User Manual for Gliffy Online

You can access the Document Manager by logging into http://www.gliffy.com. Select the "open document" button under the "Open an existing document" heading and you're in the Document Manager.

You can also access the Document Manager from within the Gliffy Editor by selecting File -> Open from the top Menu Bar.

Once a document has been created, it will appear in the Document Manager. You can select any document in this list to see a thumbnail preview. Open the document by double-clicking on its name or simply selecting the document by clicking once and using the 'open' button near the upper right-hand corner of the display.

An alternative method of opening a document is to simply use the 'open' option in the drop-down 'edit' menu.

This same drop-down 'edit' menu allows you to rename or delete whichever document is currently selected. The 'Rename' option will prompt for a new name and the 'Delete' option will prompt for a confirmation prior to deletion.

Creating new folders for organizing your Gliffy documents can be done using the   button. If you're saving an existing file you'll see this button at the bottom of the "Folders" column in the lower left hand side of your display. If you're saving a new file you'll see the button near the lower right-hand side of the "Save" display under "Account Documents" which needs to be selected unless you want your folder to appear as a sub-folder. Highlight the folder you want your new folder to appear under if you need to create a sub-folder. Folders containing sub-folders are designated via an arrow to the left of the folder name. You can delete a folder by selecting it and clicking the 'X' to the right of its name. You can't delete a folder unless it is empty. Make sure you've specified the name of your folder prior to clicking the new folder button. 

Note: You cannot create folders inside the Shared Documents folder.

The Shared Documents folder is where you’ll find documents that other Gliffy users have shared with you. You can open and edit these documents, but you cannot move, delete, or change the status of them. If you want to remove yourself as a collaborator on a shared document, you can do so by selecting that option from the drop-down edit menu or by selecting the document name and then clicking the  icon beside the document’s name. You can't drag documents into the shared documents folder.

The Menu Bar provides access to the basic commands needed to share, save and print your documents.The File-> Menu lets you open, save, and export your work in SVG, PNG, JPG, Gliffy XML format and print (including changing the printer setup, printing documents to a single page and printing to PDF). The Edit Menu contains standard copy and paste commands, all of which have keyboard shortcuts. Copy and paste are also accessible using the context menu by right-clicking or control+click. You should also take note of the Group and UnGroup commands found here. These commands allow you to combine text boxes, shapes and lines into clusters that can be manipulated as a single object.

Clicking on the individual tabs within the Shape Library expands that chosen section to allow browsing the shapes it contains. Nested tabs are broken into subsections that can be navigated via drop-down menus such as the one found under the Network tab.

You can drag and drop any shape from the Shape Library onto the Drawing Stage.

The Drawing Stage allows for one or more blank slates where you build your documents. Use shapes pulled from the Library and elements you've drawn using the Toolbar to create flowcharts, diagrams, schematics, wireframes, floor plans or whatever else you desire.

The Toolbar lets you select tools to create lines, shapes, text and more. Take note of the “Revision History” drop-down menu in the upper right corner. This is a quick way to revert to previous drafts. The more often you save, the more useful this feature will be! Also notice the bottom and side scroll bars, which help you move around in larger documents. If your mouse has a scroll wheel it will also work on the drawing stage.

The last piece of the drawing stage is the tabs feature. The tabs feature allows you to work on multiple documents at once. This is especially handy when you want to compare two or more documents quickly, or you want to copy and paste elements between documents.

Each tab will contain the document name, and its version number. It will also have a small lock icon. The closed gray lock means the document is private (not visible via a public URL), and the orange open lock means the document is public (available via a public facing URL). If a star (*) appears next to your document name, it means the document has been edited. You can close a tab at anytime by clicking the "X" button on the tab. You can open a new or existing document in a new tab by clicking the plus button to the right of the tabs.

For Gliffy Online, you can find the properties to change the page or document under the Document Properties drop down, located on the top right of Gliffy next to the Revision History drop down.

From here you can control the basic setup of your document. Define your page size in pixels and you’ll see thin lines that define your document boundaries. Click on the  icon to set your document’s background color. You can also select to display a background grid. Marking the “page breaks” box will display bold purple lines denoting where the page will break for printing purposes. Finally, you can also toggle the Drawing Guides on or off. 

