Drawing boxes and arrows

Owned by Erich Must Wessel
Last updated: Sept 21, 2023
7 min read

Select a box/graphic element

  1. Click on the Toolbox icon

  2. Click on the graphic element you want to retrieve for the drawing

  3. It appears in the top left corner and is ready to be edited and moved

  4. If it does not appear on the drawing, click F5 and enter the drawing program again and you will find it (it sometimes lags a bit - especially if the page you are on has been untouched for a long time)

Distinctive graphic elements

Arrows

  1. Select arrow: Move the mouse over the arrow and wait until it pops out - then you can perform the various operations on it.

  2. If you bring in an arrow, you get a number of your own choices when you right-click on the arrow.

  3. You can also move the mouse over one of the points and move the point to the desired position.

  4. Arrows can be attached to boxes by dragging the end or start of the arrow into an element. Unpin it in the arrow's menu or by dragging the arrow away from the element it's attached to. If you don't want to pin the arrow to the element, you can hold Shift while fine-tuning the position of the arrow. You can see that the arrow is fixed by the start and end turning yellow when the arrow is marked. Solid yellow means it is attached, yellow with red color inside means the other side is attached.

NOTE: If you use a box or element instead of swimlanes as the background of a drawing/process, you may have problems placing the arrows as they will stick to the end of the "background box". The arrow won't stick in a swimlane, so consider using swimlanes instead.

Swimlanes

If you choose a swimming lane as a graphic element, the text will be displayed all the way to the left, rotated 90 degrees to the left and then displayed vertically upwards.

Pictures

  1. If you choose a picture/image as a graphic element, you get a number of additional options

  2. Right click > Edit and select tab “Background Image”

  3. If you have the image stored somewhere in a folder, click "Attachment" and retrieve it, do you have an image in an image library in a SharePoint list or need to upload it there first click "Select background image"

  4. When the image is in place in the drawing, you can adjust the size to suit and place it above or below other elements

Move boxes and arrows

  • When you left-click on a box/arrow and hold it down, you can move it. By default, it is then moved 5 and 5 pixels, which makes it easy to adjust and get the elements correctly positioned.

  • If you need to "micro-move" an element, i.e. make a "micro-adjustment", hold down the SHIFT key before clicking the left mouse button. The element will then be moved one pixel at a time

Edit a box

  1. Right click on a box > select “Edit”.

  2. Here, all visual and functional qualities of the box are set.

    1. If you want more Element styles and/or Text styles, it is possible to enter this in the Settings panel using CSS

    2. Rounded corners, only applies to squares. The higher the number, the closer you get to the circle - 35 removes all straight lines in the square

    3. Text rotation uses degree numbers. -90 means 90 degrees to the left, 90 means 90 degrees to the right, 180 degrees means that the text is displayed upside down

    4. Text placement: Here you can choose where in the box the text should be placed - even whether it should be above or below the box

    5. Primary process association: If you select a process under "Connect", this will show whether this box is the primary process association. This has two consequences: The box gets a small dot and when searching, this box/process is displayed and not those with the same process that do not have this tag

    6. Connect - use one of five functions a box may have

      1. Version 23.3 and later

        1. Choose one of the five alternatives for functions a box may have. When one is chosen you fill out according to section (iii) below.

      2. Version 23.2 and earlier

        1. Only one of these should be selected. If you still select several, the top function will be performed by clicking on the box

      3. Different functions to connect

        1. No action: the box text and possible moseover text will be displayed

        2. Go to page: if you have many pages, do a search and click "Filter" first - much easier to find the relevant page

        3. Go to link: remember to include the entire web address including https://….etc

        4. Show Process: here the process tree is displayed and you can tag a process. If you want to remove tagging of a process, click in the process field and select the cross at the top right:

        5. Show Activity (new from 23.3): search for an existing activity by clicking “Select activity”

Edit an arrow

  1. Here you have fewer options, just mouseover and tile style.

  2. If other types of arrows are needed, let us know in a support case and this can be made.

Copy an box/arrow

  1. Right click on the box, select “Duplicate”.

  2. This creates an exact copy of the box including functions.

Delete an box/arrow

  1. Right-click the item

  2. Select "Delete" - at the very bottom

Select / check all boxes of a certain type

  1. Right-click on the relevant box and select "Select all elements of this type".

  2. These can then be moved or copied and pasted elsewhere.

Save as template

If you have drawn a box that you want to be able to be used as a template (to be available when you click on the Toolbox):

  1. Right click on the box and select "Save as template".

  2. Fill in Title and Sort order. Both parts can be changed in the Tool box later if you choose incorrectly.

Copy shape and style

  1. Right-click on a box with a shape and/or style you want to transfer to one or more other boxes.

  2. Select “Copy shape and style”.

  3. Choose if you want to copy Shape (Shape and size) and/or Style (color and text style).

  4. Right-click on a box you want to transfer the formatting to and select "Use shape and style".

  5. Repeat point 4 on all boxes that should have the same formatting.

Move forward/backwards

  1. c “Move Forward”/“Move Backwards”.

  2. Remember that sometimes you have to repeat several times because there are several layers

Select mutiple elements > Copy/Paste, Move or Delete

  • Select multiple elements - Click the “select multiple elements” and mark your area. You can also mark boxes of a certain type (see above).

  • Copy/paste - Click select multiple elements to view the copy/paste options. Mark an area, then click the copy icon, and then the paste icon.

  • Move - Click on the marked area with the left mouse button and hold down. Drag the group of boxes where you want them and release the button Wait for the change to be saved.

  • Delete - Click select multiple elements to view the delete option. Mark an area, then click the delete icon.

Change shape and rotate a box

  1. Left-click once on the box, and you will see circles

  2. Blue circle: click and move to change its shape

  3. Green circle: rotate the element

  4. If you click on times, you see all the points you can drag to change the shape of the box

  5. Left click and drag and drop to change the shape

Keep angle on arrow pointed

  1. When you make an arrow-shaped box longer, the arrowhead will change accordingly and may then become too pointed

  2. To keep the angle of the arrow part:

    1. Click twice on the box

    2. Hold down the CTRL key and mark the points that make the angle

    3. Release the CTRL key, click on one of the marked points and drag the arrow in the desired direction. The original angle is retained, even if the arrow becomes longer