EVE User Manual

EVE version 3.53, March 2003
v2.00 - fantastic new alignment/stretching tool!
v2.10 - Polygons/lines up to 42 points, insert/delete points!
v2.18 - Flip selected elements horizontally or vertically!
v2.21 - Rotate elements!
v2.50 - HTML labels!
v2.75 - Mouse-over animation, flash colors!
v2.95 - Edit bitmap pictures!
v2.98 - Pie, chord and arc elements!
v2.99 - Error talkback: semi-automated bug reporting
v3.04 - Link activator now has "go to"
v3.40 - Color morphing/gradient effects
v3.46 - Custom icons for custom shapes in Elements menu
v3.52 - Realtime update from label properties box to diagram.
This User Manual is on one big web page -- BE PATIENT while it downloads! Note, my users like it all on the one page, as it is easy to save the entire manual locally (IE bug -- the SVG graphics have to be saved manually).

The EVE Web Edition User Manual is an extension of this manual. It details the "export to SVG" feature of WE and how to create an SVG graphic on a web page. For an introduction to what EVE WE is all about, go to the EVE WE intro page. For the EVE WE User Manual extension, go to evewemanual.htm.

Now published: the EVE file format specification. This specification may be used by application authors to import and export EVE graphics files. Access to the specification document requires EVEWE registration.

Due to their extreme compactness, I am gradually introducing SVG graphics into this web page (because it has grown to about 500K, which is too big for one page!). So, you must have the Adobe SVG Viewer:

Click on this button to download the SVG Viewer:

NOTE 1: You may already have it! Adobe now bundle the SVG viewer with the Acrobat PDF viewer.
NOTE 2: To see the SVG graphics that I am starting to use in this web page, created by EVE WE, and extremely compact compared with the GIF equivalent, scroll down to the first big graphic -- a snapshot of the EVE window -- it is an SVG file at only 2,658 bytes, whereas the equivalent 256-color GIF is 16,763 bytes. For more examples of SVG, jump down to sections "Placing single elements into the Elements menu" and "Disable editing".
 
Preface

Introduction
    Getting started
    User interface introduction
        Basic manipulation of the screen and objects
        More advanced manipulation

Mouse
    Right button
    Left button   v1.40 dragging has "snap to grid" action. v1.48 drag action modified. v1.60 selection/scrolling modified.
    Double-click left button

Keyboard
    DELETE key
    SHIFT key
    CONTROL key
    Arrow keys
    TAB key   v1.46 easy editing of composite-objects. v1.81.
    BACKSPACE key 

Menus
    File menu    v1.39 EVE remembers the last file opened.
    Elements menu   v1.49 Bezier polyline. v1.59 Animation!
    Control menu  v1.93 Enlarge and shrink any group of elements. v2.18 Flip horiz. and vert.

Printing
    Basic printing
        Finetune print size    
    Page grid                 v1.30 alignment grid, page layout. v1.38 finetune grid size.
    Printing troubleshooting

Clipboard

Further element manipulation
    Selection of multiple elements
    Moving multiple elements
    Duplicating multiple elements 
    Importing another diagram
    Resize selected elements   v1.93 Enlarge and shrink any group of elements. v2.20 keep x/y proportions.
    Align selected elements   v2.00 Align on a vertical or horizontal axis.
    Stretch selected elements  v2.00
    Flip selected elements    v2.18
    Rotate selected elements   v2.21

Saving and exporting
    Export EMF vector images
        Printing to Adobe .PDF
    Exporting high-quality graphic images  
    Exporting as embedded file
    Exporting as SVG file   v2.70 HTML labels export to SVG.

Element dialog boxes
    Ellipse dialog box   v2.98 create "partial ellipse": pie, chord and arc. v3.40 color morphing.
    Rectangle dialog box   v3.40 color morphing.
    Sticky line dialog box
    Polygon dialog box   v2.10 up to 42 vertices, insert and delete any vertice.
    Picture icon dialog box   v1.43 scale the display size of pictures. v1.85 scaling refined.
    Label dialog box
        Text display width    v1.22 adjustable width of text display. v1.89 refined.
        Right-aligned text     v1.48 custom text alignment.
        HTML markup tags    v2.50 Display labels with HTML tags.
        Realtime label update v3.52
    Page grid dialog box    v1.30 alignment grid, page layout. v1.38 finetune grid size.
    Link activator dialog box v2.80. v3.04 "go to" added.
        Home folder
    Animation activator dialog box   v2.75 flashing color and mouse-over.

