A Badge is a small pill of text ("New", "v2.1", "PII", "3×"). A Step Number is a small numbered disc that walks a reader through a diagram in order, the way annotated architecture diagrams mark a request's path.
Both sit in the palette's Build category in Diagram mode, and in Components in Illustrate mode.
On the Toolbar strip, the Badge tile opens a few ready-made badges: New, Beta, Version, Count, Draft and Warning (a rose "PII"). Each is an ordinary badge you can then retype or restyle.
Attaching to a node
Drop a badge or step near a corner or the middle of an edge of another element and it attaches there, centred on the point so it straddles the edge.
Once attached, it follows the node everywhere:
- Moving, nudging or laying out the node takes it along, and resizing or rotating the node keeps it on its point.
- Copying or duplicating the node copies it too, and deleting the node deletes it.
- It always draws above the node, whatever the layer order.
Drag it more than a short way off its point to detach it, or drop it on another point (on any element) to move it there. Detach in its right-click menu does the same without dragging. Frames, lanes and boundaries don't take badges: their corners are too far from what they hold.
A badge or step that isn't dropped on a point stands on its own, which suits a step sitting on an arrow.
Badges
Double-click a badge to edit its text, up to 24 characters. Its width follows the text, so a single character makes a circle.
Step numbers
A new step takes the next number on the tab: one more than the highest so far. Moving or deleting a step never renumbers the others, so numbers don't change while you work. When you've rearranged a walkthrough, pick Renumber Steps from a step's right-click menu to number every step on the tab 1, 2, 3 in reading order (top to bottom, then left to right).
A step's number is its label, up to three characters, so "12" and "3a" both fit. Resizing a step grows the disc and its number together.
Looks
Right-click and open the Badge or Step Number section to pick one of five looks: Solid, Ink, Outline, Tinted and Quiet. They all come from the element's colour, so a theme switch or a new colour in Colours carries them. A new badge is Solid and a new step is Ink, so the two read apart on the same node.
Animating steps in order
Give a step an animation (Pulse suits it) and Play in Order appears in its Step Number section. Turn it on and every step on the tab plays its animation one after another, 1, 2, 3, then round again: a walkthrough that walks itself.
Was this article helpful?