Menus and Keyboard Shortcuts

Now, you could spend the next couple hours, kicked back in your comfy chair cruising through all of the menus in OmniGraffle to see what’s new or where your favorite command went to. Or, you could just read through this section and see everything in one convenient—and easy to search—place.

About OmniGraffle

Find out about the particular version of OmniGraffle you are using.

Check for Updates (for purchases from The Omni Store only)

Normally, OmniGraffle checks for updated versions of itself regularly based on the Update preferences. Use this command to check once right now. If there is an updated version of the software, you are prompted to download it.

Preferences (Command-,)

Open OmniGraffle’s preferences window; you can use it to customize the application’s behavior to your liking.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Opens a window that lets you change or reset OmniGraffle’s keyboard shortcuts. You can also export and share your custom keyboard setup, and import sets that other users create and share.

In-App Purchase (for purchases from the Mac App Store only)

If you downloaded OmniGraffle 7 from the Mac App Store, you can use this menu to purchase upgrades to OmniGraffle Standard or OmniGraffle Pro.

Free Trial Mode

During the 14-day free trial, choose this menu item to switch between using the features of OmniGraffle Standard and OmniGraffle Pro. This helps you decide which version of OmniGraffle is right for you. After the 14-day trial expires, you can still use OmniGraffle to view OmniGraffle files.

Licenses (for purchases from The Omni Store only)

Show the Licenses dialog, where you can review your OmniGraffle software licenses. For more information about how licenses work, see Managing Your Omni Licenses, later in this guide.

Services

The Services menu is a collection of system-wide services offered by other apps on your Mac. OmniGraffle plays rather well with macOS, so you should be able to use your standard services from within the application.

Hide OmniGraffle (Command-H)

Leave OmniGraffle open, but temporarily put away its windows while you work in another application.

Hide Others (Option-Command-H)

Hide all windows of other applications you have open, so that you can concentrate on OmniGraffle.

Show All

Choose this option if you chose to Hide Others and then want to get all of the windows of those other applications back onscreen. If none of the windows of "other" open windows are hidden, this menu option is grayed out.

Quit OmniGraffle (Command-Q)

Choose this if you really must part with OmniGraffle for now. If you have unsaved documents open, you are prompted to save or discard your changes.

New (Command-N)

If you have a default template, this creates a new document based on it. If you don’t have a default template, this opens the template chooser.

New Resource

Create a new OmniGraffle stencil, template, or diagram style, starting from the template of your choice.

New Stencil

This opens a new document that, when saved, becomes a stencil you can reuse in OmniGraffle or share with friends.

New Template

This opens a new document that, when saved, becomes a template you can reuse in OmniGraffle or share with friends.

Resource Browser (Shift-Command-N)

Open the Resource Browser, from which you can choose an OmniGraffle document, stencil, or template file to edit. You can also use the Resource Browser to set a default template to be used whenever you create a new document.

Open (Command-O)

Browse for a document to open. You can open any OmniGraffle document, or a file in one of the formats OmniGraffle knows how to import.

Open Recent

Open a document you’ve recently worked on. Choose Clear Menu to remove the list of recent documents, so no one knows you’ve been working on Surprise Party Invitation.graffle.

Close (Command-W)

Close the frontmost window you have open. If you have unsaved changes, you are prompted to save or discard them.

Close All (Option-Command-W)

Close all open OmniGraffle windows.

Save (Command-S)

Write all of your hard work in the frontmost document onto the disk for safekeeping. If you have already saved the document once, the new version replaces the old one. If it’s the first time you’re saving this document, you are prompted to browse to a location on the disk and enter a file name.

Save As (Option-Shift-Command-S)

Save the current OmniGraffle file as another filename and/or to another location.

Duplicate (Shift-Command-S)

Make a duplicate copy of the current document. The duplicated file uses the same filename as the file you’re working on, but tacks on copy to the filename so you know which one is the clone.

Rename

Change the filename of your current project.

Move To

Move the file to another location on your Mac’s hard drive.

Move to Trash

Be careful with this one; it moves the file you are currently working on into the Trash. This comes in particularly handy when you’re working on multiple duplicated files as you tweak and compare styles. With the dupes you don’t want, just choose File ▸ Move to Trash and then close the window (Command-W).

Revert To

When revisions don’t really work out like you had planned, choose this to go back to the version of the file that’s on the disk; it’s kind of like a mass-Undo. If you open a file that had some changes in an automatic backup, you can choose this command to go back to the last explicitly saved version.

Place Image

Browse for an image file; a shape containing the image is created on the canvas at the last place you clicked with the Selection tool.

Export (Option-Command-E)

This creates a new file, in a file type of your choice, from some portion of the data in your OmniGraffle document. See Exporting Image and Graphics Files from OmniGraffle, earlier in this guide for more details.