Menu dialog boxes
    Text find dialog box
    Element# find dialog box
    Project management dialog box
    EVE preferences dialog box   v1.40 "snap to grid" action.
        Saving configuration settings   v1.39 can save settings to "eve.ini" configuration file.
    Toolbox dialog box    v1.36 Symbol library now has categories.

Application notes
    Bitmaps
    Rings
    Fine manipulation of lines
        Sticky wires
        Non-sticky wires
        Close up work with wires
        Arrowhead scaling
        Pen width
    Parents and children
        Composite objects
    Bring to front, send to back   v1.25 send to back improved.
        Working with overlapping elements   v1.84 elements selectable only on boundary.
    Object library 
        Usage of the object library
        Creation of library objects
            Placing single elements into the Elements menu
            Managing the Elements menu    v1.21. v1.25 added a "Replace" button.
            Saving and importing an object library 
            Library categories                      v1.36 Symbol library now has categories.
            Snap-to dragging   v1.40
            Dragging near other elements
            Stretching composite-objects   v1.44, v2.00
            TAB to highlight sequentially   v1.46 easy editing of composite-objects.
            Disable editing   v1.81 for users, after it is designed. v1.82 enhancements.
            Placing a bitmap into the Elements menu v3.46
    Binding EVE inside Multimedia Builder   v1.18
        Making an EVE diagram non-editable 
        Bind interface menu
    Animation    
        Animation of parents and children
        Editing
        Trigger events and color animation
        "Home" position
        Color and visibility control
        Goto link animation v3.07
   Color morphing   v3.40

Installation
    System requirements
Limitations
Error talkback v2.99

Preface

EVE is a general application for drawing vector diagrams. Which means any kind of line drawings -- however, this is somewhat of an understatement.

What will really knock your socks off is that EVE is very powerful yet is only about 73K bytes. We are all accustomed to fairly trivial applications being at least 1M byte, so how on earth does EVE get all that power into such a tiny space?

Firstly, why? In these days of 128M RAM and 20G hard drives on entry-level PCs, the vast majority of software developers are not concerned about code efficiency. Nor are the operating system and application vendors. So, we have bloatware.
However, small means fast, and small means that you can send it over the Internet very easily.  You can readily attach EVE to an email or distribute on a floppy disk.

EVE is small because she is handcrafted in assembly language, and was developed to make maximum use of the raw Win32 API. Most software developed these days use tools that result in layers of software -- in other words the tools provide high levels of abstraction to speed code development, with the penalty of enormous code size and slow performance. The difference in code size and speed between these two opposite approaches is staggering.

Another important aspect of EVE's usefulness is that she does not impact on the operating system in any way. In other words, there is no installation process and no changes to the registry or any files or folders. This is important for a number of reasons. One reason is that a person can obtain EVE, run her, then dispose of her, with no impact at all on the OS. EVE can be "binded" inside an application developed with Multimedia Builder, a powerful multimedia application developer, and distributed without concern to have EVE separately installed. You can also have multiple copies of EVE all over the place.

EVE has a number of security measures, to ensure datafiles are not corrupted and to protect against viruses. Whenever a datafile is saved or opened, EVE goes through a comprehensive integrity-check -- an opened datafile must have a correct "checksum" and all database pointers are verified as valid, plus other database structural integrity is verified.

EVE data files are very small and by default compressed with the LZP format. This means that you don't have to ZIP them to send them anywhere, as they're already tiny.

EVE is "talkback enabled", which is a semi-automated bug reporting feature. Not that we expect bugs, but it's real nice to have a hotline direct to the author in the case one does occur. Very few applications have this capability.

EVE is a vector drawing application, and the word "EVE" is an acronym for "Embedded Vector Editor", however EVE is very different from any other drawing application. You will be hard pressed to find even top-of-the-range drawing/drafting/CAD applications that can do some of the things that EVE can do.
Find out -- start-up EVE, open the tutorial, and play ... you will want to rename EVE as "Enjoyable Vector Editor"!

