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All I need is a tool that allows to:

  • create shapes: round, rectangle, or even rectangle with rounded corners
  • insert text in these shapes
  • connect these shapes with lines and/or arrows
  • connections with lines/arrows should snap to the shape and be like "magnetic" to them when shape is moved around
  • some coloring options like fill color, line color
  • ability to change font globally for all shapes
  • text boxes for little side notes to place anywhere

Nothing very fancy right? I find it very hard to find anything appropriate for the mac. I want something that is just simple for this kind of thing and not so overwhelmed with specializations that I don't care about, like all the heavy UML stuff and stuff for electronic engineers, architects, and so on. I just want these simple shapes and arrows. Got to make hundreds of simple Diagrams to represent hierarchies.

Maybe you can recommend a nice tool for the Mac that does just that?

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6 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

You want OmniGraffle. It is designed to do exactly what you want. It used to come with OS X, but hasn't since 10.3, I think.

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+1 OmniGraffle is not only my favorite diagramming program, but one of my favorite programs period. – phoebus Dec 2 '09 at 21:40
I know it. Hada demo, but find it pretty complex for my needs. I'm sure it's great but the learning curve is pretty big. At least it was for me so I decided to look for something else, more simple. – Another Registered User Dec 2 '09 at 22:11
It seems to be one of those programs that either works the same way that your brain does and is a joy to use, or seems to be designed by an alien and is a constant fight. I'm in the first group, but some of my coworkers are in the second. I suggest giving it another try just to be sure. There are a lot of features, but yu can ignore most of them for what you are trying to do. – KeithB Dec 3 '09 at 13:42
@Another Registered User: Give it another try. Ignore the features you don't need (even close palettes you don't need); I suspect you'll pick it up faster than you think. – John Rudy Dec 3 '09 at 15:50
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up vote 0 down vote

Have you considered the OS X port of graphviz?

http://www.pixelglow.com/graphviz/

This works great if you've got some sort of data set that you're trying to visualize.

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I use xmind for that sort of thing. .

I doubt if you'll anything really simple that does all that you want, and I agree with those who recommend Omnigraffle.

Xmind though has a much better price, free. (and it's open source if that matters)

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I use OpenOffice.org for this kind of Graphics.

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Try using Pencil in Firefox.

http://www.evolus.vn/Pencil/

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This is what I use: http://www.simplediagrams.com/

It is the least headachy for all my needs, and produces lovely output that is soft on the brain (check it out and see what I mean).

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