Category Archives for : Creately

Creately’s job is to enable all types of collaboration between teams, be it synchronous or asynchronous. 

Our collaborative online workspace is specially designed to help teams ideate and plan in spite of where they are or in which timezone, using whatever format they want – diagramming, whiteboarding, writing, visualizing, video conferencing, etc. 

Over the past few months, we’ve been analyzing user requests, digging deeper into their needs, and trying to understand where we can make improvements to enhance collaboration even more.  

What have we come up with? An upgraded set of commenting features to let you communicate with collaborators, share your ideas, make decisions, and move forward with everyone on the same page, right inside the app. 

What Can You Do with It?  

You can use Creately comments to start a conversation anywhere on the canvas and easily share change requests and feedback with collaborators. This allows you to keep all conversations in one place, making it painless to trace important requests and comments whenever you want.

Simply press C and click anywhere on the canvas to add a comment or start a discussion thread. Anyone with edit or view access to your Creately documents can use the Comments feature to share their feedback on the canvas.

Use Comments as To-Dos 

Add comments as to-dos to easily draw the collaborators’ attention to the next set of changes to work on. Changes are done? Resolve the comment to mark it as completed and move on to the next.  

You can also use comments to annotate designs, blueprints, mockups, screenshots, etc. you are working on the Creately canvas by adding comments, enabling collaborators to process information faster.  

Discuss Things in Context 

Attach comments to specific shapes or areas of the canvas to discuss things in context. Continue the discussion in threads letting all collaborators join in and share opinions and ideas synchronously or asynchronously. With resolved threads, they can follow back on discussions to find quick answers and make sense of new changes made, in context.   

Or you can use it as an internal chat (an in-app chat widget is coming soon to Creately!) when you want it. While on a call, press C on anywhere on the canvas and maintain a discussion thread to communicate or make quick notes of changes discussed with other collaborators. 

Edit and Hide Comments 

By default comments are always visible, which makes it easier to draw everyone’s attention when you want. However, if you find it distracting, you can quickly declutter the canvas by toggling the comments. Want to make a quick change to something you have said? You can also edit and update what you have commented on the canvas.   

Get Instant Notifications 

Get real-time notifications when a collaborator adds a new comment or leave a reply to a thread on the canvas with popup notifications.  You will also receive email notifications on all conversations on your Creately documents, so even if you are not working on the canvas you can still get updates. 

How to Get Started?

Log into Creately and try the new commenting features with your co-workers. A detailed explanation of how to use the comments on the Creately canvas can be found in our support article here. 

Timeline diagrams are often used to make complex information easier to understand. They can be effectively used to display the sequence of events over a period of time, in chronological order.  

Timeline diagrams can help 

• visualize any type of development, the progress of a trend, the outline of historical events, phases of a project, business milestones, etc. 
• simplify complex information and make it easy to understand and track 
• highlight significant moments or milestones in time 

Whether you are creating a project proposal or a presentation for your school project, Creately has an entirely new library of timeline templates you can use for multiple scenarios. 

Save Time with Pre-Made Timeline Templates

Our new timeline library includes professionally-designed, multiple creative timeline templates you can edit and use right away.

Whether to visualize the overview of your project or outline your history lessons, use these templates to effortlessly create timelines that look presentation-ready by default.

How to Draw a Timeline Diagram Correctly

You might think drawing a timeline is fairly easy. But there’s a fair bit of work that goes into creating an effective timeline and that’s in addition to the effort you take to make it look presentable. 

We’ve broken down the steps to make it easier for you. Let’s dig in. 

Step 1: Gather the information you need.

Whether it’s a project timeline, an agenda or an outline of a historical event for your school assignment, you need to first have an idea about the details you will represent with your timeline. 

Now, usually, the timeline depicts dates, time, location, etc. You can add additional details (i.e. a description of the event) depending on your purpose.

