Introducing the new LucidChart user interface

By dave | Published: January 25, 2012

We are excited to welcome you to the new look of LucidChart!

As we have added more functionality over the last couple of years, our users have told us that the user interface has become more complex and some features are hard to find. With this new look, we hope to improve LucidChart by making it more organized and easy to use.

First, we have introduced a standard Menu bar at the top of the page, and have moved some less commonly used features from the properties bar above the diagramming area to the new Menu bar. In addition, some more detailed controls have been organized into new Dock panels found along the right side of the LucidChart editor.

We recommend that you take a quick tour of the new interface by watching the video below.

In addition, there are a few additional changes worth mentioning:

  1. Use the new Theme tab in the Graphics panel to set document defaults — shape color, line style, rounded corners, etc. — rather than the properties bar.

  2. Use the new Shape Options panel to change the number of swimlanes, ER fields, UI tabs, etc., rather than the old +/- buttons in the properties bar

With this new design, your feedback is more important than ever! If you have questions, please check out our tutorials or feel free to contact us directly. This is just the start of exciting things to come in 2012 — we hope you like the changes!

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Introducing ERD improvements for the New Year

By dave | Published: January 3, 2012

Happy New Year!

We are looking forward to an exciting 2012, and our goal for the year is to make LucidChart more powerful and an even better diagramming experience for you. We hope that you will send us an e-mail or leave a post in the forums to let us know how we can continue to improve our product.

ER diagram improvements

Based on your requests, we have recently made a number of key improvements for Entity Relationship Diagrams, including: (1) the ability to easily re-order and manage fields, and (2) connection points for each field.

Previously, you could add and remove fields with the +/- buttons on the properties bar or by using the right-click menu. In addition, we recently added a new menu item when you right-click an entity — ‘Manage Fields.’ Selecting this option will open a dialog where you can easily drag and drop to re-order fields, add or delete a field at any location, or rename the fields.

In addition, each field now has a connection point on the entity for incoming and outgoing relationships. When you add or re-order fields, for example, the line will stay attached to the designated field to maintain the proper relationship.

We hope these updates will make it easier and faster than ever to create ER diagrams!

Confluence 4.1 compatibility

The LucidChart plugin for Confluence is now compatible with Confluence 4.1. As a reminder, the plugin is a free add-on to our Team accounts — upgrade to a free Team trial today if you would like to use the plugin.

Get social with LucidChart

Did you know that LucidChart is on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter? In 2012, we plan to use these channels to provide sneak peeks at releases, share fun and interesting content and connect to our users. Take a moment to like LucidChart on Facebook, add LucidChart on Google+ or follow LucidChart on Twitter!

The next few months will include some big announcements from us at LucidChart. So stay tuned and let us know if you have any questions, feature suggestions or feedback!

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Introducing drop shadows, locking objects and find/replace

By dave | Published: December 6, 2011

Happy Holidays from all of us at LucidChart! In this newsletter, we want to introduce you to a few small gifts that we hope will improve your LucidChart experience — drop shadows, locking objects, and a find/replace tool.

Add drop shadows

With just one click, you can now add depth and a professional quality to diagrams by enabling drop shadows. Simply select a shape and toggle the drop shadow option in the properties bar.

When no objects on the page are selected, clicking on the same button in the properties bar will toggle drop shadows on/off as the default choice for all new shapes.

Lock objects

When diagramming or creating wireframes, you may find objects that you would like to lock in place, so they don’t accidentally move or change due to an inadvertent mouse click.. You can now lock an object in two ways: either (1) right-click on the shape and select “Lock”; or (2) use the lock icon in the properties bar.

Once the object is locked, no changes to the object (moving, resizing, styling, etc.) can be made. To unlock the object, select it and use the unlock icon in the properties bar.

Find and replace

Ever had a large diagram and can’t remember where you put something? With the new find tool, you can search to quickly locate the text that you are looking for.

When you select ‘Search’ from the drop-down menu on your document, or use the Ctrl-F hotkey, a window will appear at the bottom of your document. Enter the text you are looking for to find and/or replace it throughout the document. Press Esc to close the dialog when finished.

