Getting started with Cacoo

Cacoo’s simple, intuitive interface makes it easy for anyone to create, share, and collaborate like a pro. In this guide, we’ll introduce you to Cacoo’s main elements and go over: 

How you can:

• Create diagrams
• Design and edit diagrams
• Share diagrams
• Collaborate on diagrams
• Organize diagrams

We’ll then explain how teams can:

• Organize and manage folders
• Invite and manage members

Find your way around Cacoo

There’s a lot to discover with Cacoo. To help you get familiar, here are a few terms to add to your vocabulary:

• Dashboard: This is essentially your home base for Cacoo, and you’ll land here any time you log in. From here, you can create, manage, and search for diagrams.
• Folder: There are private and shared folders to help you organize your diagrams.
• Diagram: Diagrams are the files you create using Cacoo. You can design your own from scratch or get a little help with one of our templates. Diagrams can be presented, shared, exported, and printed. 
• Sheet: Sheets are the pages within your diagram.

Members’ guide to Cacoo

This section applies to anyone on our Free, Team, Pro, or Education plan.

Create diagrams

There are three ways to create a new diagram:

1. Select “Create Diagram” on the top left corner of the dashboard.
2. Enter “cacoo.new” in your browser’s address bar.
3. Select the template icon on the top left corner of the dashboard to search hundreds of templates.

Once a diagram is created, it will automatically be saved as you work on it. 

Design and edit diagrams

Cacoo offers tons of tools to help you create and customize your diagrams. When you have a blank diagram or template open, you’ll see three different menus:

1. Tools: Located on the left side, this is where you can add shapes, icons, text, lines, tables, charts, sticky notes, and more to your diagram.
2. Panel: Located on the right side, this is where you can view and manage your diagram sheets, view comments, start a video call, chat, change your sheet size, and apply a background color or grid.
3. Properties: Located on the bottom right, this is where you can undo/redo actions, adjust your view, see diagram history and activity, and access support information.

When you select an object in your diagram, whether it’s a block of text, a shape, or a line, an editor will open, allowing you to customize the object’s color, style, and more.

Want to see it all in action? Check out this video about how to create and edit diagrams.

 

Share diagrams

Cacoo is all about collaboration and offers a few options for sharing your work. Just above the panel on the right side of a diagram, you’ll see: 

• “Share” button: Select this button to add collaborators or share a link to your diagram.
• Export/print cloud icon: Select this icon to export or print your diagram.

Get answers to all your questions about sharing diagrams in this video or via the Nulab Help Center.

Collaborate on diagrams

Sharing a diagram or folder makes it easy to collaborate with your team in real-time. Depending on the access you provide (owner, editor, or viewer), other members can make changes directly to a diagram and/or leave comments. To review changes, select the history and activity icons in the properties menu. (The history feature isn’t available with the Free plan.) You can also start a video call or chat with collaborators in a diagram.

Learn more about diagram collaboration in this video.

Organize diagrams

You can organize your diagrams in private and shared folders. Placing diagrams in a private folder means they can only be viewed by you or anyone you’ve sent a public link to. Diagrams in shared folders can be viewed and/or edited by anyone who’s a collaborator in that folder.

Learn more about creating and managing folders in this video.

Team guide to Cacoo

This section applies to anyone on our Free, Team, or Education plan.

Organize and manage folders

Folders help you and your team collaborate and stay organized.

When you create a folder, you become the folder owner. You can invite collaborators to the folder and allow them edit or view-only access. To access folders created by other members, you’ll need to request access from the folder owner.

Invite and manage members

Only organization admins can invite and manage members, assign them a role (guest, member, or admin) and place them on teams. Designated members can also invite new members. Teams allow admins to manage multiple members at once and automatically give members access to shared team folders.

Learn more about managing your organization and members in this video.

All your Cacoo questions. Answered.

Got a question? We’re here to help 24/7 via Cacoo support.