[instaviz-users] how to set a default style for a node?

[Glen Low]

Virga, All

On 27/03/2009, at 10:38 PM, virga wrote:

> is it possible at this time to define a style for a node, and set it
> as the default style for every new node that is created? additionally,
> it would be great if i could define the style for a few items - a
> square node, oval node, arrow, and access them in some sort of
> palette. as a designer, i'm a style junkie and am compelled to change
> the serif font and add some color to my charts. setting the style
> options is getting very redundant beginning to feel like a waste of
> time. let's make it easy!

Interesting discussion about default styles.

Doing CSS-like styles and master nodes/edges to assign styles is  
pretty abstract -- it makes a lot of hidden objects in the user's  
mental map and puzzling interactions -- e.g. as Stephen noted, remove  
an attribute from the master and only some of the nodes that derive  
from the master lose that attribute, because the others had overridden  
it already?

I'm fairly keen on some palette system which is fully concrete --  
fully visible and no hidden interactions, so applying a style from the  
palette just overwrites the current attributes but doesn't make a link  
to the style, so if you change the style it won't affect the node  
anymore. Or perhaps use multiselect as a way to apply styles to ranges  
of nodes/edges. However I'll defer this to 2.0.

For 1.3, I will have a global default node and edge style. The node  
and edge style will be changed by the last node or edge edit. The node  
and edge style will be applied to any node or edge created. This way  
it's fairly easy to style up a new graph: style up the first node or  
edge, then every node or edge after that starts out like that. Most of  
the time the changes are fully visible, since the last node or edge  
edit will always be there on the graph when the user creates a new  
one. Will that work?

(We could also use Eric Vassey's idea of default styles for each shape.)





Cheers, Glen Low


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