To change the default page size from 8.5”x11” or from Portrait, click “File,” then “Print” in the Menu Bar. The Page Setup box will open on top of your diagram. Here you can select the page size and if you want the diagram in Portrait or Landscape mode.

Note: You will also need to configure your printer settings when changing from Portrait to Landscape mode and vice versa

You can also choose to show the Print Guidelines on your diagram. Check the box and select the orientation you would like and click "Apply". You can then close the Page Setup and your changes will be reflected in the Gliffy Editor. 

There are various ways to navigate your document. The simplest is to use the Page Navigator component. This is especially useful when you have a large diagram, and you need to quickly and easily move about and add details.

The page navigator provides a small birds-eye view of your entire diagram so that you can easily pan or click to any location. It also provides simple zoom controls to allow quick insertion of those fine details. Click anywhere in the window of the page navigator, and the diagram will center to that point. Click and drag the red box in the page navigator to easily pan across your diagram. You can use the slider at the bottom (or the buttons to the left and right of the slider) to zoom in and out of the diagram.

You can toggle the page navigator component on or off via the toolbar on the top of Gliffy.

If you prefer not to use the page navigator, there are other ways to navigate across your diagram. You can use the hand tool for panning (shortcut is Space Bar + Left click on the drawing stage) and the zoom controls located on the top toolbar next to the page navigator button.

Refer to the section on keyboard shortcuts for other quick ways to navigate about your diagram. There are also right click options to zoom in and out when your mouse is over the drawing stage.

To begin, click the “Flow Chart” tab in the Library and click a “start/end” shape and drag it onto the Drawing Stage, now drop the shape on the drawing stage (Note how if you let your mouse hover over a Library shape you’ll see the shape’s title appear).

While that shape is still selected, type “Start”—the text should appear directly inside the shape. Now, click the  icon in the Toolbar. Use your mouse to draw a rectangle directly onto the drawing stage: click, drag and release. While the rectangle is still selected, type “End”. Finally, click the  icon in the Toolbar. To draw a connector between your “Start” and your “End”, click on the start shape and drag the end of the line to the end shape.

While we’re having fun, go ahead and click on the  icon then click on your new flowchart to zoom in. You can zoom back out using the  icon or by choosing your magnification level from the drop-down menu in the Toolbar. You can also right click on the drawing stage and select one of the zoom settings from the context menu.

Whether elements on the Drawing Stage come from the Shape Library or whether they're drawn using the Toolbar, you can move and manipulate them the same way. If you click on an element, you can drag and drop it where you choose on the Drawing Stage. Each shape (like the ‘start’ and the ‘rectangle’ in this example) will display its boundary box when selected. You can use the connection points (little squares in the boundary box’s corners and midpoints) to extend the dimensions of the shape. Just click and drag them. To rotate a shape, click and drag over the curled arrow that you’ll see above the shape.

Lines and connectors are slightly different. Instead of boundary boxes, lines and connectors have small circles defining each endpoint and, in the case of connectors with more than two segments, one to control each middle segment. If you click on the line or connector anywhere but on these circles, you’ll move the entire line without changing its shape. Clicking and dragging the circles will move only that portion of the line or connector.

The Properties Panel for Gliffy Online gives you the power to change properties on a shape, line or group, quickly and with little hassle. When you add or select and object or group of objects on the stage, a small blue button will appear nearby. Click the  button to display different property options for that object or group. No more hunting around the application interface to change a simple property, now it’s right there with one easy click. We’ve got a quick video to show you how simple and efficient it is to use the Properties Panel feature in Gliffy Online:

You can do the following quick manipulations within the Properties Panel:

• you can now change the arrows at the beginning and the end of the line independently, and we give you all arrow options based on the type of line you are drawing. For instance, if you are connecting UML shapes, we offer you the UML arrows in the selection options.
• if you have a selection that contains line, shapes and text, you can now change properties of each object type independently via the Properties Panel, without having to select each object type separately.

The only thing left to do now is to save your document. You can save using the button at the top right of the Drawing Stage or through the “File” menu in the Menu Bar. Each time you save a document, it gets logged as a new revision. At any time you can use the “revision history” drop-down menu in the upper right corner of the Drawing Stage to revert back to any previously saved version. 

