Working with swimlanes and separators

The Cross-Functional Flowchart template, available in all editions of Visio except Visio in M365, provides a couple of swimlane shapes displayed horizontally by default. The orientation can be changed to vertical via the Cross-Functional Flowchart ribbon menu.

This template opens the Cross-Functional Flowchart Shapes stencil in addition to the Basic Flowchart Shapes stencil. This stencil contains horizontal and vertical versions of the Swimlane and Separator master shapes.

Swimlanes should be labeled with the actor responsible for process steps within it, and more swimlanes can be added.

Adding a swimlane to a cross-functional flowchart

There are two ways of adding another swimlane in Visio online. The first is as follows:

1. Select a swimlane, usually best done on the header, that you want to insert a new swimlane after. If you just want to add one at the end, then don’t select anything.
2. Click the Cross-Functional Flowchart...