Improved standardisation for process maps/flowcharts

Hi,

We create highly complex flow charts to describe processes, and standardisation makes a significant difference in the readability of these charts.

This means we have defined the distance between process steps, the standard size of each shape (that does not change with the addition of text), which points on the shape the lines are permitted to connect (they should always come in at the left of the process step and leave on the right), and where the process steps should appear after a decision point (one to the right, and the other below and vertically aligned with it). We also number the process steps so that each step has a unique number (where there is a branch, the numbering follows the lowest branch first before continuing along the next lowest),.

Either (or both) of the following two sets of options would be very useful in streamlining this process:
1. The following features in the user interface, allowing shapes to be created and saved into a shape library with the following customisable default behaviours:

•  The ability to easily set custom vertical and horizontal spacings in assisted layout frames (even better would be if this could also accept formulae).
• A set of default process step numbering rules that can be chosen from a list (even better if we could set our own rules as well).
• A checkbox that indicates whether or not to automatically resize a process step when text is added
• An option to set the default distance from one shape to the next
• An option to enable or disable the default connecting points on a shape (with some kind of visual indicator when it is in the shape library to indicate that this has been done)

2. The following functionality in formulae:

• A ‘LET’ function, like in Excel, that allows variable names to be set within a formula and then re-used in order to avoid duplication of calculations.
• A ‘position’ / ‘relative position’ property for shapes that allows formulae to complete calculations based on the relative positions of shapes. This could allow conditional formatting to follow the branches as described above for the numbering.
• A customisable version of the assisted layout that allows the user to use something similar to the conditional formatting formulae to precisely define where each shape would land. For example in our standards we like a short branch that is has only one process step in it to appear indented a little to the left compared to the process step above, whereas for a longer branch we would want it to line up.
• Possibly the ability to set the shape sizes of particular shapes with an assisted layout formulaically, although in my use case this would only be used to ensure all process steps are the correct size.

Thank you