Submit to Stenciltown

Submit the current file as a stencil to Stenciltown, a place for OmniGraffle users to find, share, and download stencils. For more information about stencils and Stenciltown, see Using and Creating Stencils.

Page Setup (Shift-Command-P)

Show the standard macOS Page Setup sheet. This sheet contains several panes of settings for how to represent your document on pages.

Print (Command-P)

Show the standard macOS Print sheet. In addition to the settings in Page Setup, you have a lot of printing-specific options you can set here.

Print this Canvas

Print the currently selected canvas. If you Command-Select multiple canvases, this menu option changes to Print Canvases, allowing you to print the selected canvases.

Undo (Command-Z)

OmniGraffle remembers a list of changes you make to a document. Choose this command to move one step backwards in the list, as if you hadn’t done the last thing in the list. Keep choosing it to keep stepping backwards in time.

Redo (Shift-Command-Z)

If the last thing you did was to Undo something, you can step forward and do it again, effectively Undoing the Undo.

Cut (Command-X)

Remove the current selection and put it on the clipboard, so you can paste it somewhere else.

Copy (Command-C)

Copy the current selection to the clipboard.

Copy As

Copy the selected Canvas items to the clipboard as one of the following file types:

PDF

Put a PDF copy of the current selection on the clipboard for pasting into any app that accepts PDF files for viewing, editing, or sending. If the app you paste into also supports LinkBack (this includes OmniGraffle itself), you can even go back and edit the pasted content in OmniGraffle.

PNG

Copies to the clipboard a PNG image asset of the current selection; you can then paste this into any app that accepts PNG image files.

TIFF

Copies to the clipboard a TIFF image asset of the current selection; you can then paste this into any app that accepts TIFF image files.

SVG

Copies to the clipboard the SVG data for the selected item; you can then paste the SVG data into a text editor and save as an SVG file.

AppleScript

Copies to the clipboard the AppleScript code needed to render the selected shape; you can then paste the Applescript code into the Script Editor app and save that as an AppleScript.

Paste (Command-V)

Place the contents of the clipboard on the canvas, at the last place you clicked with the Selection tool. (Or insert text from the clipboard if you are editing an object’s text.) If there is an image or some text in the clipboard, a new shape object containing the image or text is created.

Paste in Place (Shift-Command-V)

If you copy an item on your canvas with Command-C and then use Paste in Place (Shift-Command-V), you will paste in the contents of the clipboard directly on top of the item you copied. This is particularly helpful when you want to copy an item on one layer and then paste in another copy on another layer that’s higher up in the stack.

Paste and Match Style (Option-Shift-Command-V)

When you are editing text, you can use this command to paste in some text without bringing along the style it had in the application you copied it from. Instead, it matches the style of the text you already have, as if you had typed it there yourself.

Duplicate and Maintain Layers (Command-D)

Make a copy of the current selection and place it on the same layer. If you select objects on different layers and choose this option, duplicate copies of those objects will appear on their respective layers.

With an object selected, you can also hold down the Option and Command keys, and then press one of the four arrow keys (Up, Down, Left, or Right) to place a duplicate of the selected object in the direction of the arrow key you press. For example, pressing Option-Command-Up Arrow places the duplicate above the currently selected object.

Objects are automatically placed 36 pixels apart. You can change the distance between objects using the Alignment inspector.

Delete

Obliterate the current selection, forever banishing it from this plane of existence (unless you Undo).

Select All (Command-A)

Select everything selectable on the canvas. Remember that objects on locked layers can’t be selected. If you are editing the text of an object, this instead selects all of the object’s text.

Select

This menu offers you different options for selecting objects, either based on their style, how they’re connected, or based on their relationships:

Similar Objects

Select all of the objects on the canvas that have the same style attributes as the currently selected objects.

Connected Objects

Select all shapes that are directly or indirectly connected by lines to the currently selected objects, and all of the lines between.

Ancestor

Select all of the ancestors of the currently selected objects, based on the hierarchy established by connection lines.

Descendants

Select all of the descendants of the currently selected objects, based on the hierarchy established by connection lines.

Outlining

These commands are only available when you are working in the Outline tab of the Sidebar (Option-Command–3):

• Add Child (Command-})
• Add Sibling (Option-Command-’)
• Add Aunt (Command-{)
• Add Parent (Option-Command-;)
• Add Spouse (Option-Command-/)
• Indent
• Outdent

Navigation (Standard)

These commands are most useful when you invoke their keyboard shortcuts; you can do a whole lot without even touching the mouse:

• Select Shape Left (Command-Left Arrow)
• Select Shape Right (Command-Right Arrow)
• Select Shape Above (Command-Up Arrow)
• Select Shape Below (Command-Down Arrow)

Canvases

Commands related to working with the Canvas:

New Canvas (Option-Command-N)

Add a new canvas to the document.

Duplicate Canvas

Add a new canvas, identical to the current canvas, to the document.