Through the File Menu, you’ll also have the option to “Save As”. Many customers use this to create template diagrams or another diagram very similar.

The most basic way to draw shapes is using the Ellipse and Rectangle Tools. These tools work identically; one draws a shape with rounded corners and the other draws a shape with right angle corners.

There’s no trick to using either tool. Just select the tool you want from the Toolbar and draw by clicking, dragging and releasing. The first place on the Drawing Stage that you click defines the first corner of the shape’s boundary box. As you drag your mouse with the button depressed, the box grows. When you release the mouse button, the ellipse or rectangle is created to fill the boundary box you’ve drawn.

If you’re using shapes from the Shape Library, it’s even easier. First find the shape you want. Next click it then drag it onto the Drawing Stage and drop it at the destination.

As explained in Gliffy Basics, any shape can be resized, rotated or moved once it’s been placed upon the Drawing Stage. You can use the little squares that appear in any selected shape’s boundary box’s corners or midpoints to extend the dimensions of the shape. Just click and drag them. To rotate a shape, click and drag the curled arrow that you’ll see above the selected shape.

Also worth noting is the ability to lock a shape to its current dimensions. To do this mark the “Lock Shape” box in the shape’s Properties Panel that appears to the right of the shape. (Using Gliffy Online, you can also right click on a shape and select “Lock Shape” from the context menu.)

When you lock a shape, the little squares around the boundary box turn red to indicate the shape is fixed. You will not be able to change the dimensions, or other properties, of the shape until you unlock the shape.

When you select a shape, you can edit its properties using the Properties Panel . At the top of the shape properties section, you will see three icons that control the shape’s appearance. The  icon lets you choose what color fill you want the selected shape to have. The  icon controls the color of the shape’s border. The final  icon determines how thick the shape’s border is, or whether it has a border at all.

If you find your mouse isn’t giving you the level of control you want, you can also use the Size, Position and Rotation properties to specify the exact dimensions, location and angle of rotation of the selected shape. The position coordinates correspond to the position of the upper left corner of the shape’s boundary box.

At the bottom of the Shape Properties section, you’ll also see check boxes for “Locked Ratio,” “Lock Shape”, “Drop Shadow” and “Gradient Fill.” Marking the “Locked Ratio” box forces the selected shape to retain its current shape, but not its size. You can still make an ellipse or rectangle larger or smaller, but it will hold its aspect ratio. “Lock Shape” not only secures the aspect ratio, but also secures the size, color and other properties of the selected shape. Marking the “Drop Shadow” box will give the shape a shadow that suggests depth. “Gradient Fill” affects a shape’s fill color. When you tick this box, the fill color will transition from lighter to darker from top to bottom.

As noted in the previous section on the document properties, Gliffy provides guides to help you line up your shapes with other shapes. To turn on the drawing guides, click on the Document Properties button on the top right of Gliffy. Just check the “Drawing Guides” check box to turn on the Drawing Guides. Now, when you drag a shape from somewhere on the stage or from the shape library, it will detect if another shape in it’s vicinity has a matching edge or center point. If there is a matching edge, the shape you are dragging will “snap” to the other shapes edge, and a green line will appear to show the alignment. The same goes with a center point, except the line will be red. See the image below as an example of a left edge and center point alignment on the X axis.

The Connector and Line Tools work identically to each other. The Connector Tool lets you draw a line forced to turn at right angles where necessary and the Line Tool draws a straight line between whichever endpoints you select, with no turns. To draw either a connector or a line, select the appropriate tool from the Toolbar, place your cursor where you want your connector or line to start and click and drag to your desired endpoint.

Once you’ve drawn a line or connector you’ll notice a characteristic about each endpoint: if it’s a connector with more than two segments, each middle segment has a little circle. These circles work like the squares around the boundary boxes of shapes. If you click and drag on one of the circles, you’ll only adjust that segment of the line/connector. If you click anywhere else, you’ll move the whole line.

Frequently, you’ll want to connect the end of a line to a shape so that if the shape moves, the line will stick to the shape. When you select a line, you’ll see that all the shapes in your diagram become flanked with little ‘ + ‘ symbols. There should be one in the middle of each shape as well. These ‘ + ‘ symbols are connection points. If you drag the endpoint of a line or connector to one, you’ll see the little circle turn red. That indicates the line is locked to the connection point. From then on, if you move the shape, the line will remain connected.

