Inside OmniGraffle

Many of us at Omni just got our new MacBook Pros (with Touch Bar). Now it’s time to customize the Touch Bar items available in the apps you use most.

A few have written about how the Touch Bar can help with discoverability in complex apps, but it’s also painfully obvious when you don’t know exactly what one of those Touch Bar icons _does_ do. But if you can access the View › Customize Touch Bar menu item, you can quickly find out and customize the different items an app offers.

In OmniGraffle, there are four different Touch Bar palettes, or screens:

• Empty (no selection)
• Shape
• Line
• Text (when actively editing text in an object)

Then, configure each palette (individually) by selecting Customize Touch Bar from the View menu bar. Next time you select a shape or a line, your controls are what you decide they are.

All you need to know about using the five adjustable shapes available in OmniGraffle 7. More videos to come!

Sure, it’s not yet available for purchase…but we’re very excited about the brand new MacBook Pro and its Touch Bar. OmniGraffle’s PM, Dan, writes about the new features included with the Touch Bar release on our blog. With luck we’ll get our new MacBook Pros soon, too. Enjoy!

Our second OmniGraffle tutorial video: Using OmniGraffle’s Object Inspectors.

The first in our series of OmniGraffle tutorial videos: Using 7’s Shape Tool and Style Well.

If you have an OmniGraffle stencil you’re particularly proud of, consider sharing it with the community on Stenciltown!

And if it’s already in use on your machine, it’s ready for upload using the Resource Browser.

Zoom in to a very specific part of the canvas without any guess work on zoom percentage: hold down the z key, then click and drag to set the exact frame you’d like to fill your window.

Aligning objects without relying on Snap to Grid or Automatic Guides can still be extremely fast. It’s all contained in the Alignment Inspector.

Objects can be aligned vertically or horizontally, or aligned to various spots on the canvas. There are two additional buttons in the Alignment Inspector to space out objects equidistant using a manual distance calculation.

To resize just one piece in a larger group—like the content object of a grouped macOS window—just click into the group of objects until selected.

With a group selected, click once more to select just one object. (If it’s a group within a group, keep going!) You’ll see a new set of selection handles and a gray backdrop surrounding the group. Resize to your desired size without affecting the other objects!

Cycle through the Miter, Round, and Bevel stroke corners to find exactly the level of freehandedness you need for your shape. Each will progressively add more embellishment to the freehanded-corner of your shape than the last.