Introduction

Getting started

This is a good place to start to gain an overall feel for how EVE works. Have EVE installed and running and as you read each row of the tables below, immediately try it. It will be easier to experiment if you first open an existing .EVE file, so there is something already created for you to play with.

• Note:
  If you're just starting with EVE, the best way to gain an overall feel for EVE's capabilities and usage is to look through the file "eveintro.eve" -- you will have got it when you downloaded "eve.zip". "eveintro.eve" is an EVE diagram that demonstrates most of what EVE can do -- start EVE, then select "File/Open..." to open it.
  After that, this User Manual is the place to gain indepth knowledge of the wonders of EVE. 

When you start EVE you will see the following window, except that the client area is blank. Select "File/Open..." to open a data file. EVE data files have file extension of .EVE. This is an SVG image, created in EVE, and is one-sixth the size of the equivalent GIF image:

User interface introduction

EVE has an unusual interface. To obtain some initial familiarity, experiment with these:

Basic manipulation of the screen and objects

More advanced manipulation

The above table is to get you started -- try each of them before continuing. Now try some slightly more ambitious exercises.

You'll need to understand the idea of a "child element". This is an element that is owned by another element. The owner-element can in turn be owned by another, and so on. You can attach multiple elements as children of one element. When you drag a parent-element, so to will all the children move, and when you delete a parent so to will all the children be deleted.

Be careful with deletion, as all the children get deleted, including the children's children, etc.

Practice creating new elements and in particular examine how you create a child element as contrasted with a stand-alone element:

Placing a new element	Select  an ellipse element from the menu, move the mouse cursor to where it is to be placed. If a "free" ellipse, just click the left mouse button to deposit the ellipse. An ellipse may be placed as a "child" -- after selecting "Element/Ellipse" from the menu, press left button over an existing element (say another ellipse) and drag to (a blank area) where the new element is to be placed -- release button to deposit it. Lines: each end can be a child of an existing element, so press left button over an element, drag, release button over destination-element of the new wire (note that I also refer to lines as wires).
Manipulating existing elements	Drag any element by pressing left mouse button over the element and dragging. For wires, point to the little circle in the middle of the wire (the handle). To further manipulate wires, left-click on the mid-point to highlight the wire -- you will see more handles appear -- these can be dragged. When a wire is highlighted, you can also drag the ends.
Deleting elements	Left click on the element to select (highlight) it. Press DELETE key. You can delete the most recently placed element by CTRL+DELETE (without highlighting it).
Zooming	You can create an enormous diagram, and zoom out to see the whole thing. Select from the menu "Control/Zoom out" or "Control/Zoom in". When zoomed out, can double-click anywhere not on an element, and screen will zoom back to normal size, coordinates double-clicked on will become top-left of window.
Scrolling	Press left mouse button on any blank area in the window and drag to a window boundary -- the diagram will scroll. It accelerates the longer you keep scrolling. Alternatively, the arrow keys will also cause the diagram to scroll, in the same manner as with the mouse -- you may find the arrow keys more convenient to use for easy and precise control.
Tidy up	If any slight "debris" is left on the screen when elements are manipulated (purely a cosmetic problem), right-click the mouse on any blank area and the entire window will redraw.
Element dialog boxes	Right-click on any element to bring up a dialog box (properties box). Configure the element as required.
Double-click on label element	The label element can be edited by right-button clicking to bring up the dialog box, however, double-click with left-button activates the external editor. Thus, there are two different ways to edit the contents of this element.
Double-click on a link	Any element can be made into a "hot spot" by having attached to it what is known as a "link activator" element -- have a look at the "Elements" menu. A hot spot has a particular reaction to being double-clicked on. For example, double-clicking on an "execution link" can be used to launch another MSWindows (or DOS) application. Note that a single left click can be made equivalent to a double-click (see "Control/EVE preferences...").
Duplicate elements	Enables a section of diagram to be duplicated anywhere on the current diagram. Hold down SHIFT key then left-button-click on all elements to be duplicated, or select menu "Control/Selection rectangle" and draw a rectangle (or rectangles) around the elements to be selected, or directly drag a selection rectangle. Then select "Control/Duplicate selected elements". Duplicated elements will follow the mouse cursor. Can scroll the window by arrow keys or mouse, until a mouse left-button-up will deposit the elements.
Move elements	Enables a section of diagram to be moved anywhere on the current diagram. Hold down SHIFT key then left-button-click on all elements to be duplicated, or select menu "Control/Selection rectangle" and draw a rectangle (or rectangles) around the elements to be selected, or directly drag a selection rectangle. Then select "Control/Move selected elements". Selected elements will follow the mouse cursor. Can scroll the window by arrow keys or mouse, until a mouse left-button-up will deposit the elements.
Inserting and deleting rings on ellipses	An ellipse may have up to 63 rings, and new rings may be inserted after any existing ring, and any existing ring deleted. This is achieved via the ellipse dialog box, activated by a right-button mouse-click. Note that all attached wires will move appropriately, that is, will stay stuck to their correct ring. The innermost ring is number 1.

