Turn a sketched process into an editable Miro diagram

A whiteboard photograph records the discussion, but changing one step still leaves you with a photograph. An editable diagram makes the next discussion easier: you can move a decision, repair a connection and keep the process legible.

Miro’s Digitize Diagram beta converts a hand-drawn sketch into editable diagram objects. This guide follows its documentation; we did not convert a sketch.[1]

Use a computer browser and a board you can edit. Miro AI is available across plans, including Free, but only to team members, not guests or visitors. AI actions use credits from the account’s plan.[2]

Check that the board owner allows export. Free supports only the small export quality; higher-quality output requires an eligible paid or Education plan. Mobile devices do not support board export, which is why this route uses a computer.[8]

Recover a small flow you already understand

Choose a photograph of a process you can explain without the software. For example, sketch a fictional equipment return: receive the item, inspect it, then send a passed inspection to storage and a failed inspection to repair. Label both branches so their meanings are explicit.

Drag the image from your computer onto the board, or choose Upload → My Device. If it will not upload, check the documented limits: 30 MB, 32 megapixels and dimensions no greater than 8192 × 4096 pixels.[3]

Select the uploaded image, open Convert to in its context menu and choose Diagram. Inspect the generated objects before treating them as the process record.[1]

Keep the original photograph available. Trace each path from beginning to end, checking the words inside the boxes, arrow direction and every decision label. In the illustrative return flow, the important check is whether “failed” still leads to repair. A beautifully aligned diagram can still encode the wrong instruction.

Repair the relationships

If the result is inside a Diagram format, use the Focus mode icon above it to open its editing workspace. Back to Canvas returns to the board.[6]

For a Mermaid-based diagram, visual editing happens in focus mode. To move shapes freely, choose Switch to free-form in its shapes or layout panel, then Create copy then switch. Keep the original: the free-form copy loses synchronisation with the Mermaid code.[7]

On free-form shapes, select a box and type to change its wording. Drag it to reposition it. To add a missing step, press S, choose a shape and click the board; then enter its label.[4]

Select a connection to adjust its arrowheads in the context menu. Drag a line’s end to attach it to the correct box. Double-click a connection line to add a branch label. To create a missing connection, drag a blue dot from its starting object to the destination.[5]

Run the process again after those edits. Count the outgoing branches at every decision and check where each one ends. If the sketch itself is ambiguous, resolve the process with its author before making the tidier version definitive.

Give the meeting a usable copy

If the corrected shapes are loose on the canvas, select the connected set and choose Wrap as diagram. On the resulting Diagram, open the three-dot menu, choose Export as PDF and click Export.[6]

Board changes save automatically. In a browser, the exported file goes to the browser’s configured download location. Keep the board URL with the PDF so the next editor can reach the working version.[8]

Open the downloaded PDF at its intended reading size. Check that the smallest branch labels remain legible and that the first and final steps are present. The PDF records the agreed version; the board gives the team somewhere to make its next change.

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