BreezeTree Software
Flowcharting and Process Diagramming
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BreezeTree Software Launches FlowBreeze 2.0, an Excel Add-In that creates Flow Charts from text
Sherwood, OR, October 23, 2007 – BreezeTree Software announced today that it has released
FlowBreeze 2.0, a flowcharting tool for Microsoft Excel. With FlowBreeze 2.0, users of Microsoft Office
will now be able to layout the flowchart content in plain text then create the flowchart with an easy to
use automation tool.
The new Text-To-Flowchart Wizard allows users to enter the text into Excel worksheet cells in the
approximate layout the final flowchart will take. At the click of a button the text is loaded into a
form that allows the user to set symbol types, formatting styles, and connector routings. The Wizard
then creates a flowchart with all the proper symbols, text, and arrows. Minor layout adjustments are
often necessary, but the amount of time to create a flowchart is cut dramatically.
In addition to the Text-To-Flowchart Wizard, users can make flowcharts by interactively typing text into
a worksheet. FlowBreeze will grab the text and replace it with an appropriate flowchart symbol, apply
preset styles, and add a connector from the previous symbol.
The core of FlowBreeze is its text-to-symbol engine. It works by allowing users to associate keywords
with symbol types. Users can also preset numerous rules to set styles, choose connect types and
formatting, and autosize symbols.
"Many of our customers own licenses for other, more expensive flowcharting products. They choose
FlowBreeze because of the time savings," said Nicholas Hebb, founder of BreezeTree Software. "We get
feedback customers all the time that FlowBreeze pays for itself it in the first day. That sends an
incredibly strong message to us that we’ve tapped a new frontier in flowcharting - productivity."
Most flow chart software works via the drag and drop paradigm. The users drags the shape, types the
process step, then manually adds the arrow. Applying any custom formatting can be a time consuming,
wrist-aching exercise in mouse clicks. With FlowBreeze, all that functionality is automated.
FlowBreeze leverages the Drawing Tools in Microsoft Excel, with 124 symbol types and multiple connector
types. It emulates the attractive styles offered in Excel 2007, allowing those styles to be used in
Excel 2003, Excel XP (2002), and to some extent Excel 2000. Global styles can be changed and applied at
the click of a button.
By leveraging the power of Microsoft Excel, FlowBreeze lets users combine data and diagrams in a single
package. With the Extract Text feature, users can output the process steps to the worksheet and tabulate
process metrics on the same sheet. Files are saved as standard Excel files, and anyone with Microsoft
Office can edit, share, or maintain the flowcharts created with FlowBreeze.
To further enhance productivity, FlowBreeze ships includes 120 flowchart templates quicker flowchart
creation of cross-functional swim lanes, title blocks, and block diagrams. With the new picture export
feature, users can save flowcharts, and Excel spreadsheet contents, in multiple picture formats for use
in process documentation, training manuals, help files, or web sites.
Sherwood, OR, March 30, 2007 – BreezeTree Software announced it has released FlowBreeze 1.3,
a flowcharting software add-in for Microsoft® Excel®. With the new release of FlowBreeze, users of
Microsoft Office 2007 will now be able to generate flowcharts in a fraction of the normal time. This
release is compatible Microsoft Excel 2007, 2003, 2002 (XP), and 2000. It also supports the new
Microsoft Vista operating system, as well as Windows XP and Windows 2000.
FlowBreeze is a flowcharting add-in for Excel that allows users to generate flowcharts by typing text
into worksheet cells. The product converts the text into a flowchart symbol. The user can configure
keywords that cause specific flowchart symbols to be generated when the text contains a keyword.
FlowBreeze automatically adds and routes connecting arrows, formats the symbols, and aligns the
flowchart.
FlowBreeze includes several other time saving features as well, including the ability to paste text from
a Microsoft Word document into a spreadsheet and have a flowchart generated on the fly – creating and
connecting separate symbols for each line of text.