When initially drawing a line or connector, you can start off on a connection point—if the connection point shows a red circle, your line will be locked to it.

When you select a line or connector, you can change its properties using the Properties Panel (just click the blue button next to the line end, see image below). You can change line color, the line width, and line pattern. You add or change the arrow types at the end of the lines. Plus, you can change the line type. For instance, you can make a straight line, a curved lined. If you select any number of lines or connectors at one time, you can set properties for all of them at once.

Click on the  icon to change the color of the line. The  icon lets you choose how thick the line will be. Next, the  icon gives you a selection of different patterns for the selected line, from finely dotted to solid.

Use the arrows icon buttons to add directionality to your line (for most lines).

You can choose from a selection of three different arrow styles pointing in either or both directions. For specific shapes, like UML, ERD, BPMN, etc., you will get a selection of line end types specific to that shape type.

The direction the arrows in this menu point translates as ‘left = line start point’ and ‘right = line end point’. So if you drew your line from right to left, and select the arrow that points to the right, you’ll see your line will get an arrow pointing to the left! If you consistently draw your lines/connectors from start to end, this will make adding arrows much easier.

You can also use line properties to change lines to connectors and vice versa. This is found at . The first choice is a straight line. The next three are connectors: right angle, rounded corner and Bezier Curve.

When creating a diagram, such as a flowchart, it would be ideal to add a shape, then quickly connect it to another shape. When you have a specific type of shape added to the stage, activate the connector tool, then drag a connector line out of the shape from a connection point. When you release the mouse, a menu will appear allowing you to quickly select the next shape to connect. You can continue to connect shapes in this fashion, allowing you to produce a presentable flowchart, sitemap, network, or UML diagram in just minutes. During this process, if you need to quickly exit text editing on a shape, just hit the Tab key.

Here is an example of using this new shape connection and selection feature:

Step 1 – Drop a shape and add text.

Step 2 – Select the connector tool, click connection point and drag right to create a line.

Step 3 – Release mouse and select a shape to connect to.

Step 4 – Add text.

As your document becomes more complex, you may find you need to control which elements are in the foreground and which are in the background. You can do this by selecting the desired element *be it a shape, a line, or a text box) and using the  icon to send the selected element to the front or the  icon to send it to the back. In Gliffy Online, you can also send elements to the front or back by selecting them and right clicking to select these options in the context menu.

Selecting the  icon from the Toolbar allows you to draw a text box so you can immediately start typing in text. Text will automatically wrap at the end of a line to remain within the box you’ve drawn. If you enter more lines than will fit in the box, the text will extend above and below the borders of the text box.

When you’re done entering text, you can move, resize or rotate a text box just as you would any other shape. If you want to edit the text inside the text box, just double-click on it, you’ll notice a flashing cursor indicating you can edit the text.

Sometimes you’ll want to enter text directly into a shape or over a line. If you do this, you won’t be able to control exactly where the text sits—it will automatically center itself over the middle or under the element you’re adding text to.

To enter text this way, just select the element you want, by clicking one time, and start typing. You can edit this text at any time by double clicking on the element. To completely remove text from an element, double click the element, highlight the text and click delete.

Regardless of how you’ve entered text, you can edit the properties of selected text in the Properties Panel . If you select a text box, an element with text typed over it, or any combination of the two, the text properties section will show up in the Properties Panel.

Here, you can choose between the five current available fonts (Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Courier and Times), change the font size and color, make text bold, italic and/or underlined, and change the alignment of the text. You can also add hyperlinks to text (not available in the Gliffy Plugin for JIRA).

To add a hyperlink, double click on the text and select the words you want to turn into an active link. Then click the  icon and enter the desired URL. Hyperlinks will remain active if viewed as a full-size image on a Gliffy Plugin for Confluence wiki page, exported as SVG or a published URL Gliffy Diagram.

You can set different sections of text to have different properties within the same text box or element. For example, one word in a sentence can be bold and in a larger font size. Alll that's needed is to select the words you want to change the properties for and make your changes.

