Apply stroke change to only the perimeter of a shape group?

OmniGraffle
1

I have a couple rectangles that are arranged in a grid, all touching.

How can I change the stroke of the lines on the perimeter (outside) of that group?

If I group the rectangles, select the group, then change the stroke, the interior and the perimeter lines change. I only want to change the perimeter.

This is something that I do regularly in Excel by selection a group of cells and selecting “Thick Box Border” or similar.

Thanks!

2

If I understand you correctly once you have selected the group you can click again on an element of the group. The selection indications will change slightly and everything apart from your second selection will show slightly dimmed.

Now you can make changes and only the “second-selected” element will be affected.

3

I’m trying to go from the top picture to the bottom. Note how the perimeter of the group of rectangles is thicker in the bottom. Is there a way to select the rectangles, group them, and make a change that results in the bottom picture?

Untitled 2

4

OmniGraffle doesn’t have direct support for this. The way to achieve the effect is what you probably did: create another rectangle that’s the size of the group, change it’s stroke, and align it with the group. (Whether you position the new rectangle above or below the group depends on your design intent and stroke details. If it’s above the group, you’ll need to make sure its fill is turned off.)

If that’s not a satisfying workaround, please email support with a request so it will get filed and seen by the people who need to see it as future changes are being considered and prioritized.

-andrew

1 Like
5

A general improvement, if I may:

  • Above (Front) is always easier to find, and to work with
  • Ungroup the Group [5 rectangles], Shift-Select the added rectangle [now 6], and Group the set.
  • Such a Shape is difficult to find and Select, one has to mess with finding the Stroke, which may be thin; etc.
  • Instead, set the Fill to White, and the Opacity to 0%. This will allow you to easily find and Select the atomic Shape (rectangle in this case), even within a Group with multiple layers, without having to Ungroup/(manipulate)/Group.

Always use a Grid and SnapToGrid, to produce beautiful diagrams, and to avoid fiddling with lining up Strokes of Shapes (borders).

Cheers

1 Like