# BPMN editor

BPMN is a real notation with defined semantics. A gateway means something specific, and so does the difference between a message and a sequence flow. The editor enforces that, which is the point of using it instead of boxes and arrows.

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## Why not just draw it

Because a process drawn freehand cannot be checked, handed to a process engine, or compared against another team's model. BPMN can.

The shape below is the sort of thing people draw in a flowchart when they mean a process. In BPMN, each of those symbols has a defined meaning.

![A process, drawn loosely](https://help.gocapable.com/images/att1411874933.svg)

## What the editor gives you

* **Validation.** Invalid models are flagged as you build them.
* **The full palette.** Events, gateways, pools, lanes, and message flows.
* **Standard XML.** Exports as BPMN 2.0 XML that other tools can read.

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## A few things that catch people out

* BPMN will refuse things a flowchart allows. That is intentional; the error is usually a real modelling mistake.
* Pools and lanes are structural, not decorative. Putting a task in the wrong lane changes who owns it.
* For decision logic inside a process, use DMN rather than a chain of gateways. See [DMN editor](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/editors.html).

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## Related

[DMN editorDecision tables that pair with a process.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/editors.html)

[Diagram typesWhen a process needs BPMN.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/diagram-types.html)

[ReferenceBPMN version and export format.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/reference.html)

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_A process you can check, not just a picture of one._