Just like any object that is part of a process file, visual objects can accept certain commands that affect their appearance. To see the menu of commands accepted by a visual object, you can simply move the mouse over the object and right-click, to invoke its context menu. Even though the exact list depends on the type of visual object that you are addressing, the following commands are accepted by almost all visual objects (see Note (a) below for exceptions):
● Rotate {Left or Right}
● Flip {Horizontal or Vertical}
● Order {Bring Forward, Send Backward, Bring to Front, Send to Back }
● Style {Pick Up, Apply Style, Edit Style, Use Default}
All of the above commands can also be administered from the Visual Objects toolbar’s last ten buttons (see Visual Objects Toolbar). Each command is described below:
•Rotate Left / Right...
Applying this command to the selected object(s) will rotate them left / right by 90°.
•Flip Horizontal / Vertical...
Will rotate the selected object(s) by 180° around a hypothetical horizontal / vertical axis.
•Bring Forward / Send Backward...
As several objects are drawn on the workspace area, it is possible that one may partially (or totally) overlap another. The order by which objects are drawn determines which object gets to be displayed last and therefore be exposed in its entirety. Move advances the selected object(s) by one position in the drawing order and relative to all other objects that currently exist in the process file (including procedure icons and streams). The further an object is moved the more exposure is likely to get when displayed. The further back an object is sent, the more of its surface could be covered by other objects that will be drawn after it. Note that if more than one objects are selected to move forward or backward in the drawing order, their relative position remains unchanged.
•Bring To Front / Send To Back...
Sending an object to the front, will make sure that the object will be drawn last and therefore it will completely exposed to view. The opposite will happen when we send an object to back. In the latter case, if any other objects are partially or totally overlapping with it, they will get to be shown on top of the object moved to back. Note that if more than one objects are selected and sent to front or back, their relative position in the drawing order remains unchanged.
•Pick Up Style...
Besides location and size, style also affects the appearance of every visual (as well as processing) object. The elements that constitute the drawing style of an object depend on the object’s type. For example, for lines, the line color, the presence or absence of arrowheads at the end and the beginning of the line and the line thickness are the only style components. In rectangles, ellipses and other solid objects, the fill-in characteristics are also components of their style. For text objects, on the other hand, none of the above is part of their style. Instead, the font name, font size and text color are part of a text object’s style. For more on how to set the style characteristics of a visual object or how to set the default style for all visual objects, see in the following section (Editing the Style of Visual Objects).
In any case, the style of an object is the collection of all characteristics that determine the visual appearance of an object (other than position and size). By selecting an object and clicking on the palette’s button that correspond to this command, copies all of its style’s characteristics. Typically, a pick up style command will be followed by one or more apply style commands that actually apply the copied style to one or more target objects, thereby making their visual characteristics identical to the source object.
•Apply Style...
Once the style of an object has been picked up (see above), then we can select others (of the same or similar type) and apply the selected style on them.
a) Commands Rotate Left / Right and Flip Horizontal / Vertical don’t apply to text objects.
b) If multiple objects are selected, invoking a context-menu command will include only the entries that are common to all object types selected (and therefore, the only options that can be applied to all the objects selected).
c) Just like visual objects, procedure icons and process streams also have a style: the style of a procedure’s icon is made up of the icon’s color, its tag’s font and color, and its description label font and color. Similarly, a stream’s style is made up of its own color as well as its tag’s font and color. The style of procedures and streams can be picked up and applied just like any other visual object.
d) If you picked-up the style of an object and then applied it to others whose attribute styles are sub/super-sets of the source object, only the applicable style components (if any) will be copied. For example, if you picked up the style of line object and applied it to a solid object (like a rectangle) only the rectangle’s line characteristics will change to match the source’s line characteristics. On the other hand, if you applied the picked up style of a rectangle to a line, the reverse will happen. The line characteristics will be taken on by the target line and the fill-in characteristics will be ignored.