Delete Canvas

Get rid of the current canvas completely.

Layers

Commands related to working with Layers:

New Layer

Add a new layer to the current canvas.

New Layer From Selection

Moves the selected object(s) to a new layer on the same canvas.

New Shared Layer (PRO)

Add a new shared layer to the current canvas.

New Artboard Layer (PRO)

Add a new Artboard Layer to the current canvas.

Duplicate Layer

Add a new layer, identical to the selected layer, to the canvas.

Merge Layer Down

Move everything on the selected layer to the next layer down, then delete the selected layer.

Delete Layer

Get rid of the current layer completely. You can’t delete the last layer in a canvas.

Delete from All Canvases (PRO)

This command is only available when you select a shared layer. It deletes all instances of the shared layer on any canvas throughout the document.

Layer Settings

Commands for controlling individual layers.

Visible

shows or hides objects on the layer

Printable

controls whether objects on the layer should be included when printing

Unlocked

controls whether objects on the layer can be selected or edited

Shared Layer (PRO)

converts the current layer to a Shared Layer, making it accessible with other canvases in the project.

Artboard Layer (PRO)

converts the current layer to an Artboard Layer.

Select All in Layer

Select all of the objects on the selected layer.

Move Selection to Layer

Move all selected objects to the selected layer.

Creating Tables (PRO)

A table is a special kind of group that organizes rows and columns of objects. To create a table:

1. Create a single shape object to be the first cell of your table.

   

2. With the object selected, choose Arrange ▸ Make Table (Shift-Command-T). Notice the grid-like handles on the top, bottom, left, and right sides of the object; this lets you know the object is a table.

   

3. Drag the right-side table handle to the right to add columns.

   

4. Drag the bottom table handle down to add rows.

   

You can also select a number of already-existing objects and then choose Arrange ▸ Make Table; OmniGraffle rearranges the objects into rows and columns to the best of its ability.

Table cells can be selected and edited just like group members. If you resize a cell, the rest of the cells in its row and column resize accordingly. When selecting cells, you can Shift-click to select everything between the cell you click and the last cell you selected.

You can add or remove rows or columns at any time by dragging the table handles outward or inward. Resize the table as a whole by dragging the ordinary corner handles. Use the Edit ▸ Tables commands when working within table cells to insert or select rows and cells.

To dismantle a table, select it and choose Arrange ▸ Ungroup (Shift-Command-U).

Magnets

Commands for controlling the Magnets attached to objects:

Copy Magnets

Put the magnet arrangement of the selected object onto the clipboard, so that you can paste them to a different object.

Paste Magnets

If there is a magnet arrangement on the clipboard, apply it to the selected object. Any existing magnets are replaced by the new ones.

Delete Magnets

Get rid of all the magnets on the selected objects.

Positions

In addition to these options, magnet positions can also be set in the Connections properties inspector (Command–3) in the Other Connections tab:

• No magnets — removes all Magnets from the selected shape
• Cardinal Points:
  • 4 magnets: N, S, E, W
  • 2 magnets: N, S
  • 2 magnets: E, W
  • 4 magnets: NE, NW, SE, SW
  • 8 magnets
• Per Segment:
  • on each vertex — makes it so each point on a shape’s path is also a Magnet
  • 1 magnet per side
  • 2 magnets per side
  • 3 magnets per side
  • 4 magnets per side
  • 5 magnets per side

Text to Shapes (PRO)

An age-old problem for designers is the ability to do more with the text they’re working with. Whether it’s adding more style to the text by adding a different fill or making slight alterations to how a character appears, can sometimes be really, really hard.

With OmniGraffle 7, though, we’ve taken the pain out of this task, giving you the ability to convert any text object to shapes. Once converted, you can do way more with the text shapes than you could with a standard text element in previous versions of OmniGraffle.

Converting Text to Shapes

To convert text to shapes, you’ll first need a text object on the Canvas. Use the Text tool in combination with the Font and Text Position inspectors (see Working With the Inspectors, earlier in this guide) to set the text properties prior to clicking on the Canvas. Then, with the text object selected, choose Edit ▸ Objects ▸ Convert Text to Shapes.

OmniGraffle automatically groups the shaped-letters together:

To work on the letters individually, you can select the individual shapes and then use the Point Editor tool to change the appearance of the characters. For example, by selecting one of the blue vector points you could:

• delete a vector point by selecting the point and pressing the Delete key...

  

• ...change the Bézier curve by using the control handles...

  

• ...or drag and move the vector points around.

  

Uses for Text to Shapes

With a standard text object, all you can do to that text—style-wise—is apply a single fill color, maybe change its opacity, and apply a drop shadow. Pretty boring stuff, actually. If you try to apply a fill color or pattern, or change the stroke of the text, the changes you make in the Fill and Stroke inspectors are applied to the shape of the text object, not the text.