Mouse

Right button

Press the right mouse button over any element to pop up a local dialog box (properties box). The location is context sensitive and will be different for each type of object. For lines, point to the middle knee-point (handle). (See the "Element dialog boxes" section for descriptions of the dialog boxes).

For ellipses, right-clicking on any ring will bring up the dialog box, however the choice of ring to right-click on affects the "Insert a ring (after)" and "Delete ring" checkboxes. See "Ellipse dialog box" section.

The right button has a useful purpose if clicked over a vacant area - it causes the screen to redraw. This can be handy if there is any "scrap" left behind, which can sometimes happen when objects are dragged or resized.

Also, if the right button is pressed over a blank area and held down for more than 0.5 seconds, an "Elements" menu will popup, enabling an alternative method of selecting a new element.

Left button

The left button is used to place, highlight, or drag objects. When placing "free" elements, after selecting a new element from the menu (under "Elements" heading), move to where you want it, then click once to place it. For "child" elements, after selecting a new element from the menu, press the button at the starting point (tip of the cursor-arrowhead on top of an existing element) and drag to place the other end.

When in-place, wires (lines) can be dragged from their middle knee-point (handle) and can be highlighted at their middle knee-point (a tiny circle identifies the middle-point of a wire).

If placing a child element, simply clicking over an existing element will cause the child to be automatically placed just outside the parent element. This method of placing a new child element is an alternative to the normal method of dragging while holding down the left button.

If the <shift> key is held down prior to left-click on an element, multiple elements can be highlighted. This is used for selecting multiple elements to be duplicated, moved, or deleted. Note that "Control/Selection rectangle" can also be used for selection of multiple elements.

If the left button is depressed while the cursor is over a blank area of the diagram and the cursor then moved to a window boundary, the diagram will scroll. Scrolling is incremental, gradually accelerating, the same as for scrolling using the arrow keys.

• With version 1.60 I introduced a change in how this works. Now, if you press the left button and drag, a rectangle is drawn for selecting elements to be highlighted. This was previously done via "Control/Selection rectangle" only.
  This does does compromise scrolling somewhat -- it still scrolls, except that you get a selection rectangle being drawn on the screen. 

When dragging a non-wire element (such as an ellipse), normally all the child-elements will follow. However, by holding down the <control> key the child non-wire elements won't move. This can be useful if a child element accidentally has got hidden underneath its parent. See also the note below about already-highlighted elements.

If you left-click on an element, it becomes highlighted (selected). More handles may appear -- for example, the rectangle will now show handles at right-side and bottom-side, for resizing the element. That is, these handles can be dragged with the left button held down.
However, in the case of "solid" elements (i.e., not a wire or polygon/polyline -- yeah, I'm excluding a polygon here), they can still be dragged in entirety when highlighted. Just as you can press the left button on an element and drag it, so to you can do it while it's already highlighted.
Note however that there is a difference. If the element is already highlighted when you drag it, no children elements will follow. The reason for this is that this mechanism is used for individually adjusting elements in composite-objects, as explained in section " TAB to highlight sequentially".

• However, this ability to individually drag and manipulate elements of a composite-object can be turned off. For example, you've designed some composite-objects and placed them in the object library (Elements menu), and you don't want users to be able to too-easily or accidentally pull the objects apart. This is done by ticking the "Lock" checkbox of the top (or "boss") element -- see section "Disable editing".
  If you tick the "Lock" checkbox of a free or standalone element (not a child), it does not mean it becomes locked in place -- no, it simply removes some editing capabilities. For example, the resize handles won't appear when it is highlighted, and it can't be dragged independently of any children it might have.

