Expert’s Rating
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If a picture is worth a thousand words , a diagram is worth a thousand ikon . Whether you ’re presenting a sales strategy to your boss or explaining your novel invention to a booster , diagram rent you verbalize relationships and concept better than you may with words and look-alike alone . OmniGraffle Professional 4.0 , the late rewrite of The Omni Group ’s diagramming app , tot up novel features that will lure current user to upgrade and encourage everyone else to take a closer looking at .
( You may alternatively opt the Standard edition , which sells for $ 70 less , and lacks some of the Pro version ’s features , including ruler grading , eminence , tables , multi - page documents , and others . )
Layered canvases
OmniGraffle Pro ’s independent windowpane displays a work area called the canvas , where you lay out the shapes , school text , lines , and import effigy that make up your diagram .
OmniGraffle Pro allow you build diagrams in two ways . If you prefer to dive right in , you could utilize its tools to draw geometrical or freeform shapes , including Bézier curves , a new feature . twofold - clicking a tool in OmniGraffle Pro ’s dockable tool palette makes it persist after use , so you do n’t have to mouse back to the pallet to cast several shapes or lines in successiveness , for example . For those with less artistic gift , OmniGraffle Pro also provides stencil , libraries of objects suitable for a multifariousness of projects , from business to science .
OmniGraffle Pro ’s renovate inspectors countenance you adjust the property of individual elements or the entire canvass . ( Click image to open full screenshot )
When you create your diagram , you could pose any graduated table you prefer ( 1 in = six ft , say ) , so it ’s easy to accurately portray the dimension of almost any real - world object ( see screenshot ) . OmniGraffle Pro supports an inexhaustible issue of canvass — when you view a text file in presentment mode , OmniGraffle Pro displays the canvas consecutive , like slides in a PowerPoint or Keynote slideshow . OmniGraffle Pro also have you define multiple layers on each sail , a practical way to organize your thoughts when you ’re make a complex diagram .
In the drawer
OmniGraffle Pro ’s Utility Drawer , which slides out when you click the Utilities button at the top of the canvass , provides another , more automated route to plot construction . In accession to the Canvases opinion , which shows all the canvass and allow you blot out or reveal any subset of layers , the drawer include a view — new in version 4 — that displays your diagram in scheme strain . As you sum up items to the outline , OmniGraffle Pro set up the diagram free-base on a style that you select from a menu at the bottom of the Utility Drawer . OmniGraffle Pro ships with trend for common types of diagrams , and you may define your own styles to add together to the basic repertory .
Lines, magnets, and inspectors
If you ’ve ever tried to craft an intricate diagram using a conventional drafting app , you know how unmanageable it is to prevent all the lines and arrows from becoming a involved mess of digital spaghetti . When you connect two object using OmniGraffle Pro ’s Line Tool , they continue link up until you lop the tie — as you move the physical object around the canvas , the lines move with them . you could even contain where the connections send away by place virtual “ magnets ” inside objects .
Like Apple ’s Pages ( , April 2005 ) and Keynote ( , April 2005 ) , OmniGraffle Pro uses inspectors to centralize most of its formatting and other controls . OmniGraffle Pro 4.0 consolidates the previous reading ’s multiple inspector into three vertically order panes : Style , Properties , and Canvas . Each pane mutant tabs that let you access groups of related functions , such as object and agate line shadows . A new feature in the Properties battery-acid Army of the Righteous you define bulge - up bill that appear when you hover over any item in a diagram for more than an instant .
New on the menu
OmniGraffle Pro 4.0 ’s grouse - up export functions admit improved financial support for Microsoft Visio file and the power to export documents in SVG ( Scalable Vector Graphics ) format . Other new features let you make physical object that symbolize the sum , conflict , or intersection of two existing objects , or convert any object on the canvas into a table in which every cell take in on the appearance of the original particular .
OmniGraffle Pro is n’t an program that you’re able to expect to learn overnight — mastering its many features takes fourth dimension and effort . Alas , OmniGraffle Pro ’s fragmented support makes it difficult for Modern users to rise its steep learning bender . The info is there , but you ’ll have to employ the brief manual , on - screen assist system , and Web - based guides to find what you need . ( Additional sample and walkthroughs should be uncommitted online by the time you register this . )
Macworld’s buying advice
While OmniGraffle Professional 4.0 is probably overkill for simple-minded diagrams , this fantastic program is a revelation for anyone who require to explain processes and conception visually . If you ’re curious , you’re able to download a trial copy from The Omni Group ’s Web internet site . After you play around for a few day , I ’m sure you ’ll be hooked .
[ Franklin Tessler is a frequentMacworldcontributor who use diagram for inquiry and didactics . ]
