Hi,
First off... omnigraffle is a stupendous product and I would happily recommend it to anyone and everyone.
But... isn't there always a 'but'!
What I would love to see... or know how to do as I can't work it out is:
1. Be able to specify a master canvas for master canvases. This is one of the features of Visio that is exceedingly useful when building wires. Particularly for large sites where there are a number of masters but elements within each master that are shared. I envisage this working just like the current dragging of a master onto a canvas except this would be dragging a master onto another master. This would, for may anyway, make Omnigraffle even more lovely.
2. Be able to construct master widgets. By this I am thinking very much in the realm of Axure (http://www.axure.com/features.aspx Masters as Templates). In Axure a master isn't a full page, it is merely a small drop in. Something like a stencil drop in with a couple of differences: changes to the master are reflected in all the instances and the instances are not changeable. The rationale behind this originates, again, in large site wires. It is often the case that there is an element that is used on a lot of pages. Not enough pages to make it part of a master template itself, but enough to make it a pain to make changes in all instances when necessary.
One could argue that a new master canvas could be created to effectively do this. In some cases this would be fine but sometimes this is not idea. For example, consider the footer of a webpage. The footer of a page generally always appears at the bottom of a page. When doing wires if you put the footer on a master canvas then you constrain the size of the page. This can reduce the fidelity of the wires and any subsequent prototype. If you have a master widget then you just drag that down to the bottom of each wire and if (when!) a change in the footer is required it is a simple matter of making a change in one place.
You might think, why bother with master canvases if pages can be constructed with master widgets, one for the header, one for the nav, one for the footer etc? In some ways this is true, but it is eminently preferably to just drag in a master canvas for most pages rather than place each of the constant elements for each new page.
This, for me, would make Omnigraffle just too lovely for words!
Thanks for all your efforts and for any consideration given to my humble thoughts.
Kevin
First off... omnigraffle is a stupendous product and I would happily recommend it to anyone and everyone.
But... isn't there always a 'but'!
What I would love to see... or know how to do as I can't work it out is:
1. Be able to specify a master canvas for master canvases. This is one of the features of Visio that is exceedingly useful when building wires. Particularly for large sites where there are a number of masters but elements within each master that are shared. I envisage this working just like the current dragging of a master onto a canvas except this would be dragging a master onto another master. This would, for may anyway, make Omnigraffle even more lovely.
2. Be able to construct master widgets. By this I am thinking very much in the realm of Axure (http://www.axure.com/features.aspx Masters as Templates). In Axure a master isn't a full page, it is merely a small drop in. Something like a stencil drop in with a couple of differences: changes to the master are reflected in all the instances and the instances are not changeable. The rationale behind this originates, again, in large site wires. It is often the case that there is an element that is used on a lot of pages. Not enough pages to make it part of a master template itself, but enough to make it a pain to make changes in all instances when necessary.
One could argue that a new master canvas could be created to effectively do this. In some cases this would be fine but sometimes this is not idea. For example, consider the footer of a webpage. The footer of a page generally always appears at the bottom of a page. When doing wires if you put the footer on a master canvas then you constrain the size of the page. This can reduce the fidelity of the wires and any subsequent prototype. If you have a master widget then you just drag that down to the bottom of each wire and if (when!) a change in the footer is required it is a simple matter of making a change in one place.
You might think, why bother with master canvases if pages can be constructed with master widgets, one for the header, one for the nav, one for the footer etc? In some ways this is true, but it is eminently preferably to just drag in a master canvas for most pages rather than place each of the constant elements for each new page.
This, for me, would make Omnigraffle just too lovely for words!
Thanks for all your efforts and for any consideration given to my humble thoughts.
Kevin
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