Diagram Designer is a straightforward vector graphics tool for creating flowcharts, UML class diagrams, and assorted other technical illustrations.

The program is very easy to use. To build flow charts, for instance, you simply drag in the boxes you need from the right hand palette, and drop them onto your page. Double-clicking a box allows you to edit its text (the built-in spell checker will catch errors immediately). You're able to drag and drop your preferred style of connector onto the page, too, and this will easily "snap" onto the box. And you can then drag the boxes around and your connectors will reposition accordingly.

The default look of the charts worked well for us, but if you want to change things, then right-clicking an object and selecting Properties will reveal a host of possible tweaks. So you can change the size of a box, its text alignment, line width and colour, fill, gradient and text colours, the link points (the places on a box where a connector can be attached), and more.

There are also options to mirror, flip or rotate a drawing object. You can align an object to the left, right, top, bottom or centre of the page. And you're able to turn a subset of your chart into a group, which allows you to move them around the page as a single block.

Diagram Designer isn't just about flowcharting, though. The program comes with several other template palettes, including electronic symbols for creating circuit diagrams, GUI design blocks to help you build user interface storyboards, UML Class Diagram figures, and a few others.

You also get a scientific with an equation solver, and a plotter that can quickly graph mathematical expressions for you.

And once you've finished, Diagram Designer will export your work in your choice of image formats, including WMF, EMF, BMP, JPEG, PNG, MNG, ICO, GIF and (for some reason) PCX.

What's new in 1.29.3 (see version history for more)?

- Fixed issue copy/pasting curved connectors