In Gliffy Online, the Account Images tab is where you can upload images directly into your Gliffy account. Any image in this tab can be clicked, dragged and dropped to the Document Editor and manipulated like any other shape. Images must be in GIF, JPG or PNG format and cannot be larger than 1 MB.

When you’re uploading Account Images, you’re required to tag each image. These tags are searchable from within the Account Images tab.

If you tag a group of photos all as “DVD” for example, you can enter “DVD” into the search field in the Account Images tab and click “Go” to bring up only those photos.

To delete an uploaded image, in the library, use your mouse to hover over the image. Click ‘see options’ and select ‘delete this image’.

The Image Search tab in the Library lets Gliffy Online users search Bing Web Services for images. Just enter your search term in the field provided and click “Go.” Gliffy will display the first hundred images returned from your search, broken into pages of ten. You can scroll down through pages using the scroll bar at the side of the tab or navigate through pages using the “previous” and “next” links. These images will be annotated with their size in pixels, so you can judge their quality before adding them to your document. They are editable just like any other shape in Gliffy.

In all three Gliffy programs, you have access to export and print options through the File menu in the Menu Bar.

In this menu, you can export Gliffy documents in SVG, Gliffy XML, JPG and PNG format and save them for off-line access. To use: Open a Gliffy Diagram, Click File, and then Choose the Export Option you prefer (SVG, Gliffy XML, JPG or PNG). The diagram will be saved to your computer based on your preferences for files downloaded from the internet.

The print option opens the “Page Setup” menu. Here you have the ability to print your document to a single page, print in portrait or landscape, set the document to various page sizes (including: 8.5in x11 in (Letter), 8.5 in. x 14 in (Legal), 11 in x 17 (Ledger), 297 mm x 420 mm (A3) and 210 mm x 297 mm (A4), print gridlines, print to a PDF or print directly from Gliffy.

In order to print your document to one page, click on Print from the File menu. The page setup dialog will then appear. Now under Print Scale, click the radio button “Print to fit to 1 page”. Now click “Print”.

If you’re using Gliffy Online, you can control who has the ability to edit your document.

While all documents created by Gliffy Online Basic users are public, meaning anyone on the Internet can access a read-only version of them, Gliffy Online Premium users will by default create private documents they can choose to make public. During your 30 day free trial, your account will operate as a Premium account, all diagrams will default to private.

To change the public/private status of a document, use the “Publish Info” command found in the Share menu of the Menu Bar. This will open the Publish Document window. You can also access this window by clicking “blog & share this diagram” above the Properties popup.

As a reminder, basic, free users will not have access to make a diagram private.

At the top of this window, radio buttons allow you to switch between “Make private” and “Make public.” If a document is made public, the embed code and links that populate the window will work. These links let you embed the latest saved version of the document in a webpage as a JavaScript or as a JPG image. All links will always call the latest saved draft, so you won't need to update links if you edit the document in the future.

While the embed code will not work in WordPress or LiveJournal, both the embed JavaScript and the “Web page” link provided here will produce a version of your document that preserves any included hyperlinks.

Please note, if you switch a previously public document to private, any links to this document (ex. on a blog) will fail.

Gliffy also offers you the ability to Add or Remove users from the Manage Account/Users Menu. 

Users with Admin rights can add new users to the account by entering the email address of the person at the bottom of the Account Manager screen and clicking the 'Add User' button located on the right. 

Once a user is added they will be sent a welcome email to the email address entered. This welcome email will contain the account name, email address, and a temporary password (if the user is not already listed under another account).

Users with Admin rights can remove a user from the 'Manage Account/Users Menu' by clicking on the user's email. A gray 'X' will then appear to the right of their name. Clicking on the 'X' will remove them and they will no longer have access to the account. 

Users with Admin rights can manage Admin rights for other users. From the 'Manage Account/Users' Menu, click on the user's email. A box labeled 'Admin' will appear to the right of their name. By selecting the box, a checkmark will appear which indicates the user now has Admin rights. This can also be un-checked to remove Admin rights from a user. 

Any user in the account can change their own email and/or password by clicking on "profile" in the upper right corner of the toolbar. 

From the profile menu, you can change your email address, then click "update" at the bottom to save the changes (please note you do not need to change your password to change your email). 

To change your password, you would enter in the Old Password, New Password, then Confirm New Password and click "update" at the bottom to save the changes.