OmniGraffle: From Mind to Screen

The first thing that my teacher tells us to do when we start a project, is to create a “mind map.” Being a student in the technology age, I like to try and use my Mac for as much of my schoolwork as I can.

Usually, to create a mind map on my Mac, I open up Pages, go into “Page Layout” and join text boxes and pictures together with lines. This method works fine for simple mind maps, but re-arranging boxes is a pain, and it can get difficult to add a little style to the page without making it a mess. OmniGraffle, from the OmniGroup, however, is an application focused on creating diagrams, process charts and more.

When you first open OmniGraffle, you are greeted with the template chooser. If you have ever used any of Apple’s iWork applications, the template chooser looks very similar to that. OmniGraffle comes with 16 templates, and you can find more online.

The aspect of OmniGraffle that really makes it useable for many different purposes though, is the stencils. Stencils are the objects that you drag into and manipulate in OmniGraffle projects. There are many stencils included with OmniGraffle, from boxes to clouds, maps, and even circuit engineering objects. There is a website recently featured on the OmniGroup’s website called Graffletopia (which you can now search from OmniGraffle), which has a database of user-submitted stencils, which help to expand OmniGraffle’s functionality even more.

The interface can be a little daunting at first, but just like OmniOutliner, the majority of the options for OmniGraffle are inside of a multi-paned inspector. Similar to OmniOutliner, there is a Style pane and a Document pane, as well as a Canvas and Properties pane.

The Style pane lets you change everything from the fill of a shape/line, to shadow, and how text looks. The amount of customization is quite extensive, so no two diagrams will ever have to look the same. You can set a background image for a shape, or even the whole canvas.

The Properties pane is where the more technical aspects of your diagram are altered. You can set where a shape will sit on the X/Y axis of your canvas, and it’s exact width and height. You can decide where a shapes magnets will be (where a line will automatically join onto the shape), and even add actions (like opening a file, or focusing on a point in your diagram) when a shape is clicked in Presentation mode.

The Canvas pane lets you set up your canvas (funny how that works eh?). You can set the canvas size, grid, alignment and even how the diagram will act when set to automatically lay itself out. One feature which I found nice in this pane was the “Selection” sub-pane. This lets you select all the occurrences of an object in your diagram at once, which makes it easy to style all of them at once, or change something about them.

The Document pane is quite simple, allowing you to add metadata to your file (Authors, Copyright, Description etc.), and a few options for when you save your file.

Similar to how Pages ’08 has a format bar under the toolbar, OmniGraffle has what the OmniGroup refer to as a “mini inspector.” This bar gives you access to the most used commands in OmniGraffle, so you don’t always have to go into the inspector to edit something.

You have lots of options for lines, from straight lines to curved lines, and OmniGraffle now supports Bezier lines, so you can curve to your hearts content.

Now, in terms of the professional version, it has features and options that I won’t even pretend to understand, which leads me to believe that for the average user, the standard version will more than suffice. The standard version of OmniGraffle comes in at $99.95, and the professional version weighs in at $199.95.

As I mentioned earlier, OmniGraffle has a Presentation mode, though only in the professional version. Going into View>Start Presentation shows your canvas fullscreen. Hovering over an element (Lines, shapes etc.), will highlight it, and clicking on an element will activate any actions you have assigned to them in the Properties pane.

If all you would ever need a mind-mapping application for is the occasional text chart, OmniGraffle can be over-kill, and not cost effective for most. If you just want a simple application for brainstorming or making a simple text chart, I recommend MindNode (freeware). It has a simple interface which makes it easy to create mind-maps.

In the end, OmniGraffle’s use spans far beyond just creating flow charts or mind-maps. Some people use OmniGraffle to lay out the structure for a website, and some even use it to lay out designs for yards and rooms!

If you you do a lot of work where creating diagrams etc. is essential, then the price of OmniGraffle is certainly justifiable, as it makes it simple to get your ideas from your brain to your computer. The stencils available help to convey the message of your diagram in a way that is visually appealing, and easy to understand. There are a few video tutorials done by ScreenCastsOnline of OmniGraffle on the OmniGroup’s website, though they have not yet been updated to reflect the newest version of OmniGraffle. You can purchase either version of OmniGraffle (which is now Leopard-only) from the OmniGroup’s store.

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