OmniGraffle/OmniGraffle Professional 4
OmniGroup
Price: $79.95/$149.95 (free demos and upgrade pricing available online)
Pros: Still the best diagramming on any platform, great interface revision, bezier drawing tool, and amazing auto-layout and outlining features.
Cons: Drawing tools may not be intuitive on the first use, pro version is a little over-priced.
by Gerrit Dalman
Since my initial review of OmniGroup's standout product line, they have updated all of their productivity apps. Perhaps the most substantial improvements can be found in OmniGraffle and OmniGraffle Professional version 4!
In my original review I declared OmniGraffle "best in class," and it has only gotten better. I believe it's the best diagramming application available on any platform. It's a feature-rich application for brainstorming, serious flow-charting, and even drawing.
By taking advantage of several Mac-only technologies and interface elements, OmniGroup offers an app that, though heavy-duty, is so sleek it seems too accessible to be a major pro title. But don't let their clever work fool you. It more than stands up to the competition, yet it's extremely fun to use.
Both editions have all the functionality of version 3 and still play very well with other apps - a perfect companion to Apple's iWork or Adobe's Creative Suite. But it's apparent from the moment you open the fun new packaging that this version sports some serious improvements.
The most obvious is a revised interface. OmniGraffle's numerous and hard to manage palettes have been consolidated into just three. Through the use of tabbed palettes that resemble Keynote's tools palette, this is accomplished without loosing any functionality. While nice for smaller screens, the real benefit is that it makes all of the tools more accessible and the application generally more intuitive.
OmniGraffle's layers have been moved off of a palette to a utilities drawer and now behave more like layers in Photoshop. This approach is much more intuitive and, unlike some other control conventions, will be familiar to users of Adobe products.
A second tab in the utilities drawer is for outlining. This is hands-down the best addition in version 4, because the contents of the outline and the canvas are automatically synchronized based on auto-layout settings. As you add objects to the canvas, they are also added to the outline and vice versa. As you reorganize the outline, OmniGraffle automatically updates the diagram. Likewise, as you change relationships between objects in the diagram, the outline is updated.
This is nothing less than a revolution in diagramming! With the auto-layout feature you can simply start typing into a hierarchical list and OmniGraffle will create the best looking chart you've ever made without a single mouse input!
In addition to these big changes there have been a number of other nice improvements. For instance, links now work in exported PDFs and Spotlight can search the contents of OmniGraffle documents. Support for LinkBack technology (http://www.linkbackproject.org/) even allows OmniGraffle to embed editable objects into applications like Keynote. Finally, serious users will be grateful for the inclusion of a bezier drawing tool, providing almost unlimited artistic possibilities.
As if all of that wasn't enough, OmniGraffle Professional 4 has even more for advanced users. As in the previous version, the pro edition adds import and export of Visio files, ColorSync support, and SVG export as well as multi-page documents which, when combined with either presentation mode or HTML image-map export, can substitute for a presentation app or web design program.
There are a few new pro features as well, including multiple views of a single document, master canvases that work just like master slides or master pages in other apps, advanced auto-layout settings, and workspaces. Bigger additions include a ruler scale for controlling layout precisely in terms of feet or miles instead of inches and tables that provide new content and layout options.
Clearly version 4 is even better than its robust predecessor. After just a moments use it becomes apparent why Apple includes this program with pro Macs. Since the download versions will permit you to open any docs and edit simple ones without restriction, there's no reason not to try it yourself.
If you already own OmniGraffle, I recommend the upgrade. The interface improvements and outlining features alone are sufficient to justify the upgrade price. As for choosing between the standard and pro editions, there doesn't seem to be quite enough differentiation to justify the price difference. So unless you need to share with Visio users or integrate with a professional workflow, the standard edition should satisfy. On the other hand, there is a nice rebate available for upgrading users (even if it came pre-installed on your Mac).
In my original review I listed two cons: the lack of a bezier tool and a learning curve for the interface. Despite that I still gave it 5 moose! Now both issues have been addressed and a bevy of other improvements have been showered on the consumer, so I can't help but strongly recommend that everyone at least try this app. I'm sure you'll like it and if you think you'd use it often, it's well worth the price.
System Requirements:
* Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later; 10.4 for Spotlight searching