We are fans of the mermaid.live site
Visualize anything quickly and easily using Mermaid.live
I stumbled upon Mermaid.live a few months ago and it has been INCREDIBLY helpful for me and my co-workers to create server diagrams (with nested blocks), flowcharts for basic or advanced network layouts and mindmaps.
Use the table of contents below to find some easy to use helper scripts that will accelerate your usage and love of Mermaid.live
Example to copy and paste into Notepad on your Windows PC, name it "mermaider.bat" (Files of type: all, in the save dialogue box) and use the resulting output to generate your own great flowcharts at Mermaid.live
Tracert to Mermaid
The easy-to-use code below is ready to copy and paste into notepad on your Windows computer.
When you save that notepad file with .bat as the extension (you must change the File Type in the Save dialog box) try to save it in your Documents folder or the top of your user profile folder, such as c:\users\Joe.
Then, open command prompt just hold Windows key down and tap R (Windows+R) then type: cmd <and hit the ENTER key> )
If you saved it to your Documents folder, type: cd Documents <ENTER>
otherwise just type this:
mermaider www.google.com <ENTER>
THEN you must wait for it to do its thing!
Tracert in Windows can take quite a long time depending on many factors out of your control. If you find it's taking longer than 5 minutes to run this batch file script, then you should edit the code in mermaider.bat to include "-w 50" (no quotes) right between "tracert" and "%hostname%" on line 8.
Example: tracert -w 50 %hostname% > tracert.raw
Sample network diagram for a small office or home office
Copy the code on the left side below and paste it into mermaid.live (its left pane) to produce the diagram below on the right. Then click Actions in the Mermaid.live site and save as PNG. Of course this is just a sample of a basic network diagram that's fairly easy for non-technical people to understand and it's so easy to make it reduces the time necessary to draw manually in Visio or SmartDraw or any other free or expensive charting app or website. Have "fun"!
Excel is a great help for developers
For over 20 years now I've used Excel as a way to speed up development of any programming code I write that has any repetitiveness in it. Sometimes it's faster than writing a super-duper all-encompassing loop that tries to account for all possibilities. Sometimes plain text repeated is easier to troubleshoot for people who are new to coding, especially when working on a script - which tend to be more plain-english. By script I'm referring to interpreted languages in general such as Powershell, PHP, BATch files, macro code and even older languages like Pascal and BASIC (I started my programming career as a 10 year old on a Commodore Vic-20 which was an instant-on, TV-connected computer-in-a-keyboard that had just a flashing cursor and the BASIC language interpreter when it was running!). I used to handle all website form submissions with Classic ASP which is a scripted language that uses a subset of Visual Basic called VBscript. It's super easy to create Excel files that use formulas/formulae in various cells to write generic code for you, while you just have to type in form field names, or use output from somewhere else and just paste into Excel and let the formulas do the coding for you.
Here is an example below with downloadable file - virus-free but don't trust me, always scan whatever you find online before you open it - there's lots of very good free anti-virus software you can install quickly and uninstall just as quickly. I like Avira and AVG on the free side of things but beware of tricky wording that coaxes you to click on something to upgrade (read: PAY) rather than continuing with the free version.
I've also included screen shots and actual formulas you can copy and paste into Excel if you'd rather not download a file from the Internet - even it if is from a complete stranger who seems SOOOOO nice and friendly and helpful...