Hi there, Since much of the Fluid design team (and likely other folks out there on this list!) is now using OmniGraffle for our wireframes and storyboards and there are others who are new to the program, like me, I thought I'd share some advice and tips on things I've learned.
SHARED LAYERS are great for including the unchanging application background on all your mock-ups. Create it by going to Edit -> Layers - > New Shared Layer. Then if a change is needed to the background, you can change it on all your mockups at once by changing the shared layer. INSPECTORS, which usually allow you to set properties on visual elements, are your friend. Get familiar with all the different options in the inspectors. There are multiple different sections in each inspector, represented by a button right under the inspector name. If have a small screen, it's helpful to use two screens when working in OmniGraffle so you can put the inspectors in one screen and your working canvas in another. You can also pull them apart and just put relevant ones you are working with on the screen with your working canvas. TURN OFF SNAP TO GRID IN THE "CANVAS: GRID" INSPECTOR if you want to be able to move things smaller distances. This drove me crazy before I figured out how to turn it off. THE |->, |<->|, etc. FIELDS right at the top of your working canvas can also help you move things right and left, up and down, and expand or contract the width of an element. I used this for small movements before I turned off "snap to grid." EXPORTING ENTIRE DOCUMENT - If you've created several canvases in one OmniGraffle document you can turn them all into JPEGs at once by going to File -> Export and then changing the "Export Area" drop-down to "Entire Document." "All Objects" is also a helpful option, as it seems to remove any whitespace around your drawing (but only exports one canvas, not all of them). Since you can't use this option with "Entire Document," you may have to select all your canvases and you can go into the "CANVAS: SIZE" INSPECTOR and manually adjust the size. I tried to use the "Auto-adjust the canvas size," setting in that inspector, but it unfortunately didn't seem to work for me...perhaps because my drawing was below some minimum size. But that's another thing to try. STENCILS - Here are some great stencils folks have suggested: * Yahoo Design Stencil Kit: http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/wireframes/ * Mac OSX Stencils on Graffletopia (which has a TON of other stencils): http://graffletopia.com/stencils/44 * Wireframe Shapes Angeles : http://graffletopia.com/stencils/42 * UCD Activities & UCD Deliverables: http://www.userfocus.co.uk/resources/omnigraffle.html * Sakai: http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/ENC/Style+Guide+OmniGraffle+Stencil If others have OmniGraffle tips to share, I'd love to hear them! :) Cheers, Allison Allison Bloodworth Senior User Interaction Designer Educational Technology Services University of California, Berkeley (415) 377-8243 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ fluid-work mailing list [email protected] http://fluidproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-work