When an element or composite-object is dragged, if it happens to move over another object/element, that other object/element redraws (ie., is not wiped out). Some comments on this are in section "Dragging near other elements", pertaining to the design of composite-objects.

With version 2.80, a single left click can now be equivalent to a double-click. To enable this, go to "Control/EVE preferences..." and tick the checkbox named "Single-click equivalent to double-click". Refer to section "EVE preferences dialog box". Double-click action is explained in the next section.

Double-click left button

Double-click action on a node is explained in the "Double click action" section. A single left click can also be made equivalent to a double-click, as explained immediately above.

Double-click on a label element activates the external editor. The external editor may be used to edit the text in these elements. A LEFT CLICK CANNOT BE MADE EQUIVALENT TO THIS.
An alternative method is to right-click on the element to bring up the dialog box, which also allows the text to be edited.

Any element may have a link activator element attached to it. Double-click on such an activated element will cause the appropriate action. For example, the link activator can be specified to open a text file in the external editor.
A LEFT CLICK CAN BE MADE EQUIVALENT TO A DOUBLE-CLICK TO INVOKE A LINK ACTION.

Double-click on a text-file link activates the external editor and opens a file as specified in the text-file link's dialog box. See section "Text-file link dialog box".

Double-click on an execution link launches an MS Windows or DOS application. See section "Execution link dialog box".

Double-click in a blank area (i.e., not on an element) causes zooming/scrolling. When zoom-factor is normal (1 logical (diagram) unit equals 1 screen pixel) (the default), double-clicking does nothing.
When zoomed-out, double-clicking causes the diagram to return to normal zoom-factor, with the coordinate where the double-click action took place (i.e., where the cursor was when you double-clicked) being shifted to the top-left of the window.
When zoomed-in (relative to normal), double-click causes zoom-factor to jump out twice beyond normal.

Keyboard

DELETE key

The DELETE key deletes highlighted elements.

CONTROL-DELETE deletes the most recently placed object, even though not highlighted.

SHIFT key

Hold the SHIFT key down when left-mouse-button click on an element allows multiple elements to be highlighted.
Highlighted multiple elements can be moved, duplicated, and deleted. See section "Selection of multiple elements".

Note that multiple elements can also be selected via "Control/Selection rectangle", using the mouse.

The SHIFT key can also be used to stretch and shrink any group of elements -- see section "Stretch selected elements". In particular it is used to stretch a composite-object -- see section "Stretching composite-objects".

The SHIFT key can be used with "Control/Resize selected elements" to keep the x/y proportions. When this menu-item is selected, a grey rectangle will appear around the selected elements, with handles on right side and bottom. These handles can be dragged to proportionally resize the elements. Holding down the SHIFT key will force the x (horizontal) and y (vertical) proportions to remain the same. For further information, see section "Resize selected elements".

CONTROL key

Used with DELETE as explained above.

If CONTROL is depressed prior to pressing an arrow key, the diagram will scroll by one-paper-width/height -- see the "Printing" section.

If the CONTROL key is pressed while dragging an element with the mouse, any attached child non-wire elements won't move. Normally all child elements will follow the parent.
Note, exactly the same effect is achieved by first highlighting an element by clicking on it -- then drag it and children won't follow -- the CONTROL key is not required to be pressed.

Arrow keys

Arrow keys scroll the diagram. The dialog box "Control/EVE preferences..." has options for scrolling. Default is that scrolling is incremental with acceleration. An option is to jump one window each time an arrow key is pressed.

If the CONTROL key is held down when an arrow key is pressed, jumping is by one-paper-width/height -- see "Printing" section.

TAB key

The TAB key is extremely useful when working on elements that are close together and maybe overlapped. In particular, the composite-object has this situation. If an element is highlighted (by left-click of mouse), pressing TAB successively will sequentially highlight each attached element. All children with a common root owner will successively highlight. See section "TAB to highlight sequentially".

However, this can be turned off. For example, you've designed some composite-objects and placed them in the object library (Elements menu), and you don't want users to be able to too-easily or accidentally pull the objects apart. This is done by ticking the "Lock" checkbox of the top (or "boss") element -- see section "Disable editing".

BACKSPACE key

This is an elementary undo function, currently limited to restoring selected elements when resizing.

