OStatic

By Ravi Krishnamurthy on May. 07, 2008

Try dia - http://ostatic.com/82766-software-opensource/dia

I haven't used it myself but have good things about it.

By an anonymous user on May. 08, 2008

Dia is horrible...sorry - I tried, then sprung the $$ for Visio

By OSAf W on May. 09, 2008

Try OpenOffice Draw. Its a vector graphics editor but it allows you to -" DRAW - from a quick sketch to a complex plan, DRAW gives you the tools to communicate with graphics and diagrams."

Dia is good too though might not be the best out there, but its GPL (open source) and should do ok.

A web based flowchart would be useful if you are interested in collaborating on the document. Havent seen or heard much about it, but if you could install PmWiki (or any other wiki like Twiki etc.) with the draw plugin you could carry out your actions on the browser. But the draw plugin here is not as advanced as Visio.

http://pmwiki.com/wiki/Cookbook/PmWikiDraw

OpenOffice Draw: http://www.openoffice.org/product/draw.html

Dia: http://live.gnome.org/Dia

By an anonymous user on Aug. 06, 2008

http://ostatic.com/165017-blog/dia-a-strong-open-source-answer-to-micros... - Dia is definitely the way to go!

By an anonymous user on Aug. 17, 2008

If you use a Mac - pony up the $99 and get OmniGraffle - the best $100 you've ever spent!

By an anonymous user on Aug. 19, 2008

I use Smartdraw. You can get it for $50 with HP printer cartridges. preloaded with zillions of graphic templates and all chart types.

Very easy to use and...we all know it's easier to edit a chart than create one.

By an anonymous user on Sep. 08, 2008

Also check out Gliffy.com -- an online flash-based tool. Weaker in drawing features than Visio (by quite a bit) but far stronger at collaboration since it's online.