However, after converting text to shapes, you can use all of the available options in the Fill and Stroke inspectors to your delight! For example, you could apply a gradient fill with a beveled stroke:

Or you could select a Fill Blend Type and Distortion Effect in the Fill inspector, and apply that to text on a layer above an image or some other object:

And, since each character is now a shape, you can use the Shape inspector to change any character into another shape!

One more benefit of converting text to shapes is to allow for more precise kerning control. You can select each character individually, and nudge them left or right by pressing the Left or Right Arrow keys.

So, go ahead, let your creative side run wild with OmniGraffle 7’s new Text to Shapes.

Lines to Shapes (PRO)

To give designers more flexibility with their work, we have added the ability convert the lines you draw with the Line tool into paths. After converting a line to a path, you can use the Point Editor tool to add or remove vector points from the path, add Bézier curves, and click and drag vector points to "open" the path.

Converting Lines to Shapes

Converting a line to a shape is fairly simple:

1. First, draw a line on the canvas with the Line Tool. If you click-and-drag when creating a vector point, you instantly convert that point into a Bézier curve:

   

2. Choose Edit ▸ Objects ▸ Convert Line to Shape

   

Once converted, the "line" shape appears on the canvas as a shape with an empty fill.

Working with Line Shapes

If you select the Point Editor tool and zoom in on the shape, you will see the blue diamond-shaped vector points on the path that make up the shape.

You can use the Point Editor tool to:

• Edit Bézier curves by clicking and dragging the red control handles
• Add vector points to the path by double-clicking on the path
• Delete vector points by first selecting the point and then pressing Delete

Similarly, you can use the Inspectors to:

• Add a Fill to the shape
• Change or remove the shape’s Stroke
• Add a Shadow
• Fill the shape with text or an image

Uses for Line Shapes

Lines on their own can make a dramatic impact on your designs. However, the ability to convert them to shapes and apply various effects opens the door to a realm of possibilities.

For example, you can fill the shape with a gradient and remove its stroke to create gradient rule lines, or empty lines with inner shadows:

Use the Point Editor tool to remove vector points from the paths, add new points, and conver them to Béziers:

Use the Point Editor tool to open a line shape, and then place an image into the shape to create a custom image mask:

Mask Image/End Masking

Resize or rotate an image object on the canvas. Hold Shift to scale the image, and hold Command while hovering over one of the image handles to rotate an image. Holding Shift-Command lets you rotate the image in 15 degree increments. Press Return, or choose Edit ▸ End Masking when finished to accept any masking changes you’ve made to the image.

Insert Variable

While you are editing a shape object’s text, choose one of these commands to insert a special tag. When you finish editing the text, the tag changes to represent some aspect of the object itself, the canvas, the page, or the document. If the data that the tag refers to changes, the tag automatically updates itself. Some variables, such as Page Number, are useful for putting on a shared layer and then sharing that layer with every canvas.

Canvas Name <%Canvas%>

the name of the canvas the object inhabits.

Layer Name <%Layer%>

the name of the layer.

Document Name <%Document%>

the name of the document the object inhabits.

Current Date <%Date%>

just what it says; this option inserts the current date. This particularly handy when you want to “stamp” a document you’re printing with today’s date.

Document Creation Date <%CreationDate%>

the date that the document was originally created, according to macOS’s filesystem.

Document Modification Date <%ModificationDate%>

the date that the document was last saved, according to macOS’s filesystem.

Understanding Date Variables

If you are using one of the date variables, you can customize the format of the date using the variables listed here:

Variable	Description
y	Two-digit year, based on the decade; for example, 16 for “2016”
Y	Four-digit year; for example, 2016
m	Month, represented as two digits ranging from 01-12; for example, 10 for October
d	Day, represented as two digits ranging from 01-31 (as appropriate); for example, 05 is the fifth day of the month
H	Hours, represented as two-digits ranging from 00-23; for example, 11 is 11 a.m., whereas 23 is 11 p.m.
M	Minutes, represented as two digits ranging from 00-59
S	Seconds, represented as two digits ranging from 00-59
z	Zulu time difference; for example, an output of -0700 represents that the current time is seven hours behind Zulu time

For example, to get a date such as 2016-10-05 08:37:30 -0700Z, you could use the following variable string:

<%date %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %zZ %>

The logic we have used in creating the date variables is based on Cocoa’s date formatting tokens.

Creator <%Creator%>

the name of the user who created the file, according to macOS’s filesystem.

Modifier <%Modifier%>

the name of the user who last saved the file, according to macOS’s filesystem.

Page Number <%#%>

the number of the page that the object inhabits, based on settings in the Canvas Size inspector and the Page Setup panel.

Total Pages <%TotalPages%>

the number of pages in the whole document. Use this with the Page Number variable to get results like “Page 2 of 5”; for example:

<%# of %TotalPages %>

Canvas Number <%CanvasNumber%>

if you have multiple canvases in your project, you can reference them by number.

