StyleEd Help Pages
Basic Usage
The File Menu
- New
- Start a new set of style definitions from scratch. StyleEd automatically
creates required node and edge styles.
- Open
- Open an existing style definition document from disk. Style definition
documents must adhere to the XML schema
http://www.yworks.com/xml/schema/ydoc/1.0/ydocstyle.xsd.
- Save As
- Save the current set of style definitions to a file.
- Quit
- Quit the style editor.
The Sample Styles Menu
Choosing one of the available menu items will open a predefined set
of style definitions which can be used as a starting point for custom sets.
The Layout Menu
- Type Layout
- Open a graphical editor for type diagram layout settings.
- Package Layout
- Open a graphical editor for package diagram layout settings.
- Overview Layout
- Open a graphical editor for overview diagram layout settings.
- Export
- Export the current layout settings to a file. The settings are exported in
the XML format used for yDoc 3.0 configuration and can be copy-pasted to
the appropriate sections of the ydoc.cfg configuration file for use in
yDoc runs.
The Editor
StyleEd consists of three major components: A style hierarchy editor, a style
property editor, and a style preview.
The Hierarchy Editor

The Hierarchy Editor displays the current style hierarchy. Styles can be
added/inserted, deleted, or renamed through the editor's context menu:

When inserting a common parent style for multiple, distinct styles,
property values are propagated upwards if possible. I.e. if the values of a
given style property coincide for all child styles, the property is declared
in the parent style and all the child styles inherit it appropriately.
Additionally, styles can be moved to or removed from a parent style by
mouse-dragging the appropriate entry in the editor's tree view to a new
destination.
The Property Editor

The Property Editor displays the type of the properties (edge or node),
the name of the style to which the properties belong, and the name of the
parent style (if one exists).
Style properties can be edited via a simple table-based interface. Each row
in the table represent one style property and consists of three cells:
- State (1st Column)
- For each property, the table displays whether the property is inherited
from a parent style (cell unchecked) or is declared in the current style
(cell checked).
By unchecking the cell, the value of a declared property is cleared and
marked as to be inherited.
Note: It is not possible to check the cell to declare a property for a
given style, instead a value for the property has to be specified in the
3rd column.
- Name (2nd Column)
- Displays the property name.
- Value (3rd Column)
- Displays the property value. By clicking into the value column the table
changes into editing mode.
Right-clicking into the table will pop up a context menu:

- View by Name / View by Type
- Switches back and forth between the supported view modes.
- Inherit All
- Marks all properties of the current style as "to be inherited". This has
the same effect as manually unchecking all the cells in the state
column.
- Copy
- Copies the value of the current property to an internal clipboard.
- Paste
- Pastes the value of the internal clipboard into the current property.
The Preview

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