Style Presets

Create variety and emphasis on key elements in one click, without dialling each field by hand.

Sometimes you want a shape to stand out, or a set of arrows to look consistent, without fiddling with fill, border, weight and pattern one control at a time. Style presets are ready-made looks you apply in a single click. Right-click an element and open its Style row: Presets is the first section in it, above Colours and Border.

Shape presets

Right-click a shape, open Style and expand Presets to find a grid of ready-made looks, plus Reset to Default. Each preset is a complete look: it sets the shape's fill, border and text colour together with a matching border weight and pattern, so one click restyles the whole shape. Presets deliberately leave the corner radius alone, so a rounded card stays rounded and a sharp box stays sharp whichever look you pick.

The grid offers twenty looks on a single-colour theme, four across, in four runs from quiet to loud:

  • Your theme's own colours: the theme's default look, then Soft, Tinted, Solid and Bold versions of its accent. A multicolour theme adds a look for each of its branch colours.
  • Greys: Ghost, Paper, Muted, Slate and Inked, the same under every theme.
  • Line treatments: Hairline, Outline, Dotted, Dash-Dot and a heavy Frame.
  • Status: Info, Success, Warning, Danger and a violet Highlight, the same under every theme.

Text colour is chosen for contrast on the filled looks, so labels stay readable. Reset to Default clears the shape's colour, border (including corner radius) and shadow changes, returning it to its theme default in one click.

PresetsReset to DefaultKey
The Presets grid in a shape's Style row: twenty looks in four runs, then Reset to Default.

Arrow presets

Right-click an arrow and its Presets offer twelve one-click styles, ordered from plain lines to patterns to animated flows: Fine, Plain and Bold; Fine Dash, Dashed, Bold Dash and Dotted; then Flow, Dash Flow, Dot Flow, Signal and Pulse. Each combines a line pattern, a thickness and an optional flow animation. Reset to Default clears the arrow's pattern, thickness and animation changes. See Arrow Styles for the controls behind them.

Other elements

A few other elements have a Presets grid of their own in the same place:

  • Sticky notes: twelve paper colours, each paired with a readable ink. These don't follow the theme, because a note's colour is your own shorthand.
  • Tables: eight complete looks that set the cells, grid lines, header band and header text together.
  • Charts: a set of colour palettes for the slices, bars and lines.
  • Code blocks: colour schemes for the code.

Good to know

  • Hover to preview. With a mouse, hovering a preset shows it live on the canvas; it only sticks when you click. Moving away puts the element back. On a touch screen, a tap applies it.
  • Works on a selection. Select several shapes, or several arrows, and right-click: the preset applies to all of them at once. When the selection holds both shapes and arrows, you get a Shape Presets section followed by an Arrow Presets section.
  • One undo step. Each preset applies as a single step, so one Undo reverts it, however many elements it changed.
  • Presets follow the theme. A shape on a theme-derived look (Bold, say) stays bound to it: switch the tab's theme and it becomes the new theme's Bold. Editing any of its colours by hand ends the binding.

Use a bold or inked preset to draw the eye to the one shape that matters, then leave the rest on the theme default for contrast.

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