Connections hold together what belongs together. Connections show sequences, or draw your attention to essential steps in a given process. But even more importantly, they can also save you time. For example:

“You meet the person of your dreams. You gather all your courage and want to talk to them. At the last moment, you check their hands. Left hand, ring finger… there is already a 1:1 relationship – damn it!”

So, a ring in a specific location can instantly tell a complete story in the background. What ends unhappily for the protagonist in our little example has immense value in the business world. Relationships here are not just 1:1; they are multilayered. For this reason, norms have been created to reflect this multilayeredness and enable associative entities.

In this blogpost, we deal with formatting using different connection endpoints in draw.io. If you are interested in the topic of connectors in general, we recommend our YouTube Connectors Playlist, which contains many helpful tips and tricks.

The default connection in draw.io is the classic arrow; there is no symbol indicating the line start, and an arrowhead to designate the line end. However, you can change this via the Format panel and the Style tab to create your own individual, expressive connectors with just two mouse clicks. Remember to save the connection in your scratchpad or even create a custom library, so that you and your colleagues can benefit from your preliminary work.

You can change further settings via the same menu. For example, depending on the diagram, it can be very useful to increase the size of the line start and end, to emphasize these.

But of course, that’s not all. There are specific connectors that are used according to international standards. So why build your own connectors, when draw.io already has them at hand? Many libraries in draw.io already offer predefined connectors. You can find examples in our General library, which can save you a lot of time. Equally, you can use our Shape Search to find specific associations.

When creating diagrams adhering to standards such as BPMN 2.0, you will find all the elements you need in the corresponding library. To locate these, head to +More Shapes in the diagram editor, or the + icon in the board editor, each located at the bottom of the left sidebar.

Locating the BPMN 2.0 shape library in the draw.io diagram editor

Locating the BPMN 2.0 shape library in the draw.io board editor

Want to dive deeper into the world of draw.io? Access our linktr.ee page to follow us on social media and learn how others use draw.io, as well as pick up some helpful tips and tricks.

What you are going to learn in this tutorial

• Create a diagram structure from scratch
• Use the draw.io shape search
• Efficient formatting of shapes

Introduction

Now that you’ve learned how to insert and modify shapes, add text and use connectors, it’s time to put it all together. In this exercise you’ll learn some more advanced formatting options by using the shape search on the left and the format panel on the right hand side.

Tutorial

Add shapes, text and connectors for shapes

Create the tree diagram example from above in a new, blank draw.io diagram. Use the Rounded Rectangle shape from the General library, then search for the term Display, using the shape search in the upper section of the library panel.

Diagram editor tip: You can see additional shapes by clicking on + More shapes at the bottom of the symbol library.

Board editor: Clicking on the plus symbol in a box (shown by the orange circle) displays a submenu, and selecting Shapes opens up the shape panel and search box.

Duplicate the Display shape four times and position them roughly one below the other. Now use the Align and Distribute functions from the Format Panel to first center the shapes vertically and then align them at the same distance. Then select all four shapes, duplicate the set, choose Distribute > Horizontal to mirror the set and position it on the opposite side. Add the text and connectors.

Board editor: Clicking on the plus symbol in a box brings up the submenu; choose Layout > Horizontal Flow.

Add text and connectors

Click on a shape and start typing to enter text. Text size, font, and color can be adjusted in the Text tab of the format panel, in addition to the position of the text.
Double-click on a text to access the enhanced text options (they will overlay the format panel). This way, you can add numbering or bullet points to your text or set multiple links in your text, if needed.

Click and drag a connector from a connection point to another object’s connection point – it must be in a green circle to properly link the two shapes. Your connector won’t move from these connection points once you have created it – which is very useful for this tutorial example.

Format shapes, text and connectors

First we are going to change the shape styles. Perform the following changes, using the Style tab of the Format panel.

• Set Gradient for the shapes Tree Species, Conifers, Deciduous Trees
• Set a single color for all other shapes
• Choose a dashed line for the lower six shapes
• Set Linewidth to 2pt

Now adjust the text of the diagram. The lower shapes already have the default font size of 12 pt, so you only have to set the font size of the heading to 24pt. Also make the text bold.

Adjust the style of a connector by selecting it, then using the Style tab in the Format panel.

• Set Rounded lines
• Change the colors
• Change Linewidth (2/3pt)
• Edit the The Line start and Line end of the arrows

Additional resources

• Customise shape libraries und templates in Confluence Cloud
• The draw.io Format panel

Tutorial exercise 6: Working with the shape libraries to create a flowchart

What you are going to learn in this tutorial

• Drag connectors to connect shapes
• Create a new shape and a connection at the same time
• Split a connection to add a new shape
• Insert text into shapes, on the drawing canvas and on connectors

Introduction

Now that you are comfortable modifying an existing diagram by editing shapes, it’s time to build one from scratch. You’ll need to add shapes from the symbol library, draw connections between the shapes, and add text to both the shapes and the connectors.

