In Style Editing mode, you can define
styling as follows:
- Set options to change some aspect of the diagram as a whole
- Create or change a style rule
- Select graphic objects and edit the associated style rules
To enter Style Editing mode:
-
Click the Style Editing button in the vertical toolbar.
Panes in Style Editing mode
In Style Editing mode, the panes of the
Designer window are as follows:
- Upper left: Style Rules tree, showing the rules that determine the appearance of the objects displayed
- Right: Diagram in Style Editing mode
- Lower left: Styling Customizer for the selected rule, showing the styling property values.
You can display the data model as a
reference if you open the Data Model window.
You can edit the data properties if you
open the Data Properties window.
You cannot see all application behavior.
To define a style rule:
-
Choose Edit>Create Style Rule to create a new rule with the Create Style Rule wizard
-- or --
-
Choose Edit>Change Style Rule to change the selected rule with the Change Style Rule Wizard.You can also right-click a rule and choose Create Style Rule or Change Style Rule in the pop-up menu.
To select a graphic object in the
diagram:
-
Click the object in the Diagram pane.A rectangular dashed line appears around it. This is called the selection box.
To deselect objects:
-
Click in the pane, outside the objects.
If you select a rule in the Rule Tree,
the rule is highlighted and all objects affected by the rule are
selected in the diagram.
When a rule is highlighted, the Designer
displays the Styling Customizer for the selected object(s).
Selection drives the property setting
process as follows:
- When you select an option in the Style Rules, the Styling Customizer displays the associated properties.
- There can be several rules controlling a data object. When you select an object in the diagram, the Designer highlights the first rule for this object in the Style Rules. The first rule is the most specific one. This action is known as rule-select. If you click the same object again, the Designer highlights the second rule (second most specific) and so on, that is, it cycles through the rules from the most specific to the least specific and then back to the most specific again. At the same time, the Designer displays the associated properties in the Styling Customizer.
If you double-click a graphic object in the diagram, the objects
properties are displayed in the Data Properties window. You can
change the values of the properties, except the
tag
property (user-defined type).
To change a property value:
-
Click the name of the property.
-
Edit the value field of the property.