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SmartDraw

I've been asked by various people what I use to create the diagrams and illustrations in my blog here. I am using SmartDraw. It makes it easy for people like me (who know what they want to show but lack graphical talent) to create stunning resonably good looking business graphics. Have a look at some samples, their tutorials or follow their blog. My only grieviance is, that they don't have a Mac or native Linux version (and it doesn't work with Wine either). The other graphical tools I use regularily are Shutter for screenshots and Buzan's iMindMap for mindmaps. While SmartDraw does mindmaps too, iMindMap draws that wonderful organic connectors - and runs on Mac/Linux too. Occasionaly I also use Dia, Inkscape or Gimp.

Posted by Stephan H Wissel on 05 May 2009 | Comments (6) | categories: Software

Comments

posted by Colin Williams on Tuesday 05 May 2009 AD:
Your diagrams are certainly stunning! Thanks for sharing.
posted by sean cull on Tuesday 05 May 2009 AD:
one years subscription = $197

perpetual licence of this version = $397

strap line under the one year subscription says "save $200" - I wonder if it will feel like that in 12 months time ?
posted by Stephan H. Wissel on Tuesday 05 May 2009 AD:
@Sean: That's the same logic as "Buy two save x Dollars" .
It makes sense for a corporate buyer who can expense anything below 200$ as running cost, while a software purchase needs to be added to the asset ledger.
stw
posted by bear on Friday 22 February 2013 AD:
If only there was a smartdraw for mac. The alternative that I've found is LucidChart It is web based and is packed full of features. I highly recommend giving it a try.
posted by Stephan H. Wissel on Monday 25 February 2013 AD:
@Bear: The closest equivalent to SmartDraw on the Mac is OmniGraffle - { Link }

Online charting doesn't work for my use case since I produce a lot of these graphics while out of the reach of any network (think airplanes or prohibitive expensive roaming). Always on is still a fiction.
posted by Shalin on Thursday 19 January 2017 AD:
Another visio alternative for mac that I've found is [url={ Link } online diagramming and collaboration software to draw many diagram types including flowcharts, org charts, infographics, mind maps, UML and many more. There are 1000s of templates to be used freely.