Introduction
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:GVedit is a Daniel@0: Graphviz tool for creating, viewing, editing and processing DOT files. It Daniel@0: allows users to set attributes of graphs with dialogue boxes and save them Daniel@0: for future use. GVedit users can also take advantage of the simple Daniel@0: instant previewing feature of the program.
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Menu system
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:GVedit's main menu bar Daniel@0: provides basic file options such as Open, Save, Save As and simple editing Daniel@0: operations such as Cut, Copy and Paste. Most of the common commands Daniel@0: also have standard keyboard shortcuts. Daniel@0: Below you will find a list of the menu items and brief information on Daniel@0: each of them.
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File:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:New: Creates a blank text Daniel@0: window. You can use it to write a description of a graph in the DOT language. Daniel@0: New graphs are not saved to disk until you save them manually.
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Open: Opens a file Daniel@0: dialogue box to select and load a DOT file into the editor. Each file is opened in a Daniel@0: new window and does not affect other open graphs.
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Save: Saves the active Daniel@0: graph to disk. If the active graph is new and does not have a name, Daniel@0: it opens a Save As dialogue to allow you Daniel@0: to specify the file's name before saving.
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Save as: Opens a Save As Daniel@0: dialogue to save the active graph. You can save a graph under different names but Daniel@0: you will always be working with the most recently saved graph.
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Daniel@0: Close: Closes the active graph window. If there are any unsaved changes, Daniel@0: you get a dialogue box asking if you want to Daniel@0: save the changes before closing the graph.
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Edit:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Undo : This command Daniel@0: rolls back the last thing that you have done within the active graph.
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Cut : Removes selected Daniel@0: text and keeps it in the clipboard.
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Copy: Copies selected Daniel@0: text to the clipboard.
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Daniel@0: Paste: Inserts the text from the clipboard into the cursor position on the Daniel@0: active graph.
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Find: Opens the find Daniel@0: dialogue box to allow you to locate desired text in a graph.
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Graphviz
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Run: Processes the active Daniel@0: graph with the last attributes that were used for it. If the active graph has Daniel@0: never been processed before, it opens the settings window.
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Settings: Opens the Daniel@0: settings window. Details of this window are given below. Daniel@0:
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View
Daniel@0:Cascade: Daniel@0: Sets the style for handling multiple windows to cascade, in which each Daniel@0: new window overlaps the previous one. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0:Tile: Daniel@0: Sets the style for handling multiple windows to tiling, in which the Daniel@0: open graph windows partition the root window. Daniel@0:
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Help
Daniel@0:Daniel@0: Help: Opens a manual page describing how to use this program. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0:Daniel@0: Graphviz on net: Opens a browser window on the Graphviz home page. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0:Daniel@0: About GVedit: Provides version information about the program. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Tool bar
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Under the menu bar, Daniel@0: there is a toolbar with five buttons on it. These buttons are nothing but shortcuts Daniel@0: to some menu items. Each button has a tool tip attached to it to Daniel@0: indicate its purpose.
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Working with multiple graphs; the active graph.
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Daniel@0: GVedit allows you to have multiple graphs open at the same time. At any Daniel@0: time, there is a single active graph. Daniel@0: Anything you do using either the GVedit menus or the settings window affects the Daniel@0: active graph. When you go to the settings window, you always see the Daniel@0: settings of active graph. Daniel@0: The settings of each graph are maintained separately. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0:Daniel@0: To make a graph active, click on its window. Daniel@0: The background of the active graph window is white Daniel@0: while all others are gray. Daniel@0:
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Settings window
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Daniel@0: With the settings window, Daniel@0: you can select the layout engine, set the output type and file, Daniel@0: and set any attributes that are available with the Graphviz release Daniel@0: installed on your computer.
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Layout engine: Daniel@0: Graphviz provides five different graph layouts. You can select Daniel@0: the one which best fits your needs. More information about these layouts Daniel@0: can be found at the Graphviz home page Daniel@0:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Output file name: Daniel@0: This field allows you to specify the output file name. Daniel@0: You can either type in the name, or use the Daniel@0: small button by the text box to open a file Daniel@0: dialogue box. Daniel@0: This field corresponds to the –o option of Graphviz. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Output Daniel@0: file type: This drop down list allows Daniel@0: you to select the output file type. The output file name's extension is changed Daniel@0: accordingly. Daniel@0: This field corresponds to the –T option of Graphviz. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Graphviz Daniel@0: bin folder:You usually do not need to Daniel@0: enter anything here. During the Graphviz installation, locations of the Graphviz Daniel@0: files are stored in the registry and GVedit retrieves it from there. If, Daniel@0: for some reason, Graphviz files are not where they are supposed to be Daniel@0: and GVedit can not Daniel@0: find them, you can edit this information manually. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Daniel@0: Preview Output file: Daniel@0: If this box is checked, Daniel@0: GVedit creates a low-quality preview of the output and shows it in a Daniel@0: separate window. It is a convenient way to preview the results without Daniel@0: executing another viewing program. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Daniel@0: Apply cairo filter: Daniel@0: If this output format is supported by the cairo library, this box becomes Daniel@0: active. If checked, output will be generated using the cairo library Daniel@0: rather than the default renderer. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Attributes: Daniel@0: On the lower half of the settings window, you will see two dropdown lists, Daniel@0: one small text box, and a larger text editing area. GVedit processes the Daniel@0: contents of the large box as additional, generic graph, node or edge attributes. Daniel@0: (These correspond to the –G, –N, and –E command-line options of Graphviz.) Daniel@0: You can either type directly in the large text box, Daniel@0: or use the drop down lists to pick Daniel@0: an allowed scope and one of the common attribute names. Daniel@0: For details of these attributes, refer to the Daniel@0: page of Graphviz attributes. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Daniel@0: If you specify an attribute using the drop down lists, you need to click on the Daniel@0: Add button to register the attribute. Daniel@0: If you do not click on Daniel@0: Add button, the attribute that you entered will not be Daniel@0: added to the large box, hence will not be processed. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:As an Daniel@0: example, assume that we would like to have a graph drawn Daniel@0: with a green background. Daniel@0: First, click on the scope list and select graph; Daniel@0: then click on the name list and Daniel@0: select bgcolor; and then type green to the value box. Daniel@0: Finally, click on the Add button to send the attribute to large box. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Daniel@0: Belowe the Add button is a Help button. Clicking on this Daniel@0: will open a browser window on the Graphviz page describing the supported Daniel@0: attributes. Daniel@0:
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Daniel@0: Under the large box, there are 3 small buttons, plus Daniel@0: Cancel and OK buttons. The first button is used to Daniel@0: clear the attributes box; Daniel@0: the second one is used to load an existing text file into the attributes box; Daniel@0: and the last one is used to save the attributes to a text file for later use. Daniel@0: The Cancel button closes the window without processing anything; Daniel@0: the OK button processes the Daniel@0: active document file with the settings on the screen and closes the settings Daniel@0: window. If you check the preview check box, you will see the preview of the Daniel@0: graph layout on the screen.
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Console window
Daniel@0: Daniel@0:Daniel@0: At the bottom of the Daniel@0: main window, there is a console window where you can see the results of your Daniel@0: actions. This provides a trace of your layout actions, showing the Daniel@0: Graphviz command corresponding to the active graph's settings. It also Daniel@0: displays warnings from GVedit, as well as the output of the Daniel@0: executed Graphviz programs. Daniel@0: By right clicking on the console window, you will get a menu providing some Daniel@0: additional functions, such as clearing or saving the console logs.
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