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Omnigraffle frustrations (annoyances and feature requests) Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I've used Omnigraffle as my main wireframing tool since 2007, and I'm pretty devoted to it. Really, I love it. Nevertheless, there have always been some things about it that frustrate me daily, which I used to report in these forums regularly until eventually giving up.

I must be a very untypical user, because with every update I read the release notes to find issues I've never experienced, enhancements I don't need, and none of my annoyances and feature requests addressed. OG6 is no exception. As far as I can see, the only thing it adds that I wished for is improved handling of placed bitmap images.

My last feature request & annoyances compendium was in 2009. For many I've found solutions, or got used to it, but the following issues still frustrate me daily:

1. PLEASE add Canvas numbers in sidebar
See my rationale here.

2. Please add Back/Forward Canvas navigation
I'd like keyboard shortcuts (or toolbar buttons) for Back/Forward Canvas (the previous/next one viewed). I regularly work on documents with 50 canvases or more, and this would save me an enormous amount of scrolling over the sidebar. (Made worse by lack of canvas numbers.)

3. Shift-drag constrains. Alt-drag copies. Why can't I combine them?
As discussed previously, this supposedly works. No, it works sometimes, but usually it doesn't. No idea why.

4. After Undoing, the previous selection should still be selected so that you don't have to re-select
It's very frustrating to have to repeat a complicated selection. This was claimed to work, but it doesn't.

5. Please improve how Cmd-D duplicate works, so it can be used after an Alt-drag duplicate
If you Alt-drag to copy, then Cmd-D to duplicate, the new object should be placed the same distance and direction as the first move. This would be very, very useful. Using Cmd-D for this is confusing. (You have to Cmd-D, then move, then Cmd-D again.)

6. Allow user to set page zoom across multiple canvases simultaneously
Also reported here. Usually it's good that canvases retain their last zoom setting, but often you just want to page through the whole document without having to do a fit-to-page on every canvas.

7. Copy Style (Cmd-Ctrl-C) should not clear the normal clipboard buffer
Also reported here.

8. Search/Replace doesn't include Canvas titles
This just feels like an oversight and can waste a lot of time.

9. Please provide a Thumbnails view of all canvases
Like Powerpoint's "slide sorter" view, with configurable thumbnail sizes.

10. After a Search & Replace, confirm somewhere how many replacements were made
All decent apps do this. How else do you know if a Replace operation had unintended consequences?

11. Can't duplicate a line using Cmd-Alt-arrow
For some reason you can't duplicate lines like you can duplicate every other kind of object.

12. Bullet lists are a pain in the neck
For some reason, when you try to paste text into an object containing a bullet list, it often creates a double set of bullets, which you then have to delete one by one. This feels like a bug. Text also sometimes retains an invisible bullet-list style, which reappears when text is pasted into it.

13. Tab stops are a pain in the neck
The only way to edit tab stops is by dragging the tiny tab markers in the ruler, which is fiddly and inaccurate. Everything else in Omnigraffle allows for precise numerical control. This is made worse by the fact that custom tab styles can't be copied and pasted like other text styles using Cmd-Alt-C/V, making tab stops almost useless.

14. Tables are buggy
For example, if you want text to be vertically centered in a cell, the cell has to be set to "Resize to fit". But if you then paste text into the cell, it shrinks to the height of the content, and only regains the row height if the table is nudged.

I have also submitted regular crash reports caused by using the Add Row/Column shortcut keys in tables. (Cmd-Enter, Cmd-Alt-Enter)

15. There are many operations in OG where Undoing does not restore an object to exactly the way it was
I assume you're aware of what I'm talking about, but let me know if I need to provide examples. E.g. undoing after changing text alignment, or undoing after a changing an object style. This feels buggy.


I don't mean to gripe – Omnigraffle is a great product. But it's disheartening seeing these frustrations persist year after year, update after update. Perhaps some of these have been in addressed in OG6. If so, please let me know, because as it stands there's not enough reason for me to upgrade.

Shall I submit this as a bug report too?
 
+1 to each of these. I encounter many of these small issues on a daily basis. It doesn't seem that v6 has improved them (so far).

To be fair, the "Canvases" sidebar now has page numbers. Aside from that I find the design less useful (smaller previews, takes up more space, titles are extremely truncated), but at least that's something.
 
Many good suggestions here. I'm a long time OmniGraffle user and the sidebar is too cluttered. We need more capability to organize our Canvases.
 
+1. All of these would be good & needed improvements.
 
 


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