"FlowBreeze is a flowcharting tool targeted at users who need to collaborate with others. Once a
flowchart is created, anyone with Excel can edit and maintain the flowcharts without the need for
another copy of FlowBreeze or any other 3rd party flowcharting software," said Nicholas Hebb, founder of
BreezeTree Software. "FlowBreeze is resonating particularly well with professionals who not only gain a
productivity boost, but also leverage the built-in analysis capabilities of Excel, allowing them to
converge their data with their diagrams."
About BreezeTree Software, LLC
BreezeTree Software, LLC (http://www.breezetree.com) was founded in 2005 with the mission of providing
productivity tools for quality management. BreezeTree Software, headquartered in Sherwood, Oregon, has
continuing plans to extend the product line with business process mapping and value stream mapping
add-ins for Microsoft Excel.
Contact Information
Nicholas Hebb
Founder and LLC Manager
Tel: 1-503-201-1859
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BreezeTree Software Releases FlowBreeze 1.2, an Innovative Flowcharting Tool for Excel Users
Sherwood, OR (PRLEAP) October 05, 2006 – BreezeTree Software today announced it has
released FlowBreeze 1.2, an update of its flowchart add-in for Excel. The new release
includes improved symbol positioning and autosizing, added gradient color transparency
settings, auto-capitalization of symbol text, and the ability to export the symbol
rules list feature, and more.
BreezeTree Software Launches FlowBreeze 1.0, an Innovative Flowcharting Tool for Microsoft Office Users
Sherwood, OR (PRWEB) March 16, 2006 – BreezeTree Software today announced it has released FlowBreeze 1.0, a flowcharting software add-in for Microsoft Excel. With FlowBreeze, users of Microsoft Office drawing tools will now be able to automate the generation of flowcharts.
The product marks the launch of the first in a series of flowcharting, process mapping and value stream mapping tools that BreezeTree Software will release in the coming year. The products will be targeted at professionals in the ISO 9000, Six Sigma, and Lean markets.
"Our market surveys found that 15-20% of quality professionals used the built-in tools in Microsoft Office to produce their flowcharts," said Nicholas Hebb, founder of BreezeTree Software. "FlowBreeze will bring a whole new level of flowcharting productivity to those users."
Traditional flowcharting tools work by having the user drag and drop shapes into place, type the text, then add the connectors between the shapes. Afterward, users find themselves spending a lot of time aligning and formatting the shapes.
FlowBreeze eliminates most of these steps by letting users create flowcharts just by typing the text for any given shape in the location they want the shape to be. The FlowBreeze flowcharting tool generates a flowchart shape based on the content of the text and a set of rules that is fully customizable by the user.
The two most powerful rules are the customizable keywords and prefixes. For each shape type, the user can identify keywords that, when entered, cause FlowBreeze to create that shape. A simple example would be identifying "document" as a keyword for the Document shape. Entering the text "Print document" would then generate a Document shape containing that text.
A user can also force an entry to generate a specific shape type by using a prefix in their entry. A prefix is a short abbreviation for the shape type followed by a colon that the user prefixes to the text entry. For example, a Merge shape (inverted triangle) is commonly used to indicate storage. The user could define "sto:" as a prefix for the shape, and any entry containing that prefix would generate a Merge shape.
FlowBreeze automatically generates flow line connectors between shapes and allows users to quickly pre-format the flowchart shape colors, font, text alignment, and line styles.
Other productivity enhancing features include automatic start and end terminator generation, automatic label generation for decision shapes, and, a favorite among pre-release users, the ability to copy a list of process steps from another document (e.g. Microsoft Word), paste it into the FlowBreeze environment, and have the bulk of the flowchart generated automatically.
An added benefit of using FlowBreeze is the built-in ability to collaborate with other people. With more than 400 million Microsoft Office users worldwide, FlowBreeze users can create flowcharts in Excel, and then share them with just about anyone. Collaborators can edit and maintain the flowcharts without having to purchase separate and often expensive drawing packages.
About BreezeTree Software, LLC
BreezeTree Software, LLC (http://www.breezetree.com) was founded in 2005 with the mission of providing productivity tools for quality management. BreezeTree Software, headquartered in Sherwood, Oregon, has an aggressive plan to roll out a suite of flowcharting, process mapping, and value stream mapping tools in the coming year.
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