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Formatting and positioning objects

During modeling in the Process designer , the modeling objects that are used can be changed in their appearance and positioning using various options. Formatting objects. To adjust the formatting of…

Dennis Reichle
Updated by Dennis Reichle

During modeling in the Process designer, the modeling objects that are used can be changed in their appearance and positioning using various options.

Formatting objects

To adjust the formatting of several objects at once, objects can be selected by holding down the <CTRL> key and clicking with the mouse.
Alternatively, a selection frame can be drawn around all objects to be formatted together in the Process Designer.

The formatting bar

The formatting bar in the upper area of the Process Designer contains general setting options.

The settings in the formatting bar can be applied to the following modeling objects:

The following actions are available (for a detailed description of some formatting options, see the section 'Formatting via the context menu'):

Actions fpr the process model / object

Formatting and alignment of the object

  1. Print the process model on one or more pages
  2. Undo the last editing step in the process model (also possible via keyboard shortcut <CTRL> + <Z>)
  3. Restore the undone step in the process model (also possible via keyboard shortcut <CTRL> + <SHIFT> + <Z>)
  4. Remove the selected object from the process model (also possible via keyboard shortcut <DEL>)
  1. Create space: With magnet and sweeper several objects can be pulled or pushed to another place at the same time
  2. Align several selected objects uniformly to each other
  3. Move the selected object one level further forwards or backwards (in front of or behind other objects).
  4. Adjust the border color of the object
  5. Adjust the fill color of the object
  6. Text formatting: Selection of font size, type and colour. Text can be displayed in bold, italic or underlined.
  7. Align the object label

Formatting via context menu

With a right click on an object, further formatting can be done in addition to the settings in the formatting bar.

To select all objects of a process model at once, click <Select objects>.
To select all connectors of a process model at once, click <Select connectors>.
To select all objects and connectors of a process model at once, click <Select all>.
The options Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste and Remove correspond to the options in the formatting bar.
Formatting - Color

In the color settings, the fill color and border color of the object as well as the color of the object label can be adjusted using the following options:

General options for font color, line color & fill color

  • Remove the existing color via <None>.
  • Use the sliders to mix the red, green and blue color components to a desired color
  • Select a concrete color using a hexadecimal color code
  • Select a color from the predefined palette

Gradient

Here you select a 2nd fill color for the object and determine the direction in which a gradient from the 1st to the 2nd fill color should proceed (in the example a gradient from blue to green directed to the right)

Label fill & border

Independent of the fill color of the object, a separate fill color and border color for the object label can be defined here (in the example: green background and red border)

Shadow

Enables or disables a shadow that appears around the object. The size and orientation of the shadow cannot be adjusted

Opacity

A percentage value can be specified, which determines the percentage to which the object is displayed transparent.

Format - Further settings

Line width

Opens a window in which the width of the object border can be specified in pixels

Rounded

Rectangular objects are displayed with rounded corners. Only affects the objects:

  • Task
  • Sub-process
  • Header and Footer
  • Text annotation
  • Rectangle

Dashed

The object border is displayed with a dashed line instead of a solid line.

Spacing

The distance between the object and its label can be adjusted in 4 cardinal points.

Text alignment & Label position

This can be used to determine the position of the text within the object (text alignment) or to display it in an area around the object (label position)

Rotate label

The object label is rotated 90° counterclockwise. When selected again, the label is returned to its original position.

For some objects there are additional specific formatting options (e.g. process symbol, connectors, events, gateways). These are described in the article for the respective object.
Set standard for object format

When an object, e. g. a task, has been formatted, a right click and the selection <Set format as standard> can set a default format for all task objects application-wide. This has the following effect:

  • Every existing task will be adapted to the newly defined standard format, unless the task was deliberately formatted differently (i.e. it still corresponded to the previous system standard)
  • Every newly created task is created directly in the newly defined standard format
For this action, the user requires a corresponding permission in his or her authorization profile.
Replace icon with image

Using the button <Replace icon with image> you can replace the default icon of the object with any image in .JPG or .PNG file format.

Once you have inserted an image, you can switch back to the default SmartProcess icon by right-clicking again and clicking the button <Change to origin icon>.

Standard icon

Icon replaced by image

If you have made any other formatting for color or alignment, it will no longer have any effect after being replaced by an image.

The image replaces the icon only in the edited process model and does not become a property of the object.
Therefore, if you reuse the object in other processes, the standard SmartProcess symbol is displayed first and you have to replace the icon manually again.

Moving, aligning and resizing objects

Via navigation in the process model

The objects can be moved via drag & drop.

The behavior when moving objects via drag & drop changes depending on the setting Connector from center to center in the Process Management settings.
If the option is deactivated, objects can be moved normally using drag & drop.
However, if the option is activated, positioning the mouse exactly in the center of the object means "drag connector", so that the mouse must be placed slightly beside the center of the object to move it.

Drag connector:

Move object:

Once an object has been selected by mouse click, it can also be moved using the arrow keys on the keyboard. If several objects have been selected at the same time, they can also be moved via drag & drop or with the arrow keys.

Several objects can be selected simultaneously either by holding down the <CTRL> key + mouse click or by drawing a selection frame around several objects in the Process Designer.

If an object is moved via drag & drop, alignment lines help to position it as desired.

By adjusting the 'Grid size for alignment' in the Process Designer options, the alignment of the objects can be adapted more finely.

Once an object has been selected, it can be dragged larger or smaller using the mouse and the green squares. By holding down the <SHIFT> key, the aspect ratio of the object can be kept constant while increasing or decreasing the size.

Via context menu

With a right click on an object, various adjustments can be made via the list entry 'Object':

To back / To front

The selected object or objects are all displayed in the foreground or background of the process model.

Direction

For some objects, the orientation can be changed so that the objects are rotated. These include:

  • Process / Process group -> The alignment of the arrow head can be up/right/down of the left
  • Pool / Lane -> The swimlane can be aligned to the right (horizontal) or down (vertical)
  • Gateways
  • Artifacts

Change size

A window appears, with which the dimensions of the object can be determined exactly in pixels.

If several objects are selected simultaneously, the size of multiple objects can be changed simultaneously.

Auto size

The size of the object is automatically adjusted depending on how much space the object label requires.

This is a one-time action that must be performed again so that a recalculation takes place, for example, when the object label is changed.

Alignment

If several objects have been selected in the process model, their position to each other can be harmonized via 'Alignment'.

Before

After

How did we do?

Create process groups & processes

Reuse & copy objects

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