As such, gather enough data on the event you are covering with your timeline before starting it. Talk to your colleagues, teachers, or browse the internet, etc. 

Step 2: Create an outline of the timeline

Start by creating a rough outline to help guide yourself through the process. This step will help you filter and list the key details form the research content from the previous step.  

There are a few essential components your timeline should depict; dates, event name, event description and an image(optional). 

• Identify the key events with important dates/ time, locations, people’s names, etc. 
• Pick a start and end date and list the events in between, in chronological order

Step 3: Pick a layout for your timeline

Here, you can start right away with one of the Creately templates, or draw one from scratch.

There are 3 basic types of timeline layouts you can choose from; vertical, horizontal and snake. 

The layout you select should differ based on a number of points, the length of the description and the addition of images. 

Vertical layout: Use this type when you have too many points to highlight. Since it’s always easier to scroll down than to the side, you can extend the vertical timeline with each addition of points. Plus it leaves plenty of room to add graphics as well. Your vertical timeline can be left-aligned (better with longer descriptions)  and centered (works great for adding graphics). 

Horizontal layout: You can use this layout when you have fewer points on your timeline. And it’s the most suitable type of layout for presentation slides. 

Snake layout: This type works great with many points and little text. If you prefer to keep your timeline fit on a single page, you can use the snake layout instead of the vertical timeline.  Plus it has room to add images as well. 

You can use the timeline outline from the previous step to decide which layout would be more suitable for you based on the amount and length of text.

• Draw a horizontal/ vertical line 
• Write the start date at the beginning of the line and the end date at the end
• Keeping space between each event, add them to the timeline
• When you add descriptions under the events, remember to keep them brief
• Style your timeline and add images

Step 4: Style your timeline and add images

We’ve put together a brief video to help you understand how to effectively style your timeline diagram using our timeline maker.

• Apply colors: Styling your timeline diagrams on Creately is hassle-free. The preset color themes make it easier to tailor your diagrams and get it ready for presentations in seconds.
• Add images: Import images, clipart, gifs, logos, icons, etc. right from your device to the canvas and customize your diagram. Or use the built-in Google image search to find images from across the web. 
• Export your diagrams: You can download your timelines as PNGs, SVGs, PDFs, and JPEGs for printing, sharing or embedding in websites, presentations, etc.
• Share with others: Want to share your timeline with others? Simply add their email address and send them an edit/ review link for quick access. You can also share access to your timeline diagrams by sharing them on your team’s Slack channel or by creating it from Google Drive.

Ready to Draw Your Timeline? 

The timeline diagram is the ideal tool whether you are planning project tasks or narrating a story.

Have you tried our timeline maker yet? Let us know your experience in the comments section below.

We deliver what we promise! 

We kicked off the new year with two new integrations and a Desktop version that our users are loving right now. And we promised you a lot more goodies that will make drawing diagrams an absolute delight. Hence this update!

We’ve just released two cool new drawing shortcuts and here’s what you need to know. 

Alt/option to Duplicate Shapes

Duplicating shapes just got a whole lot easier on Creately. Instead of copying and pasting or one-click create, you can now “Alt (Windows)/ option (Mac) + drag” to duplicate a shape. 

This feature helps you draw faster when creating a diagram that uses the same shape, like an org chart (Use Creately’s Org Chart Software) or a process map. Any image or clipart you have added to your diagram can also be duplicated in the same way. 

Shape Highlight

Another feature that our users have been waiting for is the shape highlight – now when you select multiple shapes at once, each shape will be highlighted individually. 

In a scenario like applying colors to multiple shapes in a large diagram, this feature makes it much easier to identify the selected shapes. Or in another instance, when you multi-select a group of shapes to change their font size and type, you can point out exactly where the changes will occur. 

These new drawing shortcuts only mark the beginning of the revolutionary drawing UX that we have promised. Many more handy features will be released almost on a weekly basis, and we won’t stop until we make diagramming on Creately as easy as drawing on paper. 

