How to Create Flowcharts in Excel Series -
Re-Routing Flowchart Connectors (Flow Lines) the Easy Way
By Nicholas Hebb
Using the Re-Route Connector Toolbar Function
Makes moving flowchart shapes much less painful
When you move flowchart symbols (aka autoshapes) in an Microsoft Excel drawing, the flow lines (connectors) have a tendency to get all messed up. Lets say you have the two flowchart shapes shown in the picture below - Shape 1 and Shape 2.
Moving Shape 1 to the other side of Shape 2 creates the most
inefficient flowchart connector routing possible. Instead of dragging the
start and end points of the connector to fix it, you can just select
the connector and click the Reroute Connectors button. 
Let Microsoft Excel do the work for you. It also works just as well when selecting
multiple lines.
The one caveat is that sometimes this function will route flow
lines behind other flowchart shapes - especially if you use the elbow
connector. It can also cause the flowchart connectors to overlap, making it
harder to determine the actual flow. If the reroute connectors function
does a really bad job, you can always click the Undo button. But most of
the time, you can use it as a first step to the majority of the flow line
re-routing and then manually adjust any flow lines that are out of place.
Related Articles
Want more useful flowcharting tips? View the list of other flowchart, process map, and process improvement articles here.
About the Author
When he's not writing about flowcharts Nicholas Hebb runs BreezeTree Software, maker of FlowBreeze Flowchart Software - a program that cuts the time to create a flowchart dramatically compared to traditional flowcharting tools. What makes FlowBreeze different?
It converts your text into flowchart symbols based on the words you type, adds a connector from the last shape, and many other time saving features. And, because it's a Microsoft Excel graphics addin, you will create flow charts that are highly portable and integrate directly with Microsoft Office for easy sharing and collaboration.
Click here to view the On-Line FlowBreeze Flowchart Software Demo and see for yourself. (It's a short, 30 second video that loads fast.) You'll be impressed.