Total Canvases <%TotalCanvases%>

prints the number of canvases in the document. Use this with the Canvas Number variable to get results like “Canvas 1 of 3”; for example:

<%CanvasNumber of %TotalCanvases %>

X Position <%X%>

the object’s horizontal distance from the origin, just like in the Geometry inspector.

Y Position <%Y%>

the object’s vertical distance from the origin, just like in the Geometry inspector.

Width <%Width%>

the object’s horizontal size, just like in the Geometry inspector.

Height <%Height%>

the object’s vertical size, just like in the Geometry inspector.

Line Length <%Length%>

Apply the Line Length variable to the label on a line. The Line Length variable relies on the values set in the Units inspector when displaying the line length. For example, let’s say that you are creating a floorplan of your house or apartment. In the Units inspector, you can set the Ruler Units to feet (ft), and the Scale to something like 1 in = 1 ft to get accurate (to-scale) floorplans, using lines and the Line Length variable to display the dimensions.

GraphicName <%GraphicName%>

Places on the canvas a text object with the name of the currently selected shape.

Find

Commands for searching within OmniGraffle:

Find (Command-F)

This summons OmniGraffle’s Find panel. You can search for a specific string of text, or you can use a regular expression to match a whole class of strings. When searching for a specific string, select Ignore Case to match letters regardless of whether they are uppercase or lowercase; select Whole Word to avoid matching portions of a word. If you use groups in a regular expression, you might want to select (or replace) the whole expression, or just one of the groups; use the pop-up menu to indicate which.

Searching with Regular Expressions

OmniGraffle’s Find dialog supports the use of some simple regular expressions. A regular expression is a single string that represents a whole set of strings. The following syntax is used:

• a* — zero or more instances of a (matches the longest string possible)
• a*? — zero or more instances of a (matches the shortest string possible)
• a+ — one or more instances of a (matches the longest string possible)
• a+? — one or more instances of a (matches the shortest string possible)
• a? — zero or one instance of a
• ^ — beginning of a line
• $ — end of a line
• . — any character
• [a-z] — all characters between a and z
• [abc-] — a, b, c, or -
• (abc) — matches abc and stores it as a group. Use the Select or Replace pop-up menu in the Find dialog to select or replace only one of these groups rather than the whole expression.
• \1 — text of first matched group
• a|b — a or b
• \n — newline
• \r — carriage return
• \t — tab character
• \d — digit
• \D — non-digit
• \w — word character (alphanumeric or underscore)
• \W — non-word character
• \s — whitespace
• \S — non-whitespace
• \ — escape the next character

Regular expressions are very popular, so you should be able to find plenty of information about them on the Internet or in a good library or bookstore. Here are a few examples to get you started:

• &\s*$ — matches whitespace at the end of a line.
• <.*?> — matches strings that begin with < and end with >, such as XML tags.
• &\S+@\S+ — very liberally matches things that resemble email addresses (anything@anything).
• (19|20)\d\d-\d\d?-\d\d? — matches dates in the format YYYY-MM-DD, between 1900 and 2099.

Find Next (Command-G)

Choose this to find the next occurrence of the text you last entered in the Find panel, as if you had just clicked its Next button.

Find Previous (Shift-Command-D)

Choose this to find the previous occurrence of the string you last entered in the Find panel, as if you had just clicked its Previous button.

For the purposes of Previous and Next, OmniGraffle considers objects in left-to-right, top-to-bottom order.

Enter Selection (Command-E)

Select some text in an object, then choose this command to put the selected text into the Find panel, replacing whatever was there before. Then you can use the Find Next and Find Previous commands to search for other occurrences of the text.

Scroll to Selection (Command-J)

Move the view so that the selected objects are visible.

Zoom to Selection

Fits the currently selected object(s) so that they fit within the Canvas view.

Spelling and Grammar

Commands for checking the spelling and grammar within your project file:

Show Spelling and Grammar (Command-:)

Opens the Spelling and Grammar dialog. Since the colon (:) is on the upper part of semicolon (;) key, you will also need to use the Shift key to option this dialog (Shift-Command-;).

Check Document Now (Command-;)

Checks the spelling in your current document and stops at the first misspelled word it finds.

Check Spelling While Typing

This option is enabled by default, but can be turned off by selecting this option in the menu.

Check Grammar With Spelling

This option also checks your grammar as it checks spelling. This option comes in particularly handy when you’re entering a lot of text.

For the purposes of Previous and Next, OmniGraffle considers objects in left-to-right, top-to-bottom order.

Edit LinkBack Item

If you have pasted LinkBack content from another app, select the object and use this command to open the content in the original app.

Start Dictation (fn-fn)

To use Dictation, place a text object on the canvas or double-click a shape to make its its label field active, and then press the fn key twice to start dictation. The words you speak are inserted as text. To stop Dictation, press fn twice.

