Arrows are how a diagram turns a pile of shapes into a flow, a hierarchy, or a relationship. Add one with the Arrow tool in the palette's Draw category (or press A), then connect, style, and reshape it however the diagram needs. livediagram gives arrows real flexibility: every line style, draggable curve and elbow handles, and endpoints that snap onto shapes or even onto other arrows.
Drawing and connecting
An arrow links two points on the canvas. An arrow's endpoint can sit freely, pin to one of a shape's connection points (so it tracks the shape as it moves), or attach along another arrow. On a selected arrow, a pinned end's handle is filled and a free end's is hollow.
There are two ways to draw one:
- Quick-connect: select a shape, click one of the + buttons on its sides, and press-drag the ring's Arrow option onto the target shape. On a touch screen, tap Arrow and then tap the target.
- From the palette: add an Arrow (or press
A) and drag its ends onto the shapes you want to join. The palette's Arrow has a pointer at its end; its Line has none.
Drag an end near a shape and the shape's connection points light up; let go near one and the end pins there. Hold Cmd or Ctrl while dragging a free end to turn off alignment snapping and its guide lines; connection points still catch the end when you let go near one.
Two Shift tricks make fanning out fast:
- Shift-chain: hold Shift while a quick-connect arrow's endpoint lands and a fresh arrow immediately starts from the same spot on the source, so a hub can point at several targets in one flow. A plain click places the last one.
- Shift-fork: hold Shift and drag a selected arrow's head to peel a branch off its line, one trunk that splits toward a second target instead of a parallel near-duplicate arrow. The branch takes the trunk's colour, weight and pattern.
When a new arrow's straight line would cut through another shape, it lands with a gentle bow around it instead; see Arrows That Curve Around Things. As you move shapes later, Auto-Attach Arrows keeps an arrow from running through the shapes it connects.
Styling the line
From the arrow's right-click menu you can set its line style, thickness, dash pattern, colour and arrowheads, and choose whether it passes behind boxes it crosses (on by default). Double-click an arrow to give it a label. When several arrows connect to the same point on a box, they spread out a little so their ends don't pile up; turn on Start at Exact Anchor for an arrow to keep its start exactly where you connected it. The controls are independent, so you can mix any line with any head. See Arrow styles for the full set.
Shaping the path
Drag an arrow's line to bend it where you grabbed it, or use the handle on a curved or angled arrow to bow a curve or position an elbow exactly, without breaking the arrow's connections. An arrow attached to nothing at either end shows a selection frame instead: drag its edge to move the whole arrow, or a handle to scale it.
Arrow Styles
Line style, thickness, pattern, colour and arrowheads, all set independently.
Curve and Elbow Handles
Drag the line, or the handle on a curved or angled arrow, to shape its path by hand.
Connecting Arrows to Arrows
Snap an arrow endpoint to a point along another arrow, the sequence-diagram pattern, and it rides along as the line moves.
Arrows That Curve Around Things
Why a new arrow sometimes lands with a bow, and how to straighten it.
Need a connector to bend around other elements? Switch its line style to Angled for a clean axis-aligned elbow, then drag the handle to position the bend.
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