Going With The Flow
I love online tools, especially when they’re cool. And free makes them even better!
Such is the case with these three flowcharting tools. I think they’re just as powerful as the high-priced packages you’ve seen (e.g. Microsoft Visio). And some are even better than what you may be used to.
bubbl.us
This web app is fun to use. You can easily create parent objects and their children simply by hitting the “enter” or “tab” keys.
Hovering over an object causes additional functionality to magically appear. Moving around the workspace is simple as is moving around the objects.
You can save and share your works — even export them. I particularly like the way objects blow-up when you delete them. 
Mindomo
More along the lines of what you would expect mind-mapping software to behave, Mindomo has some nice features.
While it did have a clean interface, I did find it hard to use intuitively. Moving objects seemed to resist my moves. I did like, though, the ability to add notes to each object that could be collapsed at the click of a button.
Flowchart.com
Of these three, I think you’ll find Flowchart.com to be the most refreshing and versatile. It offers you the standard shapes you’ve come to know in flowcharts.
But one of the things that wow-ed me was it’s extensive library of other objects in clip art and photo formats: food, construction, computers, people, animals, and lots more. It was easy to create and modify my sample. You can also share your creations with the public, collaborate with others, and save as a PNG or PDF.
[tags]flowcharts,online tools,software,free[/tags]
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About the Author: Mark Sierra is an online entrepreneur and web publisher. As the owner of StarFrost Media, he continues to add blogs and products to his online portfolio designed to help inform readers on software and blogging, teach them to be more productive, and even learn how to make money online.
Brown Baron | Jun 26, 2007 | Reply
I’m going to have to checkout Flowchart .. if only for the clipart
Mark | Jun 26, 2007 | Reply
I think you’ll be pleased with it. What I liked about it is that you could easily enlarge those objects without losing clarity.
Haris (haris.tv) | Jun 27, 2007 | Reply
Hi Mark,
Nice selection, I mindmap and flowchart quite a lot. Mindomo looks very promising.
If you have MS Excel installed you can also use it to flow chart and not have to learn a new interface, I’ve just written an article on doing this:
http://haris.tv/2007/06/25/how-to-flowchart-with-microsoft-excel/
Haris
Bush Mackel | Jun 27, 2007 | Reply
I’m with you Brown. Do you guys have to use Flowcharts in what you do? Thankfully I don’t, but maybe that means I’m doing something wrong!
Mark | Jun 27, 2007 | Reply
Hi Bush! Good to see you back.
I’m not sure how useful the clip art would be outside of flowchart, but i suppose it’s possible. I don’t use flowcharts much outside of work and even then it’s a different program I use, but this is a nice alternative.
Mark | Jun 27, 2007 | Reply
Hi Haris,
Thanks for dropping by and for the tip. I’ll check it out.
Haris (haris.tv) | Jun 27, 2007 | Reply
Cool, would be nice to hear what you think
Haris (haris.tv) | Jun 27, 2007 | Reply
I’m finding I use them more and more. I design systems, processes and do alot of coding.
Drawing a flowchart breaks it down and makes it easier to code with a visual representation to refer to.
Haris
Brown Baron | Jun 27, 2007 | Reply
Not really, but I’m always on the lookout for unique clipart hehehe
Wes Mahler | Jun 29, 2007 | Reply
hm cool interesting, I just started using visio I’ll have to check theses out great find thxs!
Mark | Jun 29, 2007 | Reply
Hi Web, thanks for stopping by!