Emoji & Symbols (Control-Command-Space)

Summon the standard macOS Character Palette.

The options in the View menu provide ways for you to zoom in or out, and control the way you look at the Canvas.

Show/Hide Tab Bar

If you are using macOS Sierra (v10.12, or higher), you can enable a tab bar within OmniGraffle so you can work on multiple documents. With multiple tabs open, you can use the tab-related options in the Window menu to switch between tabs, move a tab to another window, or to collect all OmniGraffle windows as tabs in the current document window.

Zoom

These menu options let you zoom in and out on the canvas, and are helpful for when you need fine-grained control over where objects are placed:

Zoom In (Command->)

Move up to the next closest zoom level, making the canvas appear larger.

Zoom Out (Command-<)

Move down to the next farthest zoom level, making the canvas appear smaller.

Zoom to Actual Size (Option-Command–0)

Move to 100 percent zoom, so that the canvas appears as large as it actually is according to the canvas units.

Zoom to Selection (Option-Command-J)

Zoom to a level and position that fills the view with the currently selected objects.

Previous Zoom

Return to the previous zoom level you had before the current one.

Fit in Window

Zoom to a level and position that keep every object on the canvas visible as you work.

Extras

There are several things on the canvas (other than the objects themselves) that you might want to see; choose something from this list to show or hide it.

Actions

Any object with an action assigned to it in the Action inspector gets an action tag near its upper-right corner.

Grid Lines (Command-\)

This is the grid as defined in the Grid inspector. Note that you can snap to the grid whether it’s visible or not.

Guide Lines

These are the manual guides that you set up for aligning objects on the canvas.

Magnets

Choose this to see all objects’ magnets, all the time.

Notes (PRO)

Any object with a note in the Note inspector gets a note tag near its upper-right corner.

Origin

This is the crosshair that represents the canvas origin.

Page Breaks

These are the lines that represent borders between pages.

Rulers (Command-R)

The rulers help you size objects on the canvas, and include an inspector bar for common object editing.

Movement Handles

Choose whether to have object movement handles displayed. When displayed, a handle is placed at the center of the object, which you can click and drag to move the object; clicking and dragging the other handles will resize the object in the direction you drag the mouse.

Show/Hide Sidebar (Option-Command–1)

Toggle the visibility of the left sidebar which contains Canvases and their layers, and Contents.

Show Contents

Use these options to toggle the Sidebar’s view options:

Layers (Option-Command–2)

This is the default view for the Sidebar, which shows you the canvases, layers, and all associated objects on those layers.

Guides (Option-Command–3)

Displays the positions and colors of the Guides.

Outline (Option-Command–4)

The Outline Editor makes it easy for you to quickly enter—and edit—objects in a project. This provides you with a hierarchical view of the objects in your project so you can quickly assess their relationships.

Selection (Option-Command–5)

The Selection Matrix groups similarly-styled objects—blocks, labels, lines, images, together so you can quickly select objects based on their style.

Display Canvas

These options make it easy for you to switch between the different canvases in your project:

Next Canvas (Command-])

Switch to the canvas after the one you are currently editing.

Previous Canvas (Command-[)

Switch to the canvas before the one you are currently editing.

Customize Toolbar

Conjure up a sheet of controls that you can drag to your toolbar, as in other Mac apps.

Show/Hide Toolbar

Set the visibility of the document window’s toolbar.

Enter/Exit Full Screen (Control-Command-F)

Enter full screen mode.

The options in the Format menu provide control over fonts, colors, and object and diagram styles.

Show Fonts (Command-T)

Opens the standard Font panel.

Show Colors (Shift-Command-C)

Opens the standard Color panel.

Font

Use this submenu to set a font and style to the selected text.

Bold (Command-B)

Make the selected text bold.

Italic (Command-I)

Make the selected text italic.

Underline (Command-U)

Underline the selected text.

Outline

Places an outline around the selected text.

Bigger (Command-+)

Make the selected text bigger.

Smaller (Command-–)

Make the selected text smaller.

Kern

Change the spacing between characters; options include:

• Use Default
• Use None
• Tighten
• Loosen

Ligature

If the font of the selected text offers ligatures, you can use these options to join two or more characters into a single glyph:

• Use Default — characters appear with minimal ligatures, if available.

• Use None — characters appear without ligatures.

• Use All — characters are joined into a single glyph, if available.

For more information about ligatures, see the Wikipedia page on Typographic ligatures.

Baseline

Alter the text’s baseline; options include:

• Use Default
• Superscript
• Subscript
• Raise
• Lower

Copy Style (Option-Command-C)

Copies the style attributes of the selected object.

Paste Style (Option-Command-V)

Pastes the style attributes to the selected object.

