3/13/2017 FlowchartSymbolsMeaning|StandardFlowchartsymbolimagesandusage

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FlowchartSymbolsMeaning|StandardFlowchartsymbolimagesandusage
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FlowchartSymbolsandtheirusage

Thisisanoverviewofalltheflowchartsymbolsthatyouwillusewhendrawingflowchartsandprocessflow.Alltheseobjectsare
availableinCreatelyandyoucantryoutademoortakealookatsomesampleflowcharts formorecontext.

Terminal/Terminator

Theterminatorisusedtoshowwhereyourflowbeginsorends.Ideally,youwouldusewordslike'Start','Begin','End'
insidetheterminatorobjecttomakethingsmoreobvious.

Process/Rectangle

FlowchartProcessobjectisusedtoillustrateaprocess,actionoranoperation.Thesearerepresentedbyrectanglesand
thetextintherectanglemostlyincludesaverb.Examplesinclude'Editvideo','TryAgain','ChooseyourPlan'.

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Data(I/O)

TheDataobject,oftenreferredtoastheI/OShapeshowstheInputstoandOutputsfromaprocess.Thistakestheshapeof
aparallelogram.

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3/13/2017 FlowchartSymbolsMeaning|StandardFlowchartsymbolimagesandusage

Decision/Conditional

DecisionobjectisrepresentedasaDiamond.Thisobjectisalwaysusedinaprocessflowtoasaquestion.And,the
answertothequestiondeterminesthearrowscomingoutoftheDiamond.Thisshapeisquiteuniquewithtwoarrows
comingoutofit.OnefromthebottompointcorrespondingtoYesorTrueandonefromeithertheright/leftpoint
correspondingtoNoorFalse.Thearrowsshouldbealwayslabelledtoavoidconfusionintheprocessflow.

Document

Documentobjectisarectanglewithawavelikebase.ThisshapeisusedtorepresentaDocumentorReportinaprocess
flow.

StoredData

Thisisageneraldatastorageobjectusedintheprocessflowasopposedtodatawhichcouldbealsostoredonahard
drive,magnetictape,memorycard,ofanyotherstoragedevice.

DirectData

DirectDataobjectinaprocessflowrepresentsinformationstoredwhichcanbeaccesseddirectly.Thisobjectrepresentsa
computer'sharddrive.

InternalStorage

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3/13/2017 FlowchartSymbolsMeaning|StandardFlowchartsymbolimagesandusage

Thisisanobjectwhichiscommonlyfoundinprogrammingflowchartstoillustratetheinformationstoredinmemory,as
opposedtoonafile.Thisshapeisoftenreferredtoasthemagneticcorememoryofearlycomputersortherandomaccess
memory(RAM)aswecallittoday.

SequentialAccess

Thisobjecttakestheshapeofareeloftape.Itrepresentsinformationstoredinasequence,suchasdataonamagnetic
tape.

ManualInput

Thisobjectisrepresentedbyrectanglewiththetopslopingupfromlefttoright.TheManualInputobjectsignifiesanaction
wheretheuserispromptedforinformationthatmustbemanuallyinputintoasystem.

Subroutine/PredefinedProcess

Thisshapetakestwonames'Subroutine'or'PredefinedProcess'.Itscalledasubroutineifyouusethisobjectin
flowchartingasoftwareprogram.Thisallowsyoutowriteonesubroutineandcallitasoftenasyoulikefromanywherein
thecode.

ThesameobjectisalsocalledaPredefinedProcess.Thismeanstheflowchartforthepredefinedprocesshastobe
alreadydrawn,andyoushouldreferencetheflowchartformoreinformation.

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3/13/2017 FlowchartSymbolsMeaning|StandardFlowchartsymbolimagesandusage
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