Month Year Issue

April 1998 Issue: 1

Journal of Conceptual Modeling
www.inconcept.com/jcm

InfoModeler Tips and Tricks: General Tips, Issue One
by Dr. Anthony Bloesch

To switch to the previous tool: hit the space bar. For example, to add two tables to a diagram: select the table tool, click on the diagram, hit the space bar, click on the diagram.
When creating a multi-role constraint on an ORM diagram, you can hit the enter key instead of clicking on the a button.
To keep the current tool active, while creating objects on a diagram: hold the shift key down while clicking on the diagram. For example, to add two tables to a diagram: select the table tool, hold down the shift key, left-click on the diagram twice.
To pan a window: hold the ctrl key down while pressing the left mouse button and moving the mouse.
To insert a column into a table: select another column (or an empty slot), hit the insert key and start typing the column's name.
To get help on most output window messages: select the message and hit the F1 key.
To undo and redo virtually every change made to a model: hit the ctrl-z key (undo) or ctrl-a key (redo).
To jump to the source of an error or warning in the output window: double click on the message.
To jump to the source of the next error or warning in the output window: hit the F4 key.
To find out the latest news about the integration of Visio and InfoModeler visit http://www.microsoft.com/

Dr. Anthony Bloesch is currently Director of Database and Software Modeling Solutions at Visio Corporation. Previously Anthony was Vice-President of Engineering at InfoModelers Inc. and a Research Fellow at the Software Verification Research Center. Anthony has published and researched widely on topics including: conceptual database modeling and querying, software specification languages, object-oriented analysis and design, and automatic diagram layout.