We hope you enjoy these new features – log in to try them now. As always, we look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions, feature suggestions or feedback. Happy Holidays and more to come in 2012!

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Introducing LucidChart for JIRA and Confluence 4

By dave | Published: November 9, 2011

Since the initial release of the LucidChart plugin for Confluence several months ago, hundreds of LucidChart teams have installed and used this plugin. As a result, we are excited to announce that we are extending our integration with Atlassian products. Say hello to an all-new JIRA plugin and an updated plugin for Confluence 4.

LucidChart for JIRA

For thousands of teams around the world, including many of our customers, Atlassian’s JIRA is an essential tool in building great software. Whether your team is using JIRA for tracking bugs or planning agile development, LucidChart’s plugin is a perfect fit.

Available for JIRA 4.3, 4.4 and the beta of 5.0, the LucidChart plugin for JIRA enables your team to create new diagrams, insert existing diagrams from your LucidChart account, or even import Microsoft Visio documents. Quickly add flowcharts, wireframes and other diagrams to bring a visual component to JIRA issues.

This plugin is available at no additional cost for LucidChart Team accounts. If your company uses JIRA, we’d encourage you to:

  1. Watch the JIRA plugin video
  2. Download the JIRA plugin
  3. Review the installation instructions

LucidChart for Confluence 4

We are also excited to announce an updated plugin for Confluence which takes advantage of many of the new features of Confluence 4. Like JIRA, this plugin is available at no additional cost for LucidChart Team accounts. If your company uses Confluence, we’d encourage you to:

  1. Watch the Confluence plugin video
  2. Download the Confluence plugin
  3. Review the installation instructions

If you are not yet on a Team account and would like to use either or both of these plugins, please consider upgrading now.

As always, we look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions, feature suggestions or feedback. Thanks again for using LucidChart!

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Introducing quick shape replacement and spell check

By dave | Published: October 18, 2011

Today we’re announcing a couple more frequently requested features. Though we are confident that these features will help most of our users, we want to know what features you want to see. So let us know in our forums – we’re listening.

And now, read on for details about today’s new features – quick shape replacement, easy step insertion and spell check!

Quick shape replacement

Ever created a flowchart and then wanted to quickly replace one shape with another? Now you can with 3 easy steps:

  1. Right-click on the shape
  2. Select “Change Shape”
  3. Select the new shape

When the shape changes, all of the text, connected lines and other properties will be preserved. This currently works for flowchart and BPMN shapes.

Easy step insertion

Ever forgotten a step in your chart? Before today, you had to disconnect the lines, drag the new shape on the canvas and reconnect the lines to insert it into your flow.

Now, when you drag a new shape from the toolbox onto the existing line, it will show you the potential connection points. When you release, it will automatically insert that shape into the flow (see below).

Spell check

When you are typing and misspell a word in LucidChart, it will now be underlined in red. If you right-click on the word, the dictionary will offer suggestions that you can choose from.

If you are editing a document in another language, you can choose from one of 60+ languages for the spell check by right-clicking on a word and selecting “Change Language.” You can also choose “No spell checking” to turn it off completely.

Finally, if you want to see all the spelling errors on your document, click the Spell Check icon in the properties bar (see right) to underline all misspelled words.

We hope you enjoy these new features. As always, we look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions, feature suggestions or feedback!

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Introducing local backups and smart swimlanes

By dave | Published: September 27, 2011

We appreciate the ongoing feedback we receive from new and long-time users. Thanks to all of the great suggestions we’ve received lately, we’re happy to roll out a number of highly-requested features — say hello to local backups, smart swimlanes, and a Venn diagram library!

Back up your documents on your computer

Securing and protecting the data in LucidChart is one of our top priorities. As a result, we have implemented a very robust backup process with hourly backups stored across multiple data centers. Nevertheless, we understand that many companies require on-site backups. To satisfy these requirements, all users on a Personal, Professional or Team account can now download a backup of your documents at any time.