Text

These options give you control over the selected text’s properties, including:

• Align Left (Control-Command-{)
• Center (Control-Command-|)
• Justify
• Align Right (Control-Command-})
• Align Top (Option-Command-{)
• Center Vertically (Option-Command-|)
• Align Bottom (Option-Command-})
• Center Horizontally & Vertically
• Allow Hyphenation

Copy Object Style (Control-Command-C)

Put the styles of the selected object on the clipboard, where they can be pasted onto other objects.

Paste Object Style (Control-Command-V)

If there are object styles on the clipboard, apply them to the selected objects.

Choose Diagram Style

Opens the diagram style chooser for applying a consistent style to all objects on the canvas.

Reapply Diagram Style

Applies the current diagram style again, to catch any differently-styled objects that might have shown up since the last time it was applied.

Restyle Selected Objects

Reapplies the current diagram style to just the selected objects.

Use these commands for working with objects on the Canvas or within Layers.

Bring to Front (Shift-Command-F)
Bring Forward (Option-Command-F)

Objects on the same layer have an order to them: newly created objects appear in front of objects that already existed. Choose Bring to Front to move the selected objects in front of all other objects on the layer. Hold Option to change this command to Bring Forward, which moves the selected objects forward one step in the ordering.

Send to Back (Shift-Command-B)
Send Backward (Option-Command-B)

Similar to Bring to Front, except it moves the selected objects behind all other objects on the layer. Hold Option to change this command to Send Backward, which moves the selected objects backward one step in the ordering.

Lock (Command-L)

Lock the selected objects. A locked object can’t be moved or edited. When you try to select a locked object, it shows X marks instead of selection handles. Basically, the only thing you can do with a locked object is unlock it; the exception is that you can change an object’s label and hierarchical position in the outline view. Locking is useful for making sure you don’t accidentally change something you have set up just right.

Unlock (Option-Command-L)

Unlock the selected objects so that they can be moved or edited.

Group (Shift-Command-G)

Use this command with at least two objects selected to turn them into a group, making them behave like a single object.

Ungroup (Shift-Command-U)

Use this command with a group selected to separate it back into its component objects.

Using Subgraphs (PRO)

A subgraph is a special kind of group that can be expanded to show the hierarchy inside it, or collapsed to make it a single compact object. To create a subgraph:

1. Select some objects on the canvas:

   

2. With the objects selected, choose Arrange ▸ Group as Subgraph. Your objects are enclosed by a subgraph rectangle:

   

3. Style and label the objects inside the subgraph however you like:

   

To collapse a subgraph, select it and then choose Arrange ▸ Collapse Subgraph (or from the contextual menu that appears when you Control-click the subgraph). The objects contained in the subgraph are hidden away, and the subgraph becomes a single object. Any incoming or outgoing connection lines belonging to objects in the subgraph become incoming or outgoing lines of the collapsed object itself.

Subgraph members can be selected and edited just like group members: click once to select the subgraph, then click again to select a member inside. See Grouping and Ungrouping Objects for details on how to view, add to, or remove a Subgroup’s objects in the Sidebar.

You can resize the containing rectangle, as long as you don’t make it too small to contain its member objects.

To disassemble a subgraph, select it and choose Arrange ▸ Ungroup (Shift-Command-U).

Guides

OmniGraffle offers Smart Guides and manual guides. Smart guides are little blue lines that appear as you move, resize, or rotate objects, to help you keep things aligned and spaced evenly.

Manual guides are canvas-spanning magenta lines that you place yourself; you can make as many as you like, use them to align objects, and show or hide them from the View menu.

Smart Alignment Guides

These are the Smart Guides that appear to help you line up objects’ edges or centers. They also help you match objects’ rotation when you Command-drag an object’s selection handles.

Smart Distance Guides

These are the Smart Guides that help you space out objects evenly.

Lock/Unlock Guides

As long as the manual guides are locked, you won’t be able to move them.

New Horizontal/Vertical Guide

This puts a guide across the canvas; if the guides are not locked you can use the Selection tool to drag it into position wherever you like. As you drag an object near a guide, its edges or center snap into place along the guide. You can also drag new guides out from the vertical and horizontal rulers.

Clear Manual Guides

Remove all of the manual guides from the canvas. If you just want to temporarily hide them, you can do so from the View menu.

Align

These commands replicate the functionality of buttons in the Alignment inspector (Command–1), lining up objects’ edges and centers, or spacing objects out evenly. Options include:

• Align Left Edges
• Align Right Edges
• Align Top Edges
• Align Bottom Edges
• Align Vertical Centers
• Align Horizontal Centers
• Make Centered Row
• Make Centered Column
• Align Edges to Grid
• Align Centers to Grid
• Align to Canvas Left Edge
• Align to Canvas Right Edge
• Align to Canvas Top Edge
• Align to Canvas Bottom Edge
• Align to Canvas Vertical Center
• Align to Canvas Horizontal Center
• Make Centered Row to Canvas
• Make Centered Column to Canvas
• Offset Vertically by Xpx*
• Offset Horizontally by Xpx*

The Xpx* distances associated with the Offset Vertically by and Offset Horizontally by options are determined by the distances set in the Alignment inspector. By default, these are set to 36 pixels.

