A swimlane diagram is a type of flowchart that shows a process from start to finish, but it also divides these steps into categories to help distinguish which departments or employees are responsible for each set of actions. These categories are the lanes of your swimlane diagram.
To create a swimlane flowchart, you can start with a regular flowchart template and add a swimlane pool or start with the Swimlane template from the Flowcharts category under New Document.
You'll see the controls to add swimlanes in the SmartPanel to the left of your drawing area.
Select the lanes and orientation of your swimlane. You can modify both later so this is just to start.
Select the orientiation:
Select the number of lanes.
Click Insert Swimlane Container to add the Swimlanes.
Resizing and Adding Lanes
Depending on the orientation of the swimlane container, the lanes will automatically expand to accommodate new shapes as they're added.
If you selected a horizontal swimlane container, the lanes will automatically become longer as needed if you add steps horizontally. If you added a vertical swimlane, the swimlanes will expand only vertically.
Keeping with the orientation of your swimlane, if you have a horizontal swimlane container and you add a new shape that would be outside the container vertically, SmartDraw will automatically add a new lane to the pool to accommodate your new step. This option is set under the options menu and it's called Auto Resize Lanes.
Change Column Headers
Once you added your swimlane pool, you can select the existing column headers and replace them with your own copy. Click in each row or column header and select the existing "Person/Group" placeholder text and type to replace it with your own divisions.
Adding and Removing Lanes Manually
If you change your mind about the number of lanes you want to have in your swimlane, you can change the number of lanes present.
First, in the Swimlane Options drop-down menu, make sure to check Set the Number of Lanes Manually.
Next, you can remove or add lanes using the Lane control above.
Remove the Entire Swimlane Pool
If you changed your mind and you don't want to see swimlanes in your flowchart, you can remove all swimlanes without removing the rest of your flowchart by selecting the swimlane container and choosing Delete from the right-click menu.
You'll have every shape in your flowchart without any lanes.