To create a backup:

  1. Select Backup/Restore Documents from your Account page
  2. Click the “Save Backup” button which will start a download a file containg all your documents in your account saved in LucidChart’s native format

To restore from a backup:

  1. Return to the Backup/Restore Documents from your Account page
  2. Select the LucidChart file that was previously downloaded and click the “Restore” button
  3. Your documents will appear in your document list under a new folder with the name “restore-date”

If you are on a Free account and would like to use this functionality, please consider upgrading.

Swimlane improvements

We’ve now made swimlanes smarter than ever. With a swimlane selected, you can now use the properties bar to:

  1. Add or remove lanes with the +/- buttons (or drag one from the toolbox)
  2. Rotate all of the lanes from a horizontal to vertical orientation (and vice-versa)
  3. Rotate all of the swimlane titles

By using the right-click menu, you can also re-order swimlanes (move up/down, right/left). Whenever you move, rotate or re-order the swimlanes, all of the objects in the lanes will dynamically respond to keep your diagram looking sharp!

These changes are in place for new diagrams but will not affect existing diagrams. Click here to try out the new features.

Venn diagram library

While it’s always been possible to make Venn diagrams in LucidChart, we’ve made it easier than ever by introducing a new shape library. The library contains 16 shapes with pre-set colors and gradients so that you can quickly drag on the shapes and simply add text. Click here to try out the new shape library or use the “Manage Library” button in the toolbox to find it later.

We hope you enjoy these new features. As always, we look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions, feature suggestions or feedback. Thanks again for using LucidChart!

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Introducing iPad mockups, BPMN shapes, and improved text formatting

By dave | Published: September 7, 2011

First, we wanted to say thanks for being a LucidChart user. Many of you have written in to tell us that LucidChart has become a key tool for you at work, at school and for your own projects, and that you use it to keep organized, collaborate with co-workers, and communciate with clients. We are constantly working to make diagramming more powerful and easier to use, and we welcome your feedback and suggestions, so keep them coming!

Today we are excited to announce iPad mockups, BPMN shapes and improved text formatting. Read on for details!

Mock up your next iPad app with LucidChart

Since its release last year, iPhone mockups has been one of our most popular shape libraries. As a result, we’ve also received many requests to implement iPad mockups. It is now easier than ever to build a mockup and rapid prototype of your next iOS app with iPhone and iPad mockups on LucidChart. Try it now!

This shape library is available for Professional and Team customers. If you are on a lower account level and would like to use iPad shapes, please consider upgrading.

iPad mockup

Draw your business process with BPMN shapes

We are also introducing another shape library today – BPMN (Business Process Model Notation). This new set of 30+ shapes includes common events, gateways, tasks and connectors to help represent your next business process. Try it now!

This shape library is available for all users.

Organize your text with bullets, numbering and line spacing

text formatting

In the last few weeks, we released some frequently-requested text formatting options. When editing text, you’ll now notice a number of new features on the properties bar, including bullets, numbering and custom line spacing. We hope this makes it easier than ever to make your text look just right.

As always, we look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions, feature suggestions or feedback. Thanks again for using LucidChart!

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Introducing folder sharing, Visio export and LucidChart for Confluence

By dave | Published: August 16, 2011

We’ve recently released some exciting new features. Read on to learn more about enhanced sharing with folders, Microsoft Visio export and a Confluence plugin!

Sharing just got easier

In the last newsletter, we announced the ability to create folders for improved document management. Today, we’re taking this one step further with the ability to share documents and entire folders directly from your Documents list. While we’re confident this is an intuitive feature, here are some quick highlights:

Folder sharing

All Users

  • If you are the owner of a document or folder, you can invite/remove others using the +/- buttons under Sharing & Permissions
  • Sharing a folder will automatically share all documents contained within

Team Users

  • Share with your entire team by selecting the team name in the sharing dialog
  • Team members’ names are shown in the sharing dialog for quick selection
  • Team admins can organize users into subgroups for sharing by going to the “Team” tab (ideal for large teams)

Sharing prompt

Visio export (beta)

Several months ago, LucidChart became the first web-based application to import documents from Microsoft Visio. We are happy to continue this leadership with the announcement of the beta version of Visio export!

