How to Make a Flow Chart in Word: Step by Step Guide

Flowcharts can simplify complex concepts, enhance understanding, and visualize processes. Although there are a lot of tools that can help you make flowchart, one of the practical software you can use is Microsoft Word. This Word app has extensive and useful features that can help you create flowchart perfectly. Therefore, in this article we will show you how to create a flowchart in Microsoft Word along with its step-by-step guide that enables you to use this program to its full potential.

Flowcharts in Microsoft Word: Tips and How to Maximize its Features

1. Useful Features in Making Flowcharts in Microsoft Word
2. How to Make Flowchart in Word – Step-by-Step Guide
3. Tips to Maximize the Creation of Flowcharts in Microsoft
4. Best Alternative Tool for Making Flowcharts in Microsoft Word

Useful Features in Making Flowcharts in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word provides a range of useful features that make it suitable for creating flowcharts. And in order to know their function, here are some of them below.

Shapes and Lines

Word offers a variety of pre-designed shapes and lines that can be easily manipulated, resized, and connected to represent different elements of your flowchart.

Text Editing

With the text editing capabilities of Microsoft Word, you can add, modify, and format text within the flowchart to provide clear instructions, labels, or explanations for each step.

Page Layout

Utilize Word’s page layout options to adjust the size, orientation, and margins of your document, allowing for flexibility in designing flowcharts of various scales.

SmartArt Graphics

Microsoft Word’s SmartArt feature provides pre-designed flowchart templates and layouts, allowing for quick and straightforward flowchart creation.

With all these functional features of Microsoft Word, you will be able to make a flowchart in Word easily and creatively. Now, let’s proceed on the steps on how to use Word on your flowchart.

How to Make Flowchart in Word – Step-by-Step Guide

In order to create a flowchart in Microsoft Word, here are the steps you should follow:

• Launch Microsoft Word and open a new document to begin the flowchart creation process.
• Navigate to the “Insert” tab and select “Shapes” from the toolbar. Choose the desired shape, such as rectangles or diamonds, and click and drag on the document to create the shape for the first step in your flowchart.

• Use the “Lines” or “Arrows” option from the “Shapes” toolbar to connect the shapes, representing the flow and directionality of your process. Click and drag from one shape to another to create your desired connectors.

• Double-click on a shape to enter text or right-click and select “Add Text” to input relevant information for each step.

• Once the flowchart is complete, take a step back and review the overall structure, sequence, and clarity. Make any necessary adjustments or revisions to ensure the flowchart accurately represents the process.

Tips to Maximize the Creation of Flowcharts in Microsoft

After knowing the functions and the steps on how to create flowchart in Word, this part will help you to make it more visually appealing to your viewers. 

• Enhance the visual appeal of your flowchart

You can opt to modify the shapes, lines, and text boxes. Customize the font, size, and formatting as needed to ensure clarity and readability. Adjust colors, line thickness, and font styles to differentiate between steps or highlight key elements.

• Utilize Word’s alignment tools 

By using these tools, you will ensure consistent spacing and alignment of shapes and text boxes, resulting in a neater and more professional flowchart.

• Explore the built-in SmartArt Graphics

This feature within Word offers access to ready-made flowchart templates and layouts, which can save time and effort.

• Enhancing readability and comprehension

In order to achieve this, you should maintain consistency in using symbols and shapes to represent specific elements or actions within your flowchart, you should use 

Best Alternative Tool for Making Flowcharts in Microsoft Word

If you find creating flowcharts with Microsoft a tedious task due to its multiple steps, you can opt in using GitMind which offers you a vast list of templates for your flowchart-making. It has flowchart for analysis, lane, organization, and etc., which are editable for the purpose you want to use them. You can also create “how to” type of charts with GitMind to make procedures more visual and easy to follow. More than that, it has basic features such as connection arrows and points, shapes and cliparts, layout formatting, and paper size modification. Hence, GitMind is indeed the great alternative to make flowchart in Word by Microsoft. You can also add hyperlink or images to your flowchart if there’s any. And to use this, here are the steps you should follow and do. Check them below.

• Open GitMind and navigate to the Flowchart tab and hit “New Flowchart”.

• After that, select shapes under the Basic Flowchart drop down menu and also select the Arrow tab and choose among the connectors.

• On the right side, hit “Text” to insert text and customize its colors, fonts, and opacity.

• Next, you can also polish it by properly aligning them, setting up the right thickness and color to all the elements you initially input.
• Once done, save or share your flowchart accordingly.

Conclusion

In summary, Microsoft Word provides a practical platform for creating flowcharts with its shapes, lines, and text editing capabilities. Hence, to create a flowchart in Word or alternative tool are essential for effective communication through visualization. Additionally, tips for customization and an alternative tool like GitMind offers further options for visual appeal and ease of use. Just use the proper prompt e.g. flowchart about project management and the tool will instantly generate a flowchart for you. Give it a try and share your thought about it.