[I assume you are planning on using Graphviz on Windows. While I don’t create graphs on Windows (I use Linux for that work), I’ve just tested my answer on Windows.]
There is no single right answer to your question, but maybe this will help.
- Using a text editor (notepad, emacs, vim, …), create a dot input file. Save it with a .gv suffix. Save it in a convenient folder (directory). Maybe Documents, if that works for you.
- Bring up a “Command” window (type cmd in the Windows search area)
- In the “Command” window, type cd Documents (or whatever folder that contains your file)
- Then type dot -Tpng myfile.gv >myfile.png (note that you can create other file types, not just png files)
- Bring up the File Explorer and go to the folder where you have created your files.
- Click on the myfile.png file to open (display) it.
Here is the .gv file I created with notepad:
digraph abc {
a ->b->c
}
And the result:

[I bet someone can streamline this answer]