DesignerDraw is a program for drawing diagrams. It is useful for such things as structure charts, flow charts, organization charts, dataflow diagrams and other diagrams which have boxes containing text connected by lines. Because connections remain between boxes when the boxes are moved, diagrams are much easier to maintain than when a standard drawing program is used to create them.
DesignerDraw 4.4 is available for use free of charge. My thanks to the many people who paid shareware fees for previous versions. I hope you don't feel cheated by the fact that I'm no longer charging for the program's use, but it was turning out to be a lot of trouble to respond to inquiries, mail out disks, handle purchase orders, etc., and I really wasn't making all that much money. I prefer to spend my time programming.
Please send any comments or suggestions to me on Compuserve at 71340,1210. Please note that the address shown on the shareware versions of the program is no longer valid.
Changes from the previous version
Two useful shortcuts: Double clicking in a box now switches to text entry mode (it used to select all connected boxes), and clicking outside of all boxes after editing text switches to pointer mode. This saves a lot of going to the palette to change modes.
Boxes now have the default text "Untitled" in them. I did this because it is the only way I could get the default style to take effect. The default style is the combination of font, size, and style which was selected when not in text editing mode. This style is supposed to apply to the text in any new boxes, but doesn't seem to take effect unless some text is put in the boxes right away. If anyone knows how to make this work without putting in some initial text, please let me know.
The default justification is now Centered, since this is the most commonly used one in diagrams. The default font is now Helvetica, if present, or Geneva otherwise.
Moving a connecting line from one box to another causes it to attach itself to the new box. Previously, connectors always remained attached to the original box even if they were moved to another box. This meant that the connector moved when the original box moved even though it appeared to be attached to a different box. Now it works like you'd think it should.
The delete key can now be used to delete boxes. (If text is being edited, the delete key applies to the text. Otherwise it applies to any selected boxes.)
Some bugs were fixed which could cause text to get garbled when cutting and pasting under low memory conditions, and which could cause a bomb when the program started up, depending on which inits were loaded. Other minor bugs were fixed as well.
This scrolling help window was added.
Basic Information
The documentation for this program is supplied as a Hypercard stack. If for some reason you don't have it, the information here should help, but it's not complete.
To draw a box - Select the box drawing tool (the rectangle) from the palette and click where the upper left corner of the box is to go. Or click and drag to set the box size when creating it. Alternatively, a box can be created while another tool is selected by holding down the command key (‚åò) while clicking.
To draw a connection between boxes - First select the starting box by clicking in it (if its not already selected) and then click and drag from one of the open squares at the center of a side to the box where the connection is to end. If you create boxes by command-clicking, connections will be drawn initially from all selected boxes to the new box.
Moving boxes - Make sure the pointer tool is selected, then click in a box and drag. You can select several boxes and drag them all at once.
Moving connections - Click in one of the squares shown along the line (a "handle") and drag the line. The end of the line nearest the square you pick will be moved.
Additional options - Holding down the option key while clicking in a box or on a connector handle will bring up a pop-up menu from which several options are available.
Adjusting Text - After selecting Adjust Text from the Box Pop-Up menu, moving the mouse moves the text inside the box. Holding down the option key while moving the mouse does the following: Moving to the right widens the text margins while moving to the left narrows the margins; moving up narrows the spacing between lines while moving down widens the spacing.
Note: If you're using a Mac II series machine, this program runs much faster in black&white mode than in color. Since the program doesn't use color, you might want to switch modes when using it.
Thanks to James W. Walker for sharing the code for this help window.
