Creating E/R Diagrams with Visio

Question

I am looking for a way to draw E/R Diagrams with Visio. From what I've seen, they seem to look like this

when instead I want something like this:

How is that possible?

Answer 1

What you want to do is look for standard flow chart shapes, not Entity Relationship shapes - this is easily achieved in Visio.

Either create a new document and choose Flowchart, or load the Flow Chart shapes.

Answer 2

The diagram shown is not a flowchart. It is an entity-relationship diagram using Chen's notation. As far as I know, recent versions of Visio do not include Chen ERD stencils, only crowsfoot. You can download a basic Chen ERD stencil set from the Visio Cafe.

Answer 3

As Wil mentions, what you want is a flow chart and not an entity relationship diagram. You can create flowchart easily in Visio.

1. On the File menu, point to New, point to Flowchart, and then click Basic Flowchart.
2. For each step in the process that you are documenting, drag a flowchart shape onto your drawing.

Source: office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio-help/create-a-basic-flowchart-HP001207727.aspx