Re: Modifying properties of several objects at the same time

[Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>]

On 29 Oct 2003, Daniele Pighin wrote:
> Alle 14:41, domenica 26 ottobre 2003, Alan G Isaac ha scritto:
>
>> To change the properties of multiple objects in
>> a diagram, I like to be able to associate a style
>> with them.  The style defintion should be local
>> to the diagram.  Each object can then be associated
>> with a list of styles, which should cascade like
>> CSS style sheets do.  In the long run, I think any
>> other approach proves awkward.
>
> I must say that Alan proposal is very very interesting.
> It needs a styles-widget that IMHO should allow to:
> - associate a unique-label to any style;
> - create a new stile;
> - associate a style to;
>  - selected objects (when possible);
>  - all selected objects of a given type;
>  - all objects of a given type;
> - create a new style as a copy of an existing one;
> - create a new style with default values, user defined application wide.
>
> I would also extend the idea of styles to have:
> - styles local to a diagram;
> - system-wide styles (that can be both application presets and
> defined by the ststem administrator, who can write in /usr/share/dia or
> wherever system shares are;
> - user-defined styles, that would be saved in the user ~/.dia directory
> and are defined by the user.
>
> The styles might be grouped by their type (diagram, system, user), and a
> user should be able to drag'n drop, say, a style from the diagram group
> to the user group to have it saved among his user-defined styles.
>
> That would be really nice :)

It would indeed.  Anybody volunteer to implement it?

I'm not going to implement this, as there are much more basic things I need
to look at (text input, text rendering speed).  If anybody does want to
implement it, I would suggest starting by making something that can 'fix'
the current defaults under a name, and apply them to the selected objects.
That'll give a lot of functionality with a simple interface, and I believe
dealing with the properties system enough to do thing would take some
work:)

Yes, in the long run it'd be great to have CSS-like styles that can be
saved with the diagram, applied logically to elements etc.  But unless
somebody hands me down a complete implementation, that's going to be
post-1.0.

Why don't y'all start an area on the Wiki fleshing out these ideas?

-Lars

-- 
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause)| HĂ„rdgrim of Numenor
"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I   |----------------------------
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    --Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrasing Voltaire  | what's with the handbasket?