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OmniGraffle 3 Reference Manual for iOS

Canvas and Document Inspectors

Use the Canvas inspectors to define your canvas, set the units of measurement, enable grids and guides, control the flow of your diagram, and to set canvas- and document-specific metadata.

The Canvas Inspectors, open to the Canvas Size inspector

Canvas Size a square with a rectangle inside that appears to be in the process of being resized

Choose the Canvas Mode for your document, and set its properties.

  • Fixed Size: A canvas with its width and height set to a specific size; for example, 1024 × 768 pixels.
  • Flexible: A canvas which expands in a specified direction (up, down, left, or right) to suit your needs.
  • Infinite Canvas: A canvas that extends infinitely in all directions.

See Canvas Modes, earlier in this manual, for additional detail.

Additional options found in the Canvas Size inspector include:

Print on One Page

Switch On or Off to force your document to print on a single page.

100% Zoom

If you have OmniGraffle Pro, you can also specify how things look onscreen when viewing your document at 100% Zoom:

  • One Apple point (the default) relates to resolution-independent distance on the display. For example, on a standard-resolution display, 1 point equals 1 pixel; on a Retina display, 1 point equals 2 pixels. At 100% zoom, objects viewed at One Apple point only appear smaller onscreen; however, they retain their actual size (which you can verify by looking at the object’s dimensions in the Geometry inspector).

  • One PostScript point displays the contents of your document at real-world size. At 100% zoom, you can hold a ruler up to your display and the size of the object you are measuring onscreen will match the dimensions you see in the Geometry inspector.

  • One pixel matches the pixel density of your display. For example, at 100% zoom, objects viewed at One pixel only appear smaller onscreen; however, they retain their actual size (which you can verify by looking at the object’s dimensions in the Geometry inspector).

The 100% Zoom options make it possible for you to work on large-scale documents at a smaller scale onscreen.

Size Uses Printer Pages

Switch On or Off. When turned on, the canvas size is displayed in pages not the Base Units of measurement (i.e., pixels, points, centimeters, or inches). When turned on, choose how your document will print:

  • Portrait Orientation
  • Landscape Orientation
  • Use Document Default

Canvas Padding is disabled when you turn on Size Uses Printer Pages.

Scroll Margin

Tap the minus button or the plus button to adjust how much of the canvas area is added as a scrolling margin around the canvas. When set to 100%, your entire canvas can scroll out of view.

Canvas Fill a square with intersecting vertical and horizontal lines, accompanied by a diagonal shading toward the lower-right corner of the square

Use to add fill properties to the canvas, including its Fill Type and Color properties.

The Canvas Fill inspector

Fill Type

Choose a Fill Type for the canvas.

Fill Color

Choose a color for the canvas.

To learn more about the various Fill Types in OmniGraffle, see Fill Types for Objects and Canvases, earlier in this manual. See Choosing Colors for more detail on setting colors in OmniGraffle.

Units & Scale a square filled with measurement bars, similar to those found on a ruler

Set a unit of measurement for your document:

The Units and Scale inspector

Base Units

Set the base unit of measurement; choose between points (pt), pixels (px), centimeters (cm), or inches—fractional (in). Base Units are used by the Canvas Size inspector to display the dimensions of Fixed and Flexible canvases, and are used for scaling purposes.

Scale

Available when centimeters (cm) or inches—fractional (in) is chosen as the Base Units.

Scale is shown as two numbers; for example, 1 in = 1 in. The first value uses the unit of measurement chosen as the Base Units (either cm or in) and relates to the actual size of objects on the canvas. The second value relates to how those objects scale in size, and use the units of measurement chosen under Display Units for how those measurements appear when scaled.

Use the the minus button and the plus button to decrease or increase the Base and Display Unit values. Optionally, double-tap on the number and enter a different value.

Display Units

Available when centimeters (cm) or inches—fractional (in) is chosen as the Base Units.

Choose a unit of measurement for how the units are displayed in the Geometry, Alignment, Grid & Guides, and Diagram Layout inspectors.

Grid & Guides a grid of vertical and horizontal lines crossing each other in a hash pattern

Define the grid used for aligning objects on the canvas.

The Grid and Guides inspector

Snap to Grid

Switch on to have objects and guides snap to the Major and Minor grid lines.