When the menu-item "Control/Resize selected elements" is selected, a grey rectangle will appear around the selected elements, with handles on right side and bottom. These handles can be dragged to proportionally resize the elements. BACKSPACE will restore the elements to as they were when first selected. For further information, see section "Resize selected elements".

Menus

In keeping with the minimalist, uncluttered, layout of the EVE window, there are just three menu headings: "File", "Elements" and "Control".

File menu

For details on the "output" selections of the "File" menu, refer to the section "Saving and exporting".
 

Menu item	Description
Import template...	This imports the settings of another diagram, but not the other diagram itself. The settings are those in "Control/EVE preferences..." dialog box and the custom colors.
Import diagram...	This is a diagram merge feature. Another EVE diagram can be opened and merged with the current one. See section "Importing another diagram". This can also be used to import a library of objects. See section "Object library".
Import a picture...	A GIF, JPG, or BMP bitmap may be imported into the database. The bitmap is not yet assigned to any element and will not display. It becomes a resource that any "picture icon" element can access -- see sections "Icon dialog box" and "Bitmaps".
Import SVG...	This requires the Web Edition of EVE. See the "EVEWE User Manual extension".
Selected elements save as...	This menu option is for saving part of a diagram as a separate diagram. Firstly you need to select some elements, and this is explained in section "Selection of multiple elements".
Export as EMBEDDED...	See section "Exporting as embedded".
Export selected elements as EMF...	See sections "Export EMF vector images" and "Selection of multiple elements".
Export selected elements as SVG...	This requires the Web Edition of EVE. For further information see section "Exporting as SVG file".
Print	Printing is covered in section "Printing".

You can see at the bottom of the "File" menu that there is a path and filename. EVE remembers the last file opened, so it is very quick for you to reopen it. This information is kept in a file "eve.ini", described in section "Saving configuration settings".

Elements menu

The basic object that can be placed on the diagram is called an "element". Drawings are composed of elements grouped together in some way.

The "filled" elements are the ellipse, rectangle, rounded rectangle, and polygon.

The ellipse can also be a "partial ellipse", that is, a pie, chord or arc. The pie and chord are filled shapes, the arc is not. The dialog box for the ellipse allows for toggling between complete-ellipse, pie, chord, or arc shapes: see section "Ellipse dialog box".

The "sticky lines" are curved (Bezier), segmented, and straight lines. The ends are "sticky", that is, they will stick to other elements. See section "Sticky wires".

The "un-sticky line" is the same as the sticky lines, except that automatic stickiness is disabled. A checkbox in the lines properties box can turn this on or off.

The multi-segmented line (polyline) is also "open" like the sticky lines, meaning that it has two ends and cannot have a color fill, but is different from the other lines in that it is not "sticky". See section "Non-sticky wires". It comes in two varieties, straight segments or Bezier curved segments.

A label simply places a text label of up to 65,535 characters on the diagram. See section "Label dialog box".

A picture icon is for placing a picture, that is, a JPG, BMP or GIF bitmap/raster graphic image onto the diagram. The picture must previously have been imported into the database by "File/Import a picture...". See section "Icon dialog box".

Any element on the diagram can be "activated" by attaching a link activator element to it. This means that a double-click (or single click) on the element causes the chosen link action to occur. Current available links are to open a text file in an external editor, open a Windows application, open another EVE diagram, scroll the window (goto), or open a HTTP or FTP site in a web browser. See section "Link activator dialog box".

The page grid element displays an alignment grid, in inches or centimetres, including paper margins. See section "Page grid".

You can design your own symbols/shapes (EVE calls them composite-objects) and place them in the Elements menu. They can even be organised into categories of popup menus if there are lots of them -- see section "Object library".

The animation activator is an element that is normally attached to another element to animate it. See sections "Animation activator dialog box" and "Animation".

