Excalidraw Tutorial for Beginners: Your First Diagram
Never used Excalidraw? Draw your very first diagram, slowly and step by step: find the toolbar, draw a box, type a label, add two more boxes and glue arrows between them. Example: a made-up online shop order.
Step by step
Your first diagram
- Excalidraw for beginners. You'll draw a simple diagram of an online shop order. It has 3 boxes, Place order, Pack order and Ship order, joined by 2 arrows.
- excalidraw.com. Go to excalidraw.com. It's free, there's nothing to install and you don't need an account. You get a big empty canvas to draw on.
Find the toolbar
- The toolbar. Look at the toolbar at the top of the screen. All the drawing tools are there. The square is the rectangle tool. You can also press R to pick it.
Draw a box
- Draw a box. Click the rectangle tool. Then press down on the canvas, drag to the opposite corner and let go. That's your first box.
Type a label
- Type a label. With the box selected, press Enter and type Place order. Press Escape when you're done. The text sits in the middle of the box.
Add more boxes
- More boxes. Draw the second box the same way: rectangle tool, drag, press Enter and type Pack order. Leave a gap between the boxes so the arrow has room. Then draw a third box on the right and label it Ship order. The 3 boxes now show the whole order, from start to finish.
Join with arrows
- The arrow tool. Now join the boxes. In the toolbar, find the arrow tool. It's the line with a point at the end. The shortcut is A.
- Glue the arrows. With the arrow tool, drag from the edge of Place order to the edge of Pack order. When you get close, the box lights up. That means the arrow end is glued to it. Do the same from Pack order to Ship order. Because both ends are glued, the arrows stay attached to the boxes, even if you move a box later.
- Your first diagram. Click an empty spot on the canvas to deselect everything and see the finished diagram: 3 boxes and 2 arrows that read from left to right.
Recap
- The rules. To sum up: pick a tool in the toolbar and drag to draw. Select a box, press Enter and type to label it. Drag arrows from edge to edge so they stick to the boxes.
Common mistakes
- Arrows that aren't glued to the boxes. If you let go before the box lights up, the arrow end just floats there and won't follow the box. Drag the end until the box lights up, then move a box to check that the arrow follows it.
- Typing the label as separate text next to the box. Text you place beside a box (outside its edge) with the text tool isn't attached to it, so it won't move with the box. Select the box and press Enter, then type, so the label goes inside the box and moves with it.
- Expecting the rectangle tool to stay picked. After you draw a shape, Excalidraw goes back to the selection tool. Click the rectangle tool again, or press R, before each new box.
When a business analyst uses this
In a process mapping workshop, a business analyst can share their screen and sketch the as-is order process live in Excalidraw, with one box per step and glued arrows between them. When stakeholders say a step is in the wrong place, the analyst drags the box and the arrows follow, so the map stays tidy.
Questions people ask
Is Excalidraw free to use?
Yes. You can draw at excalidraw.com for free, with nothing to install and no account needed.
How do you add text inside a shape in Excalidraw?
Select the shape, press Enter and type. Press Escape when you're done, and the text sits in the middle of the shape and moves with it.
How do you connect arrows to boxes in Excalidraw?
Pick the arrow tool (A) and drag from the edge of one box to the edge of another. When the box lights up, the arrow end is glued to it and stays attached when you move the box.
