Annotations and labels

Annotations are the labels, images and shapes you add to the canvas to explain a model. They are notes drawn on the canvas, not elements of the process, so they take no part in a run.

Annotation mode

The canvas works in two modes. Normally you work on the model. In Annotation mode you work on the annotations instead. Turn it on with the Annotate button at the left of the canvas, or press Ctrl+D. Turn it off with Ctrl+D again, with Esc, or with the stop button at the top of the right-hand panel, whose tip reads “Exit annotation mode (Ctrl+D)”.

While it is on, the panel on the right reads “Annotation mode” and “Click a tool below or drag to canvas”. Dragging empty canvas pans it, and dragging with Shift held selects several annotations at once.

Adding annotations

Rest the pointer on Annotate and a flyout offers four tools: Add Text, Add Shape, Add Image and Add Background. Choosing one switches to Annotation mode with that tool ready. Each tool places one item and then stops.

• Add Text: click the canvas. A label appears there, ready for you to type its text.
• Add Shape: drag out the shape, or click for one of a standard size. It starts as a rectangle, and its toolbar changes it to an ellipse, a line, an arrow or a polygon.
• Add Image: choose a picture in the file window, then click the canvas where it should go.
• Add Background: the same as Add Image, but the picture goes behind the model, for use as a backdrop.

The layers list

Under the Annotation mode heading, a list shows one row per annotation, with the one on top first. The rows come in two sections, In front of model and Behind model. A row shows the annotation’s name, with buttons to lock it, hide it and delete it.

Click a row to select that annotation and jump to it. Double-click its name to rename it. Drag a row up or down to change its order, or across to the other section to move it in front of or behind the model.

The text label toolbar

Select a label and a toolbar opens at the top of the canvas.

Figure 1. The toolbar of a selected text label, with the middle alignment button pressed.

From the left, it holds:

• the font and its size, with Bold and Italic;
• three alignment buttons, Align left, Align centre and Align right, with the one in use pressed;
• Color, for the text, and BG, for the color behind it;
• Opacity;
• Layer, where the minus button is Send Backward (Ctrl+[), the plus button is Bring Forward (Ctrl+]), and the box between them holds the label’s layer number;
• the lock button, which keeps the label where it is, the hide button, the button that sends the label behind the model or brings it back in front, and Delete, also on the Del key.

A label that has no alignment chosen is centered, so the middle button shows pressed for it. When you select several labels that do not agree, none of the three alignment buttons is pressed. Choose one and every selected label takes it.

Images and shapes get toolbars of their own. An image has Opacity, Rotation and Replace image. A shape has its kind, Fill, Stroke, a stroke style of Solid, Dashed or Dotted, Width and Opacity, with Sides for a polygon and Corner radius for a rectangle. A line or an arrow has no Fill.

Annotations in other places

Print includes annotations in the printed page unless you clear Include annotations. Find and Replace finds the text of any label, and the name of an image or shape that you have renamed.