An Excellent Alternative to Microsoft Visio to Create Sketches and Charts

Charts and diagrams created on computers have almost completely substituted the ones made by hand. Especially in Powerpoint presentations, we try to incorporate various diagrams such as flowcharts, pie charts, and/or schematics.

Only a few programs exist which enable the user to make such diagrams while offering speed and convenience. Probably all of these programs carry a price tag for instance, Microsoft Visio. When will the time come for a freeware to come by which offers all the tools that could ever be needed to form diagrams?

That time is now – say hello to Dia.

For all the features that Dia packs, the setup file to be downloaded is considerably small: ~17 MB.

Before installation, system compatibility should be checked. Apart from some minor hardware requirements, Dia currently requires either Windows or Linux. There are different downloads for each operating system, so take care which one you download.

After installation, the main window can be opened up which looks like this:

Since the popular use of such programs is creating flowcharts, the default option has been set so (visible at the left part of the screenshot above).

The shapes of flowchart boxes are conveniently located below; either shape can be selected and then drawn on the graph on the right. As an example, I made a very basic flowchart using three different box shapes and using straight lines to join them; the effort hardly took me three minutes and the result was exactly what I wanted:

Even though I was a first time user, I was easily able to figure out the right buttons to click; the user-friendliness of this open-sourced freeware is truly remarkable.

Having a keen interest in electronics, I successfully represented a simple circuit by drawing it on Dia’s graph. Here is how the result looked like:

Images and icons can also be thrown in with our diagrams, simply by dragging them onto the graph. Their position can then be adjusted accordingly, to enhance the effectiveness of our diagram.

Of course, apart from flowcharts and circuit sketches, the number of diagram formats Dia offers is quite impressive. Here is a screenshot of the other options available in the drop down menu of flowcharts:

This list includes almost all possible types of structures. Dia is your free one-stop-shop for diagrams of all kinds. It should definitely be a tool in any presentation-maker’s arsenal.