Build Killer Charts
Posted 03/31/2006 at 7:14pm
| by John Brandon and Niko Coucouvanis

1. UTILITIES Click here to access the quick Outliner tool and Layers manager.
2. STATUS BAR Look here for basic layer and selection info.
3. ACTION ICON Indicates that an object has an associated clickable Action.
4. MAGNIFICATION When your chart gets big, shrink the view.
5. STENCIL Find flowchart building blocks and connectors.
6. CANVAS INSPECTOR Alter your page size, alignment, orientation, grid behavior, and diagram layout.
7. PROPERTIES INSPECTOR Tweak box geometry, Connector behavior, and Actions here.
8. STYLE INSPECTOR Suss your stuff and make stylistic changes.
WHAT YOU NEED
> OmniGraffle 4.1 ($79.95, www.omnigroup.com)
> Mac OS 10.3.9 or later
> Enough of a plan to make a flowchart
A picture is worth a thousand words - and at the rate attention spans are shrinking, visual flowcharts may soon be the only practical means of communication. Whether you're planning your day, designing a computer network, charting your family tree, or determining how many degrees of separation exist between you and the Antichrist (aka Scott Baio), flowcharts make everything smoother. Here's how to use OmniGraffle to diagram your chaos into order - it's such a convenient and flexible tool that we used it to plan this very website.
Begin by installing OmniGraffle ($79.95, free trial at www.omnigroup.com). Launch it, close the sample document (Command-W), create a new one (Command-N), and start in chartin'!