Stay tuned, we’ve got more news coming your way!

2019 has been a fantastic year for Creately. In fact, it’s been our biggest growth year yet! 

We successfully updated our brand and logo with a new market focus and launched an entirely new Creately App that works even faster and better. And all of this wouldn’t have been possible without the patience, love, and support of our users.  

So let us start off by saying thank you!

From Creately Classic to Creately Next 

By now, most of our users have moved onto the new Creately from Creately Classic. 

Some of you loved it immediately although some took time to adapt. But the support we have received from you over the last few months has been tremendous.

The feedback and feature requests have actually helped us understand what we can do better and what we need to prioritize. So we didn’t hesitate to incorporate some of your best ideas into our 2020 product roadmap. 

And we are truly excited to tell you that our growth has been fantastic! We’ve been growing at a rate of 25% month on month since our relaunch in last July. At Creately’s scale, that’s really something 🙂 

Moving from Creately Classic to the new Creately, we only had one mission in mind, and that is to help more teams use the power of visuals in their daily work as effortlessly as they can. 

We believe that the way to do this is by delivering a tool that offers the simplest way to visualize ideas, processes, concepts, etc. Hence the raison d’être for Creately.

3 Big New Updates 

We admit, building the perfect tool that will help everyone #workvisually, isn’t easy. 

But we didn’t come this far without fighting our way through such challenges. We have already started laying the foundation for it and it has enabled us to start 2020 with the first of many launches to come. 

New Creately for Desktop (Mac/Windows/Linux)

The new Creately is now available as a desktop app. We completely rebuilt our desktop app experience to make sure that it works even faster and smoother. It’s available for Mac OSX, Windows as well as Linux. 

• You can continue to work on your diagrams even when connectivity drops
• Keep all your documents cached locally as you open them and make changes
• Browse diagrams and shapes faster because they are available locally 
• Share and collaborate on the work done on your desktop app with others using Creately Cloud (or desktop)
• Drag-drop and copy-paste any image or screenshot into the app

Learn more.

Slack Integration

If you haven’t heard yet, our Slack integration is now live! The purpose of this plugin is to encourage teams to communicate using visuals. Slack makes team communication hassle-free, and add Creately to that, you get the perfect collaboration tool! 

• Create Creately documents right from Slack and share them with your channels
• Preview Creately documents with a full-size view by simply sharing the diagram link. As the document gets updated, the link previews will also periodically get updated.

Learn more. 

Google Drive Integration

You can now add Creately to Google Drive or GSuite. Easily create and manage your Creately documents, share and control permission to them fully from inside Google Drive. It’s the perfect way to bring together cross-functional teams and streamline working with project stakeholders. 

Learn more. 

More Goodies on Its Way!

All this is just the tip of the iceberg. 

As we told you earlier, we have already taken your feedback into consideration and are working around the clock to deliver the expected features to you sooner. 

Many more integrations will be rolled out in the upcoming months along with a revolutionary drawing UX that will make visualizing ideas an absolute delight. 

An array of new shapes and templates for many more diagram types will also be added to help you visualize your ideas and concepts even better.  

That’s right, all of this is to help you #workvisually in the simplest way possible. If you want us to prioritize something, do let us know in the comments section below or add to feedback.creately.com.

We just released a brand new Creately!

We’ve completely re-built Creately from the ground up. We’ve re-thought how to solve the problem of #workingVisually and re-engineered the product taking a fresh approach. And to deliver this message more effectively, we’ve updated our brand and our core message to align with our future direction.

That’s a lot of new stuff. Let’s rewind for a second.

Why are We Here?

Almost a decade ago, we started Creately because creating and collaborating on diagrams was very hard work. Our simpler, yet comprehensive approach to diagramming was loved by users worldwide. It set the standard for easier diagramming on the cloud for the last few years.

Now, we are introducing for the next wave of change.

At the core of all diagrams and visuals, you are trying to simply get an idea out. A rough idea, which then needs to be structured, detailed and presented in a form that others understand and can work around.

So, we at Creately have now made it our mission to be the ‘Simplest way to visualize ideas’. We have worked on helping teams and individuals get their ideas/concepts/plans out exactly the way they imagine, with minimal effort.

Though it sounds easy to say, it is a lofty goal. If we were able to read your mind, we’d do just that!

As we are not there (yet), we are going to settle at almost reading your mind, and present you sensible and simple choices as you try to visualize your ideas.

If more of us improved on communicating our ideas as exactly as we imagine, we’d be moving mountains. To do that, more of us need to #workVisually.  To get more people to #workVisually we need to give you tools that are a joy to use and work perfectly. We also need to convince more people that taking the Visual route will get you far better results than typing out a 2000 word report.

This change of behavior is a big deal!

To get that message across, we are super excited to share with you our updated brand.

A New Brand, A New Approach

The new Creately brand shows our purpose of driving results through visualization by combining people’s best ideas on a common canvas.

Our website has been redesigned to reflect the new brand and approach. You will find it simpler to navigate and find the details of the capabilities and features Creately offers.

Our new template gallery and the solutions pages are a great resource for ideas on how to apply #workingVisually in your role, whether you are in Software development, Engineering, Marketing or HR or even in Education. #workingVisually applies to all areas and types of work. Do take a look!

The Product!

This. The new Creately. We are so thrilled to finally bring this new product to you. We hope you are as excited to use it! 🙂

The first thing you’ll notice (if you’ve been an earlier customer) is that “NO MORE FLASH”! And yes,  Creately now works beautifully on all modern browsers without needing any plugins whatsoever.

You’ll then notice that the interface is really super simple. It’s easier to find shapes (try the search) and it’s easier to draw. Draw anything you want, exactly the way you want it, with whomever you want to, share it with them, really really fast.

This new version is full of detailed features that will make you and your team’s lives a magnitude easier. This post will be way too long if we go into everything, so here’s our philosophy on what’s priority:

• Simplicity: We wanted you to have the simplest way to create any visual content. The new ‘plus-create’ feature, quick access styling toolbars are just the tip of the iceberg making this possible.

• Speed: Speed is a function of simplicity and goes hand-in-hand with how well the product works. We’ve given this serious thought and priority.

• Flexibility: You have absolute control of everything on the canvas. Precision controls for even changing hair color on an icon. You also have an infinite canvas to work on. More power to you! 

• Collaboration first: Content you create is meant to be shared. So collaboration whether it’s real-time or back and forth, it’s supported from the get-go.

Honestly though, there is nothing like experiencing the app itself. So we invite you to go try the new Creately and see our 100s of new features on show!

What’s  Next

This is just day one.

We are releasing this product quite early. We’ll continue to add more features and capabilities from our long list of ideas. There is more branding and communications work to be done to pass on our message to the world. And there are definitely more blog posts to be written explaining our visual journey and help you through your visual journey.

We have an ambitious roadmap with more updated apps, category-defining capabilities, and integrations. 

What we present to you today, forms a solid foundation for a new way to think and #workVisually.

We cannot wait to see what you bring to life with Creately.

The Creately Team

An all new Creately…

Yes, that’s right. Over the last year, we’ve been working on completely redesigning and revamping Creately. It’s about to come out with some more new updates at the end of this week!

• A fresh new interface with precision drawing and control. It comes with plus create and a context toolbar you can use to draw the next few shapes, add text and style them with minimal effort and time. 

• Efficient real-time collaboration for distributed teams. Work together with people from across the globe as if they are in the same room with you. Get real-time updates on the changes they make, share feedback with pinpointed comments and discussion threads, and keep your work synced effectively. 

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Visit us on the 19th for more details and a few more surprises!