Straight lines are not always enough. When two connectors would overlap, or a line needs to route around a shape, you can bend an arrow by hand: drag the line itself, or drag the handle a curved or angled arrow shows once it is selected.
Bending by dragging the line
Press anywhere on an arrow's line and drag. It works on an arrow that isn't selected yet too: the press selects it and the same drag bends it. The arrow bends where you grabbed it:
- A straight arrow becomes a smooth curve that passes through your pointer.
- A curved arrow gains a bend point where you grabbed it (a single bow first becomes a bend point at its peak), so each drag of the line adds another. To reshape a single bow without adding a point, drag its curve handle instead.
- An angled arrow slides the segment you grabbed sideways, adding a short jog where needed so its ends stay put.
A click without dragging only selects the arrow, and a quick double-click always opens its label, however fast you click. Each bend is one undo step.
To remove a bend point, right-click it. Removing the last one turns the arrow straight again.
An arrow attached to nothing at either end shows a selection frame like a shape's when selected. Drag the frame's edge to move the whole arrow (dragging its line bends it), or a corner or side handle to scale it; hold Shift on a corner to keep its proportions. Arrow keys nudge it too.
Choosing a bendable style
The handle appears once you give the arrow a curved or angled geometry. Right-click the arrow and, under the Line category, set the Line style:
- Curved draws a gentle bezier that bows away from the straight chord between the endpoints.
- Angled draws an axis-aligned L-shaped elbow, with horizontal and vertical segments meeting at a bend.
Dragging the handle
Select the arrow so its handle appears: on the elbow for an angled arrow, just off the bow for a curved one.
For a curved arrow, drag the handle to control how far and which way the line bows.
Releasing the drag commits the new shape, and like other drag edits it collapses into a single undo step, so one tap of undo returns the line to where it was before you started.
A dragged handle or bend snaps into line with nearby shapes' edges and centres and with other arrows' bends, so a set of angled arrows can turn on the same line. (Holding Cmd or Ctrl turns this off when you slide an angled segment by its line; handle drags always snap.)
Keeping connections intact
Reshaping an arrow does not break its endpoints. If an end is pinned to a shape, or attached along another arrow, it stays connected while you bend the line, and an attached endpoint keeps riding at the same point along its target. This means you can route a connector cleanly without losing the relationships it represents.
If a curve or elbow ends up in the wrong place after the endpoints move, just drag the handle again: the path is always re-shapeable while the arrow is selected.
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