Dynamic Draw for Windows

Dynamic Draw provides a great set of free tools for creating flow charts and other designs. Although its layout can be confusing, the end product makes it worth a little trouble.

The program's interface takes a while to get comfortable with, and it took us several minutes of studying and experimenting to get going, though everything felt natural after that. We were able to understand and make use of its scattered collection of commands and tools quickly enough, thanks to a great tutorial and onscreen pop-up instructions. Once initiated in Dynamic Draw's idiosyncrasies, you'll be creating interconnected flow charts with relative ease. The program provides a variety of shapes and connection arrows to differentiate between tasks. A hot-key feature offers a fast way to create charts. In fact, practically all the command buttons have hot-key combinations, which would be great for drawing a chart on the fly. While the program takes time to understand, its results make it a fantastic addition to any project planning software portfolio.

Dynamic Draw creates professional-looking, highly readable charts that we could easily imagine working in a business setting, especially for multistep projects that must be delicately mapped out. It's freeware, too, which gives it a leg up on costly competitors that offer little more than a glitzier interface. This is a great tool for creating flow charts, and we recommend it.