Major Grid

Tap the minus button or the plus button, or double-tap the number and enter another value, to change the amount of space between steps in the Major Grid.

Minor Grid

Tap the minus button or the plus button, or double-tap the number and enter another value, to change the number of Minor Grid steps between each Major Grid.

Smart Guides

Smart Guides are the blue lines you see onscreen when positioning objects on the canvas. Switch off to disable Smart Guides.

Show Origin

When switched on, the dark blue Canvas Origin guides are visible. The origin marks the vertical and horizontal intersection at the canvas coordinates 0,0.

Reset Origin

Tap to realign the Canvas Origin to the upper-left corner of the canvas.

Snap to Grid and Smart Guides cannot be enabled at the same time. Use Snap to Grid when you want precise, pixel-perfect alignment based on canvas positioning. Use Smart Guides when you want to align objects in relation to each other.

Diagram Layout a hierarchical diagram flowing downward

Choose a layout style for a diagram. With OmniGraffle for iOS, you can choose either Hierarchical or Force-Directed Layout for a diagram style.

Hierarchical Layout

The Diagram Layout inspector with Hierarchical chosen

Diagram Flow Direction

Tap one of the arrow buttons to redirect the flow of Hierarchical diagrams:

A bar with four arrows, pointing Down, Up, Right, and Left, respectively
  • Down Arrow — Diagram flows from top to bottom.
  • Up Arrow — Diagram flows from bottom to top.
  • Right Arrow — Diagram flows from left to right.
  • Left Arrow — Diagram flows from right to left.

Rank

Tap the minus button or the plus button to decrease or increase the amount of space between objects at different levels of the diagram. Optionally, double-tap the number and enter a different value instead of using the stepper controls.

Separation

Tap the minus button or the plus button to decrease or increase the amount of space between objects on the same level of the diagram. Optionally, double-tap the number and enter a different value instead of using the stepper controls.

Include All Objects or Connected Objects

Choose whether to include All Objects in the diagram layout, or only Connected Objects. In the latter case, objects without connections between them will remain in place when the layout is applied.

Lay Out Now

Tap to lay out the diagram after making changes to other elements in this inspector.

Force-Directed Layout

The Diagram Layout inspector with Force-Directed Layout chosen

Line Length Slider shorter lines longer lines

Drag the slider left or right to shorten or lengthen the connection lines between objects, respectively.

Object Separation Slider objects are closer together objects are further apart

Drag the slider left or right to decrease or increase the amount of space between objects, respectively.

Include All Objects or Connected Objects

Choose whether to include All Objects in the diagram layout, or only Connected Objects. In the latter case, objects without connections between them will remain in place when the layout is applied.

Lay Out Now

Tap to lay out the diagram after making changes to other elements in this inspector.

Canvas Metadata a square, divided into three rows with horizontal lines within each row to denote content this is a feature of OmniGraffle Pro

Assign metadata for each canvas in your document.

The Canvas Metadata inspector

Note this is a feature of OmniGraffle Pro

Tap add a note to open a side pane to add some notes about the current canvas.

Key/Value Pairs this is a feature of OmniGraffle Pro

Tap add new key/value pair to open a side pane to add a key-value pair to further define the current canvas.

Canvas metadata cannot be accessed with Data Variables.

Document Data an empty document icon, which looks like a piece of paper with the upper-right corner dog-eared

Assign document-level metadata for your document; use in combination with Data Variables to inject text labels for objects, lines, and text objects.

The Document Data inspector

Subject

Assign a Subject to the document; use with the <%Subject%> data variable.

Assign copyright information to the document; use with the <%Copyright%> data variable.

Version

Assign a version number to the document; use with the <%Version%> data variable.

Description

Add a description to the document; use with the <%Description%> data variable.

Comments

Add comments to the document; use with the <%Comments%> data variable.

Authors

Assign one or more authors to the document; use with the <%Authors%> data variable.

Organizations

Set an organization name to the document; use with the <%Organizations%> data variable.

Languages

Specify the language(s) used in the document; use with the <%Languages%> data variable.

Keywords

Assign keywords to the document; use with the <%Keywords%> data variable.

Projects

Assign a project name to the document; use with the <%Projects%> data variable.