# Any good Flow Chart Freeware Out there?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-flow-chart-freeware-out-there/139959>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 2, 2002, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-flow-chart-freeware-out-there/139959 "2002-12-02T14:56:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-flow-chart-freeware-out-there/139959/1 "2002-12-02T14:56:21Z")

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I’ve got to flow chart my new departments workflow. But I don’t have any charting software here.

Anyone know any good flowchart software out there?

Um. For free.

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**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-flow-chart-freeware-out-there/139959/2 "2002-12-02T15:02:51Z")

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It’s only free for 30 days, but [this one](http://www.smartdraw.com/specials/flowchart.asp?id=9164) looks alright to me. I’ve been looking for something similar myself.

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**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-flow-chart-freeware-out-there/139959/3 "2002-12-02T15:06:26Z")

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I use SmartDraw. I even bought it - the base price is something like $69 or so, and it’s well worth it.

One caveat - yes, it’s free for the first 30 days. IIRC, however, it puts a big “THIS IS A DEMO VERSION OF SMARTDRAW” type banner over your diagram when you try to print and/or convert it to a different format. So if you’re thinking of using it for “real” work in it’s 30 day trial period it might not be the package for you.

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**Author:** ![jesuslynch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e99b99/32.png) [@jesuslynch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jesuslynch)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-flow-chart-freeware-out-there/139959/4 "2002-12-02T21:41:51Z")

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We’ve been flowcharting all of the divisions of the State Agency I work for and have been using Excel. Offers all the choices and is easy to work with. It’s easy to resize the boxes and manipulate it however you want. The easy thing is you can set up a file for each employee and then put a different task on a new sheet.