[andyshan]

Why isn't there a way to create a 'master' stencil? I.e. should there be any change to the stencil, then those changes will propagate (update) to all stencil instances on all canvases throughout the document - in the same way masters work in Axure or symbols within Illustrator.

The stencil behaviour could be easily defined within the Stencil Library inspector so 'default' would be the current behaviour, while choosing 'master' would invoke the above behaviour, allowing all replicated instances to propagate accordingly.

It'll save so much time! Especially where there are multiple instances of the same stencil which are prone to frequent small changes!

This is my number one gripe with OmniGraffle! Please, please add this to the next update!

[john.gersh]

Omnigraffle supports linkback for embedding editable content in other applications. See "LinkBack" in the reference section of the OG Help.

Linkback can also be used within an OG document. Select an OG object and Copy As>PDF. Paste the result anywhere in the document. Double-click on the pasted object and a new document window will open within which you can edit the original object. Save the edited version and all instances of it in the document will be changed.

You could reserve one canvas to hold the collection of master objects to copy and paste in the rest of the document, but note that the masters must themselves be instances of the pdf objects.

You can copy and paste linked objects from one document to another, but changes to them propagate only within a single document. It's the same if you put them into a stencil.

[andyshan]

Thanks John. That's what we've already been doing - but it feels very much like a bit of a hack.

It wouldn't be so bad if LinkBack assets retained the dimensions of the originating shapes/set of shapes. I.e. if you use shadows to illustrate depth, or even lines, creating LinkBack's 'expands' these elements (Illustrator style) - which makes aligning up shapes extremely troublesome.

Either way, LinkBack's are a bit of an unmanageable hack, especially with documents with 20, 50, 100 wireframe pages with (e.g. multiple variations of a site header, footer, side bar, etc). It would be awesome if OmniGroup would instead properly support 'update once, change many' functionality - with a central, manageable repository (like how stencils are easily manageable now).

Originally Posted by john.gersh

Omnigraffle supports linkback for embedding editable content in other applications. See "LinkBack" in the reference section of the OG Help.

Linkback can also be used within an OG document. Select an OG object and Copy As>PDF. Paste the result anywhere in the document. Double-click on the pasted object and a new document window will open within which you can edit the original object. Save the edited version and all instances of it in the document will be changed.

You could reserve one canvas to hold the collection of master objects to copy and paste in the rest of the document, but note that the masters must themselves be instances of the pdf objects.

You can copy and paste linked objects from one document to another, but changes to them propagate only within a single document. It's the same if you put them into a stencil.