[JoeWass]

In my opinion, Omnigraffle appears to be a bit confused about what it wants with pages and what they mean. I have one or two constructive gripes with Omnigraffle Pro. Yeah OG's a fantastic piece of software, helped me no end etc etc, but as a paid-up user, I think I'm entitled to my gripes too...

I'm trying to write a document with diagrams (as I imagine many people on this forum are) and this document will span many pages. There are two ways to approach the issue.

The first is to have multiple canvases. Great, you can use a master and automatically insert page numbers etc. But when you go between canvases you lose zoomage, grid spacing, who knows what else. This inconsistency rules out the multiple canvas route, as I quite like the idea of a master behind all of my canvases, especially on the page number front.

The second option is to have canvases that span multiple pages. This appears to be the logical way to go, but it's all too obvious that it's just OG splitting one large space into several pages: the grid is consistent for the whole canvas rather than for each page (as, some would argue, it should be) so you don't get the grid in the same place on each page. Also, the master maps directly onto the canvas rather than the page so the whole page numbering idea is out the window.

I respect the way that Omni has done this, and it seems logical. But for me and I'm sure a lot of people out there, there should be a middle way for creating real-world documents, not just some Object Oriented ideal that conforms to some higher concept...

So do people agree that there's missing functionality? Am I ignorant of something that's blindingly obvious? Or is there room for improvement? At the moment I'm just having to do without page templates / numbers / headers / footers which I'm quite fond of.

Whilst I'm about it, what about double- / option- clicking the zoom to enter a custom number? And how about that value persistently and globally staying in that menu?

Comments? Questions? Am I wrong? Has omni already thought of a solution for me?

Joe Wass

[Ed Renaud]

Interesting... I've been frustrated by this as well, though I still use OG many many hours a week. Reading your post just now, a first simple idea came to mind, followed by a second cooler one!

First: we all agree should have margins. Then upon printing the canvas, it could be mapped automatically into the page size minus the margins. The margins would be able to contain their own "data" (static text, page numbers, dates, etc...) but extend beyond headers and footers concept to the 4 sides (this is a graphics tool, right?).

Second: the margins (as described above) could just be defined to "overlay" with a variable user-defined transparency!

Actually, somewhat akin to printing photos with/without borders but where the border areas can have defined content...

I think these 2 options or modes would give me the flexibility to address most of the needs I have encountered.

Thanks!

[dude]

I am sitting in front of my 24" iMac laying out a document that will have 155 pages in it in OG Pro. I am only on page 8 now but I wanted to get this laid out good before I got too much further along. So I am exploring the use of multiple canvases. Currently, I have chose to use one canvas to get started for each product line and one layer per canvas. This means I am using multiple pages within a single canvas to create my report (which are individual flow charts for each product we manufacture).

I would like a way to have a header and footer on each of the pages in each canvas so they match exactly (header, footer, page number, etc.). Further, it would be nice to choose to have a "canvas page master" apply it to each page I need it on. This way I am not constantly copying and pasting my life away trying to get everything just perfect on each page.

Why not have a setting in your presentation mode that allows you to cycle between these canvas pages instead of cramming the whole thing up on the screen at once. When you have a 155 pages of stuff, you can't see crap on the screen because it wants to throw all of the page shots up as one big flow chart. I want a choice here so I can cycle through the pages and then go to the next canvas.

I know your first reaction would be to use 155 canvases and that is crazy. There is no organization that keeps the product line together and I would have 155 canvases.

We need more functionality for those of us who are in the gray area of life. OG Pro kicks total butt and I would like to see it continue to lead the way.

Help us Omni group, you are our only hope...

[JKT]

Originally Posted by dude

I would like a way to have a header and footer on each of the pages in each canvas so they match exactly (header, footer, page number, etc.). Further, it would be nice to choose to have a "canvas page master" apply it to each page I need it on. This way I am not constantly copying and pasting my life away trying to get everything just perfect on each page.

Set up a Master canvas that spans multiple pages on the one canvas. Add header, footer, page no. etc to each page in that canvas. When you need to have multiple pages on the one canvas, pick this one as the Master for that Canvas.

Why not have a setting in your presentation mode that allows you to cycle between these canvas pages instead of cramming the whole thing up on the screen at once. When you have a 155 pages of stuff, you can't see crap on the screen because it wants to throw all of the page shots up as one big flow chart. I want a choice here so I can cycle through the pages and then go to the next canvas.

There are a number of things that OmniGroup could do to improve the presentation tool, and this would be a good one to have.

[dude]

Originally Posted by JKT

Set up a Master canvas that spans multiple pages on the one canvas. Add header, footer, page no. etc to each page in that canvas. When you need to have multiple pages on the one canvas, pick this one as the Master for that Canvas.

This is a fine idea except with OG Pro it is hard to get the headers matched exactly on the page when dropping down rows because we don't really have a way to exactly match the distance from the top to a point in the header image. See what I am saying? I can get close but I want perfect. However, the work around you described is currently the best way to do this short of time.

Originally Posted by JKT

There are a number of things that OmniGroup could do to improve the presentation tool, and this would be a good one to have.

Yeah. That is one feature that needs to be enhanced, greatly.

[dude]

I wrote Omni and pointed them to this thread.

I got that presenation mode was not going to be futher enhanced greatly like we would like, that kinda sucks, and there is no pretty solution to do what I need to do. Although they were helpful in giving a great response, I have not had the time to fully implement their suggestions. I will report back.

Joining the thread with a half solution (the other half is "still thinking about how to do it". To get a template for our wireframes, i'm setting up a master doc with several layers. Some layers will be locked so they can be used as placeholder for content, while others will be used for content. I will simply not print/display the placeholder layer at Showtime.
I will let know if it works!