RFFlow 5 Professional Flowcharting



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Tutorial

	Drawing diagrams with RFFlow is easy. To get acquainted with the program, download the free trial version and then try out the steps on this page. The RFFlow in-program Help also includes tutorials on drawing a flowchart and drawing an organization chart. Run RFFlow and click Help, RFFlow Help, Contents, and Tutorial: Drawing a Flowchart or Tutorial: Drawing an Organization Chart. You can also view and print your own RFFlow Quick Reference card or the entire RFFlow User's Guide.
Run RFFlow	Click the Start button, point to Programs or All Programs, and click RFFlow.
Draw a shape	Drag a shape from a stencil into your chart. In the dialog box that appears, type text into the new shape and then click OK.
Access more shapes	Click the More Shapes button to display the Stencils and Shapes dialog box. In this dialog box, click the name of a stencil in the list to view its contents. Follow the instructions in this dialog box to add entire stencils or individual shapes to your chart.
Draw a line	To draw one line, simply drag the line from a stencil into your chart. Then drag the middle of the line to move it or drag one of the handles to adjust its length. To draw several lines, click on a line in a stencil. In your chart, drag the mouse to draw the line. You can continue to draw lines until you click on another shape or click the button . To automatically connect shapes, click the Auto Connect button and then click on any two shapes in your chart. RFFlow will draw a line to connect them.
Draw a curve	Click on a curve in a stencil or drag the curve into your chart. Drag the center of a curve to move it or drag the handles to adjust the curvature.
Move	Simply drag a shape, line, or curve to move it to a new location. No selection is necessary. To move a shape and maintain its connection to other shapes, click the Keep Connected button . Then drag the shape to a new location and the connecting lines will stretch or shrink. To move several objects at once, first select them. Then drag any of the selected objects and they all will move.
Select	To select a group of objects, click down on an empty part of the drawing area and drag the mouse diagonally, drawing a selection rectangle around the objects. Or, hold down the SHIFT key or CTRL key while clicking on objects. To select all the objects in a chart, click Edit, Select All. Selection is used to move, duplicate, or delete several objects at once. It is also used to copy objects to the Windows Clipboard.
Duplicate	Right-click on an object or group of selected objects and click Duplicate in the pop-up menu. You can also duplicate objects by moving them with the CTRL key held down.
Delete	Right-click on an object or group of selected objects and click Delete in the pop-up menu.
Edit text	Right-click on a shape, line, or curve, and click Edit Text in the pop-up menu. Or, double-click on an object to edit its text. In the dialog box that appears, change the text as you would in a word processor, and then click OK.
Center the chart	To automatically center the chart on the page, click the Center button.
Scroll and zoom	To view a portion of your chart that is off the screen, drag with the right mouse button. You can also scroll the screen with the arrow keys or with the scroll bars. To change the zoom, click the Zoom Out or Zoom In buttons.
Change shape properties	To view or change the properties of an object or group of selected objects, right-click on the object and click Properties in the pop-up menu. In the Shape Properties dialog box that appears, click on the appropriate tab and make your changes.
Copy a chart to another Windows application	In RFFlow, select the chart and click Edit, Copy or . Switch to the destination application and click Edit, Paste or . The chart is now part of that document. To edit the embedded chart, double-click it.
Size a line or curve	Left-click on a line or curve to display the handles. Drag the handles to change the length or direction of a line or curve.
Size a shape	Left-click on a shape to display the handles. Drag the handles to change the size of a shape. Drag the rotation handle to rotate a shape.
Insert a picture from a file	Click Insert in the main menu of RFFlow and Picture From File.
Export a chart as a picture	Click File, Save As and choose gif, jpeg, html, emf, bmp, etc., in Save as type:.
Set up pages and page orientation	To show the boundaries of one or more pages, click View, Pages. To quickly switch between portrait and landscape, click the Orientation button .
Line up shapes	Select the shapes, click the Align button , and choose an alignment style. The shapes will be aligned to the top or leftmost shape.
Find and replace text	Click the Find button .
Create custom shapes	You can draw your own shapes by combining any of the shapes and lines in RFFlow. Select these objects, right-click on one of them, and choose Add To Stencil. Another way to draw custom shapes is to use RFShape, a program that comes with RFFlow. Click Tools, Run RFShape.
Get assistance	To access a complete in-program manual, click Help in the main menu and RFFlow Help. You can also print documentation from www.rff.com/documentation. To contact us for assistance with the full or trial version of RFFlow, go to Support.