For the upcoming tutorial, you will rebuild the diagram you see at the right (doesn’t need to be too precise).

This tutorial will cover the Diagram editor and the Board editor; both have similar features and functionality. Only the user interface between the two may differ at times.

Tutorial

Entering text

Add a rounded rectangle shape to your diagram. After you insert the shape, you can directly start typing to add text to it. Later, you can click or double-click on a shape and start typing to enter the text inside the shape. To change the position or format of the text inside the shape, use the Text tab of the format panel on the right. By adjusting the spacing at the bottom of the Text tab, you can set the location of the text precisely.

You can also place text freely on the drawing area. Double click on an empty area of your diagram and choose the text option from the shape picker.

Shown left is the Diagram editor shape picker, and pictured right is the Board editor shape picker.

Text size, font and color can be altered in the Text tab of the format panel. Double-click on the text to get enhanced text options in the Format panel.

Tip: Text inside a shape wraps automatically. You can break text over multiple lines manually in free text areas or on connectors by pressing Enter.

Add and connect new shapes

Click on a blue arrow of your selected or unselected (when you hover over the shape with your mouse) rectangular shape, so the draw.io shape picker opens. Choose the shape in the upper left corner to duplicate the original shape 1:1 (or use one of the most used shapes from the general shape library). The shape and its content is duplicated and connected with a connector in the direction of the arrow on which you clicked.

Now add another shape at the bottom of the rectangle, but this time we add the Double Circle shape from the Misc library. Drag and drop the shape on the bottom blue arrow of the rectangle to add and connect it at the same time.

Tip: By default, a connector is equipped with an arrow.

You can also draw connectors from an unselected shape. Hover over the Double Circle shape you just added to see small blue connection crosses. Click and drag a connector to another object’s connection point – it must be in a green circle to properly link the two shapes. Your connector won’t move from these connection points once you have created it.

You can link a connector to an edge (not a single connection point), by dragging the connector over the target shape until the outline is blue. Your connector may move around on this edge when the shape is moved on the drawing area.

You can draw connectors from the large blue arrows in the same ways.

Split connectors

To insert a shape between two connected shapes, just drag and drop the object of your choice on the connector and release the mouse once you see a purple outline around it.

Add text to connectors

Double-click on the connector where you like to add the text to and start typing. Use the yellow diamond shape to reposition the text if needed. Click on the text once or twice to overwrite the entire text, or click another time to edit only parts of the text. You can modify the text with the same panels that you used to edit and format your text in shapes.

Additional resources

• Youtube playlist on all connector features
• Youtube video on the difference between fixed and floating connectors

Tutorial exercise 5: Create a Tree Diagram

draw.io’s trail of breadcrumbs

Simply put, waypoints help you map a path from one shape to the next. What they do is allow your connectors to build a better relationship between their shapes.  For little dots on a line, they’re pretty important-sounding.  Then let’s jump right in and take a look at how to add waypoints to your diagram.

Adding waypoints to your connectors in draw.io

At some point, you may find yourself needing your connectors to take a different path.  But if you take the connector and drag it, it will start intersecting with the other shapes and connectors in a way that you didn’t intend.  To fix this, you need to give the connector another waypoint, so it knows it needs to “turn the corner” so to speak.

1. right-click on one of your connectors at the location you want to add the waypoint
2. select Add Waypoint 
3. move your connector to its new location

Clear the waypoints

Oops!  Didn’t mean to add all those waypoints?  No problem, clear ’em out.

1. right-click on the connector where you just added the waypoint
2. select Clear Waypoints
3. now you can drag your connector back to where it was

Remove a single waypoint

What if you don’t want to clear all the waypoints and just a single one? That’s easy too!

1. right-click on the waypoint you want to remove
2. select Remove Waypoint

Reverse waypoints

So, you’ve added a waypoint, cleared them, and then deleted a single one – what if you want to change your relationship between your two shapes?

1. right-click and select Reverse (yes, in one step!)

You will see that the arrow that used to lead to your second shape is now pointing to your first shape.  Easy!

Learn more about connectors and waypoints

There are many more things that you can do with your shapes, connectors, and waypoints in draw.io.  Why don’t you start with an Interactive Tutorial?  You’ll find a link to download the.XML file.  Once you’ve downloaded it, learn how to import it and use the guide within your new draw.io diagram.  We also have a whole blog post dedicated to Floating & Fixed Connections – it can help you figure out how to create the right connectors for your needs.

We hope this gave you a little more insight into waypoints.  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.  No questions, but just want to say hi?  We love hearing from you, so why not drop by one of our social media accounts?  Until next time, happy diagramming.