Styles and Properties

Styles

Objects start from an object style - a set of default properties and characteristics. Styles are a lot like paragraph styles in word processors. Rather than describing paragraphs, they describe figures, labels, and connectors.

One thing to remember about styles is that they are stored in every diagram. Don't be afraid to change them because if you do and you mess up, your changes only affect that diagram. To make a style change that will affect future diagrams, you must change a template file (see below).

Diagram templates

The purpose of diagram templates is similar to the purpose of word processor template files, to group together a collection of styles that form the foundation of a diagram type. When you create a New diagram, you usually start from a template, such as from a template that contains the basic styles of a LanFlow diagram.

Figure styles

Label Styles

Label styles are similar to figure styles except they include only those attributes which apply to labels.

Connector Styles

Connector styles contain information about the thickness of the line, whether it is straight or curved, its color, and whether it has arrow heads on either end. They also contain a set of rules that define how connectors of the style behave and interact with other objects.

Properties

An individual object such as a figure, label, or connector, has its own properties which it initially receives from an appropriate object style. For example, fill color is a property of a particular figure. The initial color comes from the figure style definition used to create the figure. You can change the fill color of this figure either by changing the figure style from which it was created (which also affects all other figures created from that style), or by changing the fill color property of the particular figure alone.