Online help: Diagram design

The button bar provides access to frequently used functions in Sankey Flow Show.

To see the function names, associated to an icon: Move the mouse pointer over an icon and wait a second (without moving the mouse). - In the picture below, you see the icons "menu", "revision panel", "undo", "redo", "zoom in", "zoom 100%", "zoom out", "add item", "delete", "paint format", "paint to default", "effects standby"

• Delete: First select one or more items or connections and then click delete or hit the <Del>-key
• Paint format: Select an item or a connection (to copy the format) - click at the "Paint format" icon - select one or more items or connections (to paint the format)
• Paint to default: Similar to "Paint format" - the copied format will bee applied when you add an item or a connection to the diagram
• Effects standby: Depending on your browser and on your computer, there will be a inconvenient delay when you edit a diagram with many visual effects. To avoid this, you can activate the ""effects standby".

Text properties (see picture) are available for following diagram elements

1. Legend
2. Items
3. Connection tags

The second button row "Text position" is available just for items, to set the text position relative to the item shape or icon.

To see a function name, move the mouse pointer over an icon and wait for a second.

Fill properties are available for following diagram elements:

1. Diagram
2. Legend
3. Items
4. Connections
5. Connection tags

Below the color field, you can see the opacity picker. Right to it, there is a small rectangle showing the currently selected color. You can click this rectangle to show your browsers native color dialog (just available in some browsers).

Line properties are available for following diagram elements:

1. Legend
2. Items
3. Connections
4. Connection tags

Please select a line style other than "hidden" to see an effect of a property change.

You can select one or many items, one or many connections and the legend. The "properties and details" panel shows the design and data properties of the selected elements. If no element is selected, the properties of the diagram itself are shown. You cannot select elements of different types at the same time (e.g. items and connections).

How can I select (multiple) elements?

• Click to select and <shift>-click to add/remove an element to/from the current selection
• Lasso: Drag a rectangle on the diagram surface around the items you want to select. (Hold the <alt>-key down to select connections instead of items.)
• Short cuts: Press <ctrl>-a to select all items - press <ctrl><alt>-a to select all connections

Drag an item to move it and drag one of the round selector handles to size an item. When you move an item, the connections attached to it will follow automatically. -> Try to move multiple items and see what is happening to the connections in between them.

The picture on the right shows several ways to create connections:

• From item to somewhere: Drag a line from a triangular handle to the diagram surface
• From item to new item: Drag a line from a triangular handle to somewhere and hold the <ctrl>-key down
• From item to item: Drag a line from a triangular handle to another item
• Branch a connection: Drag a line from a triangular handle to a connection so that a line segment of the connection is highlighted
• Branch a connection: Select a connection and then hold the <shift>-key down while you drag a line from one of the highlighted connections segments

Add: Select a connection and drag a highlighted line segment as shown in the picture on the right

Remove: Click at a round handle of a selected connection (without moving)

To select the diagram itself, click at the (white) diagram surface. The design properties will adjust as you can see in the picture on the right.

Here are some hints to particular diagram properties:

• Shown unit: In most cases, you will enter this unit when you create a new diagram. It is the default unit for newly created connections. In special cases, you will use different units. E.g. some of your connections will be based on "kg" others will be based on "MJ". In these situations, you can toggle the shown unit, depending on the group of connections which you want to show in Sankey mode.
• Max width: This is the width of the widest connection branch in the diagram
• Magnetic border: This setting has no direct influence on the diagrams appearance. It helps you when you change connections to keep a constant gap between the connection end and an item: You will feel a magnetic behavior when you move connection ends.
• Palette: The purpose of the palette functions is to find a new idea for your diagram colors and to provide sets of matching colors. Hint: To get the most out of this feature, try to use just the colors 1-5 or just the colors 6-10 of a palette (and their lighter/darker modifications).

The legend of a diagram can be shown optionally with the checkmark behind "show legend" below "design" in the diagram properties.

Each connection of a diagram has a property "show in legend", which is checked by default.

Sankey: Show values with proportional connection widths (see upper part of the picture).

Constant width: Show all connections of a diagram with the same width (see lower part of the picture).

Select one or multiple items of a diagram to see the item properties as shown in the picture on the right. Here are some hints to particular properties:

• Caption: Hit <shift><return> to add a line break. Hit <return> to apply your changes.
• Combine inbound/outbound connections: Before you use these options, add all connections of an item. When you check these options, the lines of the connections will be adjusted side to side, and inbound connections will appear with a common arrow head.
• Frozen: Sometimes you want to place an item in the background (e.g. a grey box). To prevent that the background item is getting focused whenever you try to connect a foreground item, you can set the checkmark "Frozen".
• Totals: see below
• Effects: see below

Before you use the layout tools, select multiple items of a diagram.

You can add an inner and an outer effect to an item. Both effects can be combined as shown in the picture on the right.

Hint: An outer shadow can increase the contrast and in this way help to get a clear picture. Use the other effects sparingly to set accents in your diagram.

Select one or multiple connections of a diagram to see the connection properties as shown in the picture on the right. Here are some hints to particular properties:

• Roundness: Set the curve radius with the property "roundness". Please note, that also the angle of a curve has an influence on the curve radius. Additionally, a curves radius is limited if the segment of a connection are very short.
• Tags (labels and indicators) can be added with the "plus" button. The precision and the shown unit of indicators can be specified in the connection properties (see also: next picture)
• Effects: (see item effects)

There are three different kinds of tags:

• "Labels" show the name of a connection
• "Indicators" show the amount of a connection segment with a given unit
• "Percent indicators" show the amount of a connection segment relative to a total value. Depending on the property "use diagram units", the total value is the diagrams maximum value (checked) or the connection specific total (not checked).

To add a tag, select a connection with a click, find "Design -> Tab: tags (icon: box with a plus)" and click one of the "Add xxx" buttons.

Move an indicator next to different segments to see the shown value changing appropriately. You can add multiple indicators to the connection. The maximum is 1 per segment.