OmniGraffle: More than Meets the Eye
I first picked up OmniGraffle for the iPad last year, back when I had delusions about using my newly purchased iPad for work and before the device became a dedicated Dora the Explorer video player for my kids. The purchase price was pretty steep (~USD50, which was more like AUD70 at the time), but I figured that it would form a key part of my daily workflow so the price would be worth the added productivity.
Unfortunately it was not to be. My kids became the primary users of the iPad, which didn't leave much time for me to take it into work.
I managed to pick up an iPad 2 on launch day, so I figured I would give my exorbitant app purchase another try. Now, not being a Mac user anymore, I've never used the Desktop version of OmniGraffle, so I honestly had no idea what to expect. I'm a fairly heavy Visio user, and have dabbled in Aris and other modelling tools, so I had a good idea of what I wanted the product to do, though.
The first thing I noticed was that there aren't actually that many diagram types to choose from, especially in the software category. In fact, I wasn't really sure how much use I'd be able to get out of the product given that I spend most of my day creating some fairly specific diagrams.
Enter Graffletopia, the community that seems to have sprung up based around creating custom stencils for OmniGraffle. These stencils contain pre-made shapes covering a wide variety of topics, all of which you can use in your own diagrams. They even have one based around BPMN 2.0. Some of the stencils are targeted at the Mac version of the product, but there are quite a few that work on the iPad too. The site is fantastic, and I'm sure I'll be mining it for useful stencils for some time to come.
The only problem I've found with the site so far is that some of the templates refuse to open in the iPad version. Still, the majority have no issue, there are a wide variety of stencils available and the site itself is free, making it an overall pleasant experience. The functionality that it has added to OmniGraffle certainly makes me feel like I'm getting my USD50 worth.
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April 1st, 2011 - 16:04
“back when I had delusions about using my newly purchased iPad for work”
Ha, this made me laugh out loud. I think everyones had those ‘Wow this will be AWESOME for work’ moments, only the reality ending up being quite different! I COULD see benefits for this in maybe server monitoring? Maybe. I think someone just needs to have that ‘ah-ha!’ moment when someone discovers the perfect app for this. Kind of like the Angry Birds of the development world
April 1st, 2011 - 16:53
Now that I’ve got a device to call my own, as opposed to one that’s dominated by the kids, I’m actually using it for work. Omnigraffle is awesome when you add templates from Graffletopia, but in addition I’m also using:
In built mail client hooked up to my work Exchange and Gmail (both with Push email)
Safari to Go, the iPad app for Safari Books Online
OmniGS, a graphing utility from the same people that make Omnigraffle
Penultimate, a ink-style notebook
Tap Forms HD, a data capture “database” that exports to CSV and a few other funky formats. I’m also playing with an app called iSort that has some similar functionality, but haven’t done anything serious with it yet
Keynote, Pages and Numbers, the Apple Office Suite
iMockups, a UI mockup tool
iThoughtsHD, a mind mapping application
GoodReader and DropBox, awesome document readers and cloud storage apps
Evernote, a note taking app that syncs with the Evernote client I use on my PC
The WordPress and GoDaddy apps for blogging and maintaining my various websites
iSSH, Colloquy (IRC), Desktop (RDP) and Messenger, which all do what they say on the box.
JsAnywhere, a Javascript IDE and runtime that lets me write Javascript apps on the iPad
And that’s just the work stuff. Don’t get me started on all the music, art, book readers, social networking/communication, maths and animation apps I use for recreation. Then there’s the games… oh, and all the stuff you can do via the browser alone. Well worth the purchase.