How-To: Connect anchor point to shape without merging shapes

Like others have said, there's no specific tool to make flowcharts where lines are attached automatically to shapes. 
A workaround that is a little tedious:
1. Use direct selection tool (A),
2. click and drag, selecting the box and the anchor point of the line you want to move
3. move selected points around as you see fit.

Hi Hannah!

Look at https://gg-charts.com to easily create flowcharts, where lines stay connected when you move boxes around.

Hannah,

You can do it as follows, description based on your screenshot.

Based on the two boxes with an horizontal straight line (2 Anchor Points) as a separate object stretching between and thereby connecting the relevant midpoints, where you wish to move the rightmost box and keep the end of the straight connecting line at the midpoint of the left side, you can simply:

1) With the Direct Selection Tool, Deselect everything (you can Click an empty spot), then ClickDrag over the rightmost box, thereby also selecting the rightmost end Anchor Point of the connecting line, then move the whole set to the desired new position; as the final part of this you can:

1A) ClickDrag the Direct Selected set, while holding Shift if you wish to move the set vertically as shown in the screenshot (down as shown or up) or horizontally (just further from the or closer to the leftmost rectangle) or at 45 degrees in between, or just ClickDrag to any position determined by eye;

1B) Use object>Transform>Move and insert horizontal and vertical values for predetermined change of position.

By Direct Selecting you maintain the straight connection between the (relevant midpoints of the) boxes while the straight connecting line simply changes length/direction.

Illustrator cannot create flowcharts in a way that is even half automatic.

There are free online services available, such as (I think) draw.io or smartdraw.com that you can then export to SVG to your local drive. If you do not want to enter private information in a remote app, you could sheck out free Inkscape.

Hello @Hannah32871556n0j9,

Thanks for reaching out. Would you mind checking out the suggestions in this video tutorial (https://adobe.ly/47PNgDS) and letting us know if they help?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav