Gliffy Blog » Tips and Tricks

Gliffy Self Help Expands: User Manual Now Available!

Debi Kohlhardt — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:04:37 +0000

The entire Gliffy staff is proud to provide our Gliffy Users with (drum roll please) the Gliffy User Manual

Now, as you work on your complicated Network Diagrams or fancy Flow Charts, you can easily search for basic how-to’s, hints, tips and features in the Gliffy User Manual. We still cant help with shoveling snow, but we are happy to provide you with a way to navigate our application.

The current manual covers Gliffy Online, Gliffy Confluence Plugin, Gliffy JIRA Plugin. Wondering how to add links to your diagram or publish your diagram — It’s all in the manual.

Thanks to all for their hard work on pulling this long-awaited feature from a JIRA issue to reality.

Keep those suggestions for features coming — we love to create the program you love!

–Your Gliffy Team

Copying Elements from One Diagram to Another (Confluence and JIRA Plugins)

Debi Kohlhardt — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:12:30 +0000

A recent user suggested this tip to be placed in a more prominent place. As we like to do with user requests, here you go!

To copy and paste between Gliffy Diagrams in your Confluence pages or JIRA issues:

* This presumes you have both a Gliffy Diagram you wish you copy content from and a diagram (can be blank) you wish to paste content to (destination diagram)
If you do not have the destination diagram created yet, please do that before beginning the steps.
1 – Edit the document you wish to copy content from

2 – Select the items to copy, then Click Edit–>Copy or Edit–>Select All to copy the content

3 – Select the ‘Open’ option in the File menu to open the document you wish to paste into

4 – Click Edit–>Paste to paste the content into the destination document
**Note: This will only work in the same browser tab. It will not work across browser tabs or browser windows.**

Many teams use this to implement Templates for colleagues.

Happy Replicating!
–Debi K

Flowchart Excellence

Zack Kushner — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:21:38 +0000

You don’t have to be fancy to get your point across, but there’s a reason graphic designers stay in business; beautifully presented information is more likely to be looked at, understood and enjoyed.

Take a look at these two flowcharts from the New York Times and you’ll see what I mean. Click through to the Times to see them in their full glory.

The first, by Paula Scher, tracks how reactions to blog posts transition from amazement to antipathy to ennui. It’s black & white, but the way Ms. Scher visually shapes her presentation adds mystery and meaning to what would otherwise be dull.

The second, by Sam Potts, honors the passing of Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax with a flow chart about the evolution of geekdom. Has he organized the information in the most logical way? No. He presents ideas in a maze reminiscent of the subterranean arenas Gygax envisioned. It’s about geeks and looks like it.

When you’re creating your own flowcharts, think of these excellent examples. It’s not just what you’re saying — it’s how you say it.

Moving Gliffy Diagrams

Debi Kohlhardt — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:22:25 +0000

Looking for a way to move your floor plan diagram? Here is the best way to move your Gliffy Online diagram from one document to another without having to reference another page:

With the diagram you’d like to move open:

1) Decide the items you’d like to move
2) Click on one shape you’d like to move, then hold shift key and select additional shapes to move
3) Then select copy
4) Open the file to paste the diagram into
5) Select Paste

If you’d like to move the entire diagram, at step 2, choose select all, copy. Then open the new file, select paste.

To move your Gliffy Plugin for Confluence or Gliffy Plugin for JIRA Diagram:

1) Create a destination diagram to move the copied shapes to.
2) Use File->Open in the Gliffy editor to open the diagram that has the original shapes
3) Use Edit->Select All, or click+shift each shape to move
4) Then click Edit-Copy, to copy the contents of the original diagram
5) Use File->Open to open the destination diagram
6) Use Edit->Paste to paste the contents into the destination diagram

Certainly easier than packing boxes!

–The Gliffy Team

What are the Options for High Quality Exporting (SVG, Adobe, etc.)?

Debi Kohlhardt — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:19:18 +0000

Looking for ways to present your Gliffy diagram in a clear, professional manner?

We suggest, to increase the quality of exporting formats, export as SVG, which can then be imported into Visio or Adobe Illustrator. These applications can give more options for higher quality formats.

Gliffy Diagrams are a great way to represent ideas and concept with a picture. At your next business meeting, present a UML diagram or SWOT analysis using Gliffy for professional results.

Happy Exporting!

–The Gliffy Team

Moving Gliffy Diagrams into Word

Debi Kohlhardt — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:41:57 +0000

Ever wonder if you are the only one with this question?

You’re not. Here is the quick and easy way to move your Gliffy organizational chart, flow chart or other Gliffy document into Word.

With Gliffy Diagram Open:

File, Export as JPG

Hit Ok, Save to Desktop

Then, within your word document: Insert, Picture, From File

You will browse to the JPG file on your desktop, Select the JPG file, Click Insert and you are ready to go!

This may not be news to some, but we hope it is relief for others. Enjoy~

Public facing JIRA and searching support

Chris Kohlhardt — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:12:03 +0000

As Mike mentioned in the recent post about our new web site and logo, we’re now using JIRA for customer support which is helping us respond to customer queries more quickly.

Where JIRA really shines, however, is in the issue/bug tracking department. We’ve now moved all of our bug and feature request tracking into JIRA which is helping us keep better tabs on the many feature requests we receive on a regular basis.

At this point you may be thinking…. that’s nice… but why do I care?

Part of our goal as a company is to keep you as informed as possible about what we’re working on, and make it easier for you to tell us what is important to you. To this end, product issues are now publicly available for you to view, create, vote on, and watch.

Take a peek at the issues currently logged in our system:

http://jira.gliffy.com/browse/GLIFFY

If you log into JIRA, you’ll be able to perform several different operations with issues:

Vote on issues – If a feature or issue is is important to you, please vote on it. By voting on an issue, we’ll know that issue is important to you, and that will help us know to implement that feature first.
Watch issues – Again, if an issue is important to you, you can ‘watch’ an issue in JIRA. When the status of an issue changes, you’ll be notified.
Create issues – Is there something you’d really like to see in Gliffy? Create a feature request, and we’ll look into it.
Browse – Are you interested in finding out if a feature is on our radar? You can browse or search for issues that are important to you.
Comment – Do you have an idea or more information about a feature request or issue? Comment on an issue to provide us with your ideas.

Search for answers

Another new feature we’ve added to our support portal is the ability to search all of our content. By simply entering your search terms, you’ll be able to find related information on our web site from a variety of sources including JIRA, FAQ, forums, and of course this blog. Try it here:

More Drawing Control with Lock Shape

Clint Dickson — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 23:04:16 +0000

So you got that cool background image in your Gliffy diagram you want to start decorating with shapes and text. But, as you start dropping things onto the image and moving them around, you accidentally move the background image around too. Now you have to re-position it again. This can be painful and annoying and may cause swelling of the brain.
Thankfully there is Lock Shape. Yes, Lock Shape. Just select that background image or any shape you want to lock into place and click the Lock Shape check box in the right-side properties area of Gliffy. The shape overlay will now have red handles, signifying the shape is now locked. Yes, no more re-positioning those background shapes and wantless Undo-ing.
(Warning: Lock shape can cause extreme excitement and spontaneous ogling at your diagram)

Multiple shape alignment and positioning

Clint Dickson — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:59:07 +0000

Sometimes when great things happen, people often use the statement “the planets must be aligned”. Well the same thing can be true when you create that jaw-dropping Gliffy flow chart diagram with nicely aligned shapes. Can your boss say, “promotion”? So how do you align shapes quickly and easily? Just drag select or CTRL-click multiple shapes. In the right hand properties area you will then see our shape alignment buttons. You can align shapes by edges or by center lines. So now you want to adjust all of those shapes by 10 pixels? Easy! With those shapes selected, just hold down the shift key and then hit one of the arrow keys in the direction you want to move the shapes.

The power of ESC

Clint Dickson — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:54:18 +0000

Many people have heard about the power of ESP, but Gliffy users might find ESC to be more powerful. The Escape (ESC) key can help you be more productive when creating your earth-shattering flow charts, floor plans, or network diagrams. Here are some ways you can use the ESC key:

1. When you are finished drawing a line and want to turn off the line tool, just hit ESC instead of finding and clicking the button with your mouse.

2. When you are adding text to a shape or with the text tool, when you are done typing, just hit ESC to bring focus back to the object you are adding text to. Hit ESC again to deselect the object or turn off the text tool.

3. If you have an any object selected, hit ESC to deselect the object.

4. Hit ESC to cancel out of any Gliffy Dialogs (where applicable).