Bezier Lines
 

How does one draw a bezier line? How does one "pull out" the control handles?

The directions in the OmniGraffle 5 pdf manual don't work for me.

If I draw a normal curved line, I cannot "pull out" a control handle from a vertex while holding down the Command and Option keys.

If I click the bezier shape tool (called the pen tool? in the manual) and then hold down Command and Option while click-dragging on a vertex on a previously drawn curved line, I can see that I'm pulling out the control handles - BUT - as soon as I let up on the mouse button or the Command/Option keys, the control handles turn into control handles on a SHAPE, not on the LINE I am editing, and the shape is attached to the vertex on the line I was trying to edit.

What the HEY? Is this a "feature"? Is the purpose of the bezier to grow shape warts on lines? :-)

Otherwise I really am liking OmniGraffle 5!

Ah Ha!

I see now that you have to select the bezier wavy line in the stroke palette. Gee, too bad that isn't obvious from reading the manual or the help text. I guess I just assumed that any curved line could be a bezier line, all you had to do was drag-out the control handles. That was an incorrect assumption.

This doesn't work for me. In fact, it looks like the option and command modifier keys behave just the same, i.e. they move the selected point around. I've also tried all combinations of control, shift, option and command modifiers, to no avail.

Picking up any of those predefined z-shapes from the factory “line types” stencil doesn't let me reveal their control handles either: what am I missing?

I've sent mail to [email]omnigraffle@omnigroup.com[/email] but only got an auto-reply... Any suggestions?