Grid

Snap to Grid and Align Objects to Grid work just like they do on the Grid inspector; Size Objects to Grid resizes objects to make their edges follow the nearest grid lines. Options include:

• Snap to Grid
• Align Objects to Grid (Option-Command-[)

Diagram Layout

These commands lay out objects, either all objects on the canvas or the selected objects, according to the settings in the Diagram Layout inspector. Options include:

• Lay Out Entire Canvas
• Lay Out Selection
• Object Rank
  • Default
  • Minimum
  • Maximum
  • Same

Size

If you have objects of different sizes on the canvas, but would like them to be the same size, first select the object that has the dimensions you’d like the others to emulate, choose Arrange ▸ Size, and then choose one of the resizing options:

• Make Same Width
• Make Same Height
• Make Same Size
• Make Natural Size
• Size to Fit Image

Make Natural Size makes an object’s height and width equal. For objects with an image placed in the Image inspector, Size to Fit Image makes the object just big enough to show the whole image at its original size.

The Inspectors menu provides ways for you to interact with the Inspectors sidebar, the floating window, or individual palettes and other workspaces you create.

Show/Hide Inspectors (Shift-Command–I)

Toggles the Inspectors sidebar to the right of the Canvas.

Object (Command–1)

Switches the Inspectors sidebar to reveal the following Object inspectors:

• Fill
• Stroke
• Shadow
• Shape
• Line
• Image
• Font
• Text Position
• Geometry
• Alignment

Properties (Command–2)

Switches the Inspectors sidebar to reveal the following Properties inspectors:

• Connections
• Action (PRO)
• Note (PRO)

Canvas (Command–3)

Switches the Inspectors sidebar to reveal the following Canvas inspectors:

• Canvas Size
• Canvas Fill
• Background Image
• Units
• Grid
• Diagram Layout
• Canvas Data

Document (Command–4)

Switches the Inspectors sidebar to reveal the following Document inspectors:

• Format
• Margins
• Document Data

Workspaces

Workspaces allow you to have more control over how you view and use the Inspectors in OmniGraffle. There are three initial Workspaces:

Sidebar (F2)

This workspace returns the inspectors back to their original state as a sidebar attached to the right side of OmniGraffle’s window.

Floating (F3)

This workspace detaches OmniGraffle’s inspectors from the main window, creating a floating palette that you can move around on your display—or to another display.

Inspector (F4)

When selected, this option creates four individual floating palettes; one for each inspector—Object, Type, Properties, Canvas, Document, and Stencils. When the windows are created, they appear in a stack on top of one another. Just move them apart, or close the ones you don’t need, if that’s the case.

However, you can create custom Workspaces by “tearing off” inspectors into a new floating window.

Edit Workspaces

Open the Workspaces window, where you can save your favorite arrangements of inspectors. Each workspace you save appears at the bottom of this submenu and has a function key assigned to it.

Commands for working with OmniGraffle’s windows.

Minimize (Command-M)

Shrink the frontmost window into the Dock.

Zoom

Size the window to fit its contents, or return to the previous window size.

Show Previous Tab (Control-Shift-Tab)

Switches the view to the document in the previous tab.

Show Next Tab (Control-Tab)

Switches the view to the document in the next tab.

Move Tab to New Window

Moves the document in the current tab to a separate window.

Merge All Windows

Collects all open OmniGraffle windows as tabs in the current document window.

Stencils

Opens the Stencils window so you can drag stencils to the canvas or search your system and Stenciltown for the stencil you need.

Bring All to Front

Put all of OmniGraffle’s windows in front of all other app windows.

When you’re in a pinch and can’t sort something out, we’re here to help.

OmniGraffle Help

This summons the onscreen help you’re reading right now. Thanks for being the kind of person who reads the documentation.

Welcome to OmniGraffle 7

This opens a Welcome document, which highlights the new features you’ll find in OmniGraffle 7.

Release Notes

This pops open a window that includes lots of information from our engineering team about the things they’ve fixed, updated, or have added to OmniGraffle. This document changes whenever we issue an update of OmniGraffle, so be sure to read this after updating to the latest and greatest build to see what’s changed.

Get More Stencils

Choosing this menu option takes you out of OmniGraffle and opens your favorite web browser to Stenciltown, our online repository for sharing and discovering new stencils for OmniGraffle.

Open Scripts Folder

This opens a Finder window, taking you to the Application Scripts folder, used to contain AppleScripts you have created.

Contact Omni

Choose this to start an email message to the OmniGraffle support folks. We also give you the option of attaching the OmniGraffle file you are working on, just in case there’s a bug or you have a particular question how to do something. This is the best way to get in touch with us; your version number and license information are automatically entered in the subject field.