Visio export

To export a LucidChart document in Visio’s .vdx format:

  1. Open the LucidChart document
  2. Select the “Download as…” option from the menu
  3. Choose “Visio (.vdx)” and click Download
  4. Wait for the document to download

With this feature still in beta, we recognize that there are likely still some issues to work through. If you export a Visio file and see something that’s not quite right, please send us feedback.

Because this is a premium feature, it is only available to Professional and Team accounts. Please consider upgrading if you would like to try it and are currently on a different account level.

LucidChart for Confluence

Confluence is a leading enterprise collaboration and wiki software that is used by thousands of companies around the world. The LucidChart plugin for Confluence allows you to create new diagrams, insert existing diagrams from your LucidChart account, or even import Microsoft Visio documents.

This plugin is available at no additional cost for LucidChart Team accounts. If your company uses Confluence, we’d encourage you to:

  1. Watch the overview video
  2. Download the plugin
  3. Follow the installation instructions

As always, we look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions, feature suggestions or feedback. Thanks again for using LucidChart!

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Get organized with improved document management

By dave | Published: July 18, 2011

This week, we’ve released an exciting upgrade that we wanted to share! As more customers are now creating dozens or even hundreds of documents, we’ve received requests to improve document organization in LucidChart. With this in mind, we’ve rolled out an entirely new document management system.

Documents list

If you’ve logged in recently, you may have already noticed that there are three new panes to the Documents page. The left-hand pane displays the folder structure and trash. All documents which were ‘tagged’ in the old document system can now be found in folders of the same name.

Documents list

The middle pane shows documents and sub-folders of the selected folder. Files and folders can be seamlessly dragged between the left and middle panes for quick sorting. Also, simply double-click a document or folder in the middle pane to open it.

Documents list

The right-hand pane displays a preview window and buttons to open, delete, and convert a document to a template. Templates can be used to make new documents or be converted back into documents. Right-clicking a file or folder also opens a quick menu to delete or rename it.

We sincerely hope you enjoy the all-new documents folder organization. Stay tuned as we’ll soon be releasing additional improvements for group management and folder sharing.

As always, we look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions, feature suggestions or feedback. Thanks again for using LucidChart!

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iPad Touch Drawing, Advanced Gradients and Image Cropping

By dave | Published: June 28, 2011

Over the last month, we’ve released some exciting new features. Read on to learn about touch drawing on the iPad, advanced color gradients, and image cropping!

Diagramming just got more fun on the iPad

Over the past couple months, we’ve completely revamped the iPad experience — making it faster and easier to use. Just go to http://www.lucidchart.com in the browser and sign in normally.

Until now, you could only add shapes to the canvas with the familiar drag and drop process. We’ve now released the ability to touch draw basic shapes and connectors! For a quick tutorial of how to use LucidChart on the iPad, check out the demo video below and let us know what you think.

LucidChart on the iPad has recently received high praise from our users as well as reviewers. Here’s what some of them have to say:

The finger-painted shapes are transformed rapidly and with accuracy! Being able to do this on the iPad makes it a delight! – Mumtaz

It’s easily the most impressive web app we’ve ever used on the iPad! – WebAppStorm

Enhance your diagrams with more advanced gradients

Advanced gradients

Some of you have noticed a shiny new button in the Block field of the property bar. This new and frequently requested feature allows you to apply gradients to shapes. And not only have we provided quick, pre-defined gradients, but you can also access fully customizable gradients. Take 60 seconds to learn more about how to make your diagrams look even more impressive with our gradients tutorial!

Crop uploaded images

Cropping images

Have you ever uploaded a image, or found one through a Google Image search, but only wanted to use a portion of it? Well now you can! Cropping is now as easy as double clicking on any user image. You can also find more information in our cropping tutorial.

Get inspiration with more wireframing examples

The Community Library continues to grow with examples and templates. We recently added a number of examples that show off LucidChart’s UI mockup and rapid prototyping features. Take a look at these new wireframes of some of the most popular websites on the Internet, including Google, Youtube, Twitter, Paypal, Hulu, LinkedIn and more. Check out the short description on each example to read about the built-in functionality that you can experience in demo mode.

As always, we look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions, feature suggestions or feedback!

Posted in Product Release | 3 Comments
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