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

Hierarchy Editor

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

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

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:

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

Preview

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