Manual input
Data typed or entered by hand while the process runs, for example at a keyboard. The symbol is a four-sided shape with a flat bottom and a top edge that slopes up to the right.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Manual input is a specialised form of Input/output (data) for information entered by a person at the time of processing. ANSI X3.5-1970 gives online keyboards, switch settings and push buttons as examples, and ISO 5807:1985 adds light pens and bar-code wands. IBM’s manual calls the same shape the online keyboard symbol: information supplied to or by a computer through a console, typewriter or inquiry station.
Also searched as: flowchart manual input, manual input symbol.
Look-alikes
The manual operation symbol is a trapezoid, wider at the top than the bottom, and means a process done by a person without machine help, not data being entered. The Input/output (data) parallelogram has both sides slanted.
Read next
- Next in Flowchart symbolsConnectorA jump in the flow: the line continues at another circle with the same letter or number. The connector is a small circle with a label inside.
- The same shape in Coin gradesMS (mint state)MS stands for mint state: a coin struck for circulation that has no wear at all. It covers the top eleven numbers of the 70-point Sheldon scale, MS 60 to MS 70.
More flowchart symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Flowchart Symbols and Their Usage in Information Processing, ANSI X3.5-1970, adopted for federal use as FIPS PUB 24, American National Standards Institute; National Bureau of Standards (NIST), Sections 3.3.1.9 and 3.3.2.4
- Information processing: Documentation symbols and conventions for data, program and system flowcharts, program network charts and system resources charts, ISO 5807:1985, first edition (preview pages), International Organization for Standardization (iTeh Standards preview), Sections 9.1.2.5 and 9.2.2.2
- Flowcharting Techniques, IBM Data Processing Techniques, Form C20-8152, International Business Machines Corporation (bitsavers.org), System flowcharts, Situation VIII
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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