Getting Started with draw.io for Confluence

Diagramming is one of the most popular type of add-on for Confluence. It’s easy to see why: so many departments, project, and working groups need to create and publish diagrams, and they want to keep the diagrams with their related text. Diagrams help people understand complex information faster.

So, your company has installed draw.io for Confluence, and now you want to learn how to use it. Fantastic!

If you follow these tips and watch the videos, you’ll be up and running with draw.io for Confluence in no time flat.

Step 1 – Create a new diagram

A draw.io diagram is inserted like any other macro in a Confluence page.

Create a new page in Confluence, or edit a page that you have permission to edit.

Click somewhere within the page, then click the drop down menu in the toolbar with the plus icon (“+“), and select “draw.io diagram“.  If you don’t immediately see “draw.io diagram” in the list of macros, search for it – enter “draw” in the search field at the top of this dialog.

Tip: You can use the curly bracket keyboard shortcut – in the Confluence page, type {draw then press Enter.

You’ll see the template manager. Creating a new diagram is fast and easy when you choose a template that is similar to the type of diagram you want to create.

Select a blank diagram, then click Select, or choose a template or an existing diagram and click Copy.

Tip: Search for a template to find it faster – use the search option on the left of the dialog and input your search term to display a list.

Step 2: Get to know the draw.io interface

A diagram typically consists of shapes, connectors, and text. Depending on what you work with, the available tools in the toolbar and the displayed formatting options will change depending on what you have selected.

Toolbar

The toolbar is displayed directly under the draw.io menu. The available tools will change depending on what you are working with in your diagram.

Drawing area

The drawing area is in the middle – what you see in this area is what is displayed in your Confluence page after you save it. There are guide lines to help you align each component in your diagram.

You can move around the drawing area with the mouse wheel or the scroll bars on the sides of the drawing area. Or you can click and hold the right mouse button and drag the drawing area around.

To zoom in and out, use the two magnifying glass icons in the toolbar. Alternatively, press and hold the Alt key and use the mouse wheel to zoom.

An introduction to the draw.io interface

Shape library

The shape library is displayed on the left hand side of the drawing area and contains a variety of shapes, connectors, and text organized into categories. You can expand or collapse these categories as needed.

To add a shape to your diagram, simply click on a shape in the symbol library, or click and drag it into the diagram.

Shapes, text, and connectors in the drawing area are collectively called objects.

Tip: You can add your own shapes to a custom library, if you can’t find the ones you need.

Format panel

When you select an object, you can customize how it appears, text included within the shape, or the arrangement and size in the format panel on the right hand side of the drawing area.

When nothing is selected, the drawing area itself may be customized.

The contents of the format panel change depending on what you have selected.

Step 3: Add shapes to your diagram

Shapes can be added to a diagram and connected to each other in many ways. The shapes you choose will be based on the type of diagram you want to create.

Click on a shape in the symbol library (left hand panel) to insert it into your diagram. You can then move it around on the drawing area – click on the shape in the drawing area and hold the mouse button down, then drag it to the position you want it to be.

Alternatively, you can drag a shape from the shape library into position on the drawing area.

Change the format of a shape, connector, and text

Click on an object to select it, and you’ll see the options in the format panel on the right hand side change to display three tabs, Style, Text and Arrange. The options are different for shapes, text and connectors.

• Style – Change the color, line thickness, fill, or style of your object.
• To change the font, justification, alignment, and font color of a text object, or the text included within a shape or connector – use the options in the Text tab.
• To change the size, position, and angle of shapes and text, and the position of any layered object – use the options in the Arrange tab.

Tip: You can also change some of the formatting with several tools in the toolbar.

draw.io – tabs on the format panel

Duplicating shapes quickly and easily

You can easily duplicate shapes that are in the drawing area. And there are many ways to do this.

Select an object, and click Edit > Copy then Edit > Paste in the menu, or Edit > Duplicate. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+C then Ctrl+V.

You can select multiple shapes, connectors and text and duplicate them as a group.

After you have duplicated your objects, you can move them into position.

You can simply hover over a shape and you will see four blue arrows, one in each direction. Click on one of these arrows to duplicate your shape in the direction you chose. It will be automatically connected to the original shape, and the new shape will be selected. We’ll cover connectors in more detail in Step 4.

Tip: There are several more ways to duplicate and connect shapes in draw.io.

draw.io – duplicate shape with an automatic connector

Step 4: Working with connectors

Most diagrams aren’t simply a collection of shapes, you want to indicate those relationships with connectors. These are lines and arrows joining shapes and text objects together.

You don’t need to draw separate lines and arrows to connect shapes – in fact, this is not recommended, because the lines won’t move with a shape, whereas a connector will.

Using connectors will save you a lot of time and effort!

As in Step 3, if you want to duplicate a shape and automatically connect it to its copy, hover over a shape until the blue arrows appear, and click on the direction in which you want the duplicate to appear. By default, these shapes will be connected with an arrow.

Connectors from the shape library

You can also add connectors from the shape library. Click on the connector shape you want to use and then move it into position. Be careful to move each end onto a connection point on a shape when it displays the green circle – otherwise they will not be linked.

Adding waypoints and changing the shape of connectors

Sometimes, you want to make a connector go around other objects in your diagram. You can do this by adding and moving waypoints on your connector.

Select a connector, and you will see a light blue point – click on this and drag it to add a new waypoint to the connector. A new potential waypoint will be shown with that light blue point between existing waypoints (dark blue points). You can do this any number of times to change the path that your connector takes.

You can click and drag any existing waypoint to move it.

You can also add extra waypoints to connectors and change its shape using the Waypoints drop down list on the toolbar.

draw.io – adding waypoints and re-shaping connectors

Change the format of a connector

You can change the formatting of the connector and the text label by clicking on it and then using the options in the Style and Text tabs in the format panel.

Select a label and rotate it by clicking on the black rotate symbol and dragging it into position.

Tip: You can also change the style of a connector using Connection drop down list on the toolbar.

Step 5: Saving and viewing your diagram in Confluence

Now that you have created your diagram, you will want to save it. Simply click the Save and Exit button at the top right in the toolbar, and you’ll return to the Confluence page. You will see a preview of your diagram. Save the Confluence page.

When you select the macro preview while in the edit mode on your Confluence page, you have a number of options.

Restore a ‘lost’ diagram? Sure!

If you mistakenly click Exit, don’t worry – your diagram has not been lost. draw.io automatically saves the state of your diagram. Simply insert a new diagram, and you will see the diagram you had previously worked on in the Recent Diagrams list.

draw.io – insert an unsaved diagram

Importing and exporting diagrams

There are many import and export options available in draw.io.

You can import diagrams in the following formats: XML (draw.io), Gliffy, and VSDX . Click File > Import then select the file you want to import.

There is also a mass import function for Gliffy diagrams – you can convert all of the Gliffy diagrams within your Confluence intranet to draw.io with just a few clicks.

Exported diagrams can be saved in the following formats: PNG, JPEG, PDF, SVG, and XML. Click File > Export to see the options available for each file format.

Ready to learn more?

You have learned all the basics for using draw.io!

Keep our beginner cheat sheets for draw.io at your side, and I promise you will get comfortable with draw.io in no time.

Our user documentation for draw.io for Confluence contains additional videos and screenshots that may be helpful.

Watch this blog for posts that explain how to use the more advanced features of draw.io, and level up your diagramming skills.