Connectors (lines and arrows) in Google Drawings

Question

When creating a flowchart in Visio I can choose how connectors will be rendered as:

• right-angle
• straight
• curved

But when drawing the same chart in Google Drawings there only seems to be straight type. I can't seem to find a way to draw lines at right angles?

Is that possible?

But even though there isn't any possibility to draw right-angled connectors by default there are two missing features that would make such task at least easier to accomplish:

1. ability to add manual alignment guidelines - using these one could put two to easily draw two straight lines that would connect perfectly at intersection
2. ability for lines to have connection points similar to shapes - using these one could position one line and then draw the other and connect it to the other line making both of them connected

How do you solve this problem?

Answer 1

There is no automatic way to create a right-angled line. The best way to do this would be to:

1. Create 2 intersecting lines. I think you mention this in your 1st bullet. One way to make sure that the lines are perpendicular to each other is to hold the Shift key down while dragging out the line. This will automatically "snap" it to a preset angle (0, 45, 90 degrees, etc). By making 2 lines perpendicular you could make the ends meet and create a right angle line.
2. Use the polyline tool. You can find this by clicking on the drop down arrow next to the line icon. This menu will allow you to create lines of different types. Examples are:
   • Arrow
   • Curve
   • Polyline

Some of these new lines (not all) will allow you to attach the ends to the connection point of another shape (like a text box) but you'll have to fiddle around with it to find what solution works best for you.

If you're looking to create formal flowcharts with Google Drive, there are now apps you can connect to your Drive account that will help you create flowcharts. Examples include Lucidchart and Draw.io. To connect these apps to your Drive account, go into your Drive and click Create > Connect more apps

Answer 2

Google has added this feature since this question was asked. It now supports elbow connectors:

https://support.google.com/docs/answer/1091024 https://support.google.com/docs/answer/1696521

Answer 3

In the "Add-ons" menu within Google Docs there is now an option to open a Lucidchart account. This gives you the ability to embed editable flow charts into your Google document.

Lucidchart has a free mode which seems sufficient for most flowcharting purposes.