on the edges of a shape.
2. Drag from a dot to another shape, and let go.

A connector joins them, and it follows the shapes when you move them. To draw dashed connectors, turn on Dashed before you draw them.

Label a connector

1. Double-click the connector.
2. In Edge label, type the label, such as Yes or No.
3. Click Set label.

Select, delete, move around

• Select a shape or connector by clicking it. Hold Shift and drag to select several at once.
• Delete what is selected with Backspace or Delete.
• Pan by dragging an empty part of the diagram. Zoom by scrolling over it, or with the zoom buttons.
• Fit brings the whole diagram into view.

Line things up

• Align. Select two or more shapes, and align buttons appear on the toolbar: left, centre, right, top, middle and bottom.
• Distribute. Select three or more, and Distribute horizontally and Distribute vertically space them evenly.
• Arrange lays out the whole diagram for you in tidy layers, following the connectors (its tooltip says Auto-arrange the diagram into a clean layered layout).

Start from a template

1. Click Templates.
2. Choose Flowchart, Org chart, Mind map or Approval flow.

Draw a diagram with AI

1. Click AI map. The Generate a map with AI panel opens.
2. Describe the process, decision flow or structure. For example: The customer onboarding process from signup to first value, with an approval step.
3. Click Generate, or press ⌘ Enter on a Mac or Ctrl Enter on Windows.

AI writes the steps and the connections, and PlexiDiagrams lays them out. As the panel says, This replaces the current map. Edit the result like any other diagram.

If AI is not set up, the panel says No Anthropic API key set. Open Settings → AI · API keys to paste one. Sign in to use your credits, or add your own key.

Export the diagram

1. Click Export.
2. Choose PNG image, SVG (vector), JPG image or PDF.
3. Choose where to save it, and click Save.

The toolbar shows Saved and where the file went.

Open it in Office

The diagram file is listed in Office with your other documents, as a Map. Open it there to work on it in the full editor. It is one file, not a copy: changes you make on the desk show in Office, and the other way round. Renaming the widget does not rename the file.

Removing the widget takes it off the desk. The file stays in Office. To put a diagram you already have on a desk, see Put a document, spreadsheet or deck on a desk.

For everything the editor does, see PlexiDiagrams overview.

Publishing a live view

When you publish a live view of a desk, people see the diagram's shapes, labels and connectors, read-only. See Publish a live view of a desk.

Common questions

AI map says it came back empty. Describe the process in more detail, with the steps you expect, and try again.

Scrolling zooms the diagram instead of moving the desk. Point outside the widget to scroll the desk.

Where is my file? In Office, with your other documents, named Diagram unless you renamed it there.

Related tasks

• Draw & diagram widgets
• Diagram widget
• Mind map widget
• PlexiDiagrams overview
• Start a diagram from a template or AI