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March 5, 2008

updates

The Omni Group releases OmniGraffle 5

Posted Mar. 5, ’08, 6:15 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen
Category | Software » Updates

After months of being in beta, OmniGraffle 5.0 is finally out and ready for mass consumption. In case you’re not familiar with it, OmniGraffle is an excellent diagramming application with drawing and page layout features.

So what’s new in this release? To name a few, automatic layout options, Bézier curves, stencil searching, and mini inspectors which resemble a lot iWork’s contextual Format Bars. Also, if you have the Pro version, you now have subgraphs, shared layers, and much improved support for Microsoft Visio files. Finally, there’s support for Quick Look.

Quick Look equals Leopard, and OmniGraffle 5 is Leopard-only. A full license is $99.95 and an upgrade is $39.95. For the Pro version, those prices are $199.95 and $74.95. They may seem steep, but the Omni Group makes top notch software. Check it out.


2 Comments

Kelmon said:

"and much improved support for Microsoft Visio files."

This is the big selling point for me because now OmniGraffle supports native Visio (VSD) files rather than just those exported to the XML format (VDX). Compatibility with Visio is important for me but many of my colleagues still have versions of Visio that don't support the XML format and having to ask them to re-save their document in the VDX format was always a pain.

I should also note that Bézier curves were introduced in OG4.

March 6, 2008 12:15 AM
Scalpel Author Profile Page said:

I noticed the above too. In fact, I went back to OG4 (Pro) to confirm it for myself when I read the story.

OG5, however, brings Bézier curves to lines.

I've been doing graffles as a student for a longtime and it *has* to be a must-buy for anyone who is visually-oriented, which I'm sure many others can attest to. Here's an example of what can be done:

http://www.undertheknife.net/iWeb/UnderTheKnife.net/Medicine_files/Apoptosis.pdf

And now I don't have to save it as a pdf for online viewing. Excellent job by the OmniGroup!

March 6, 2008 4:26 AM

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