Control menu

 

Menu item	Description
Bind interface	See section "Bind interface menu".
Zoom	The coordinates used on the diagram, let's call them "diagram units" are 1 diagram-unit = 1 pixel at normal zoom factor. You can zoom in four times from normal and zoom out six times from normal. Each zoom in or out doubles or halves the scaling. Zooming keeps the point of the diagram in the centre of the window, at the centre, meaning that if you were to zoom out six times, then back in six times, you would be back to the same place on the diagram.
Text find...	Finds a text string in label elements. See section "Text find dialog box".
Element# find...	Finds a particular element. Every element placed on the diagram has a unque number. See section "Element# find dialog box".
Manipulation of multiple elements	For moving, duplicating, deleting, see section "Further element manipulation". Any group of elements can be proportionally resized (enlarged or shrunk), via the "Resize selected elements" entry in the menu, described in section "Resize selected elements". Any group of elements can be aligned or stretched, via the "Align/stretch selected elements" entry in the menu, described in sections "Align selected elements", "Stretch selected elements" and "Stretching composite-objects". Any group of elements can be flipped, horizontally or vertically, by the menu entries "Flip selected elements horizontally" or "Flip selected elements vertically". This is further described in section "Flip selected elements". Selected elements may be rotated. See section "Rotate selected elements".
Copy window to clipboard as bitmap	Copies the current client area of the window to the clipboard. See sections "Clipboard" and "Exporting high quality graphics images".
Database integrity check	This performs a comprehensive check of the integrity of the elements in the database, such as valid pointers. Note that this is performed every time a file is saved. Note also EVE data files are saved with a "signature" that is used to verify that the file is not corrupted when it is opened. Thus, although EVE herself cannot be guranteed to be bug-free, extreme lengths are taken to validate the diagram, so that you may have confidence in using EVE for major projects.
EVE preferences...	See section "EVE preferences dialog box".
Toolbox...	See section "Toolbox dialog box".

Printing

Yes, you can print! In early versions of EVE, printing capability was basic, however it has grown to be very sophisticated, with fine control over size and placement on the paper. The heading below, "Basic printing" is the method of printing supported from the very early versions, and is still an excellent technique. Further down, there is the heading "Page grid", which is a more sophisticated technique.

Basic printing

Notice that the "Control" menu has a "Go to origin" item - this takes the screen back to 0/0 coordinates at the top-left corner of the window, regardless of whether you are zoomed in or out. You may find it convenient to do this first, before printing, so that there is a consistent starting point.

When you select "Print" from the "File" menu, a single page is printed, at the same zoom factor, with the top-left point of the window corresponding to the top-left printable point on the paper. Therefore, you will see more diagram on the paper, because the window won't show the full page unless you have a large monitor.

Note that "Control/EVE preferences..." has an option for displaying the paper margins on the screen. These are just the right and bottom margins, as the left and top are the edges of the window. Also refer to the section "EVE preferences dialog box".

After printing a page, you have the option of jumping in any direction, using the arrow keys, and printing again. To jump exactly one page, hold the CONTROL key down and hit an arrow key. Then, select "Print" again.

Note that you must hold down the CONTROL key, because just pushing an arrow key causes the diagram to scroll incrementally, not one page.

You can print any part of the diagram, at any zoom-factor - just remember that it is the top-left on window client-area and paper that match.

Finetune print size

WYSIWYG, and what you see on-screen is exactly what will print, at the same size. Also, as mentioned above, the top/left corner of the window will align with the top/left printable corner of the paper.

EVE asks Windows what the pixels per inch of the screen are, and the dots per inch of the printer, so is able to calculate the appropriate scaling. However, often Windows doesn't really know, especially with regard to the monitor.

Therefore, I have incorporated a feature into EVE to enable you to finetune the printout size relative to screen size. Have a look at the "Print Options" "Finetune print size" X and Y edit boxes in the EVE preferences dialog box -- see section "EVE preferences dialog box".

The units for these boxes are %. For example, if you type "-10%" into both of these boxes, the on-screen page margin will move in by 10%. The margins have shrunk, which means that the diagram will be enlarged when printed* -- remember always that those grey margins are the extreme printable margins of the paper.

This graphic shows how the right margin appears on the screen:

The left margin is always the left side of the window. To see these margins on-screen, tick the "Show page margins" checkbox in the "Control/EVE preferences..." dialog box.

• *
  This "%" figure is screen-centric. That is, "-10%" means that the grey margins move in by 10% -- however the printout will actually be 11% bigger. This is not something to be concerned about though, as you always know what the printout is going to look like from the grey margins.

I don't intend this to be a replacement for zoom-in and zoom-out, just to finetune print size. It is best to zoom-in or zoom-out to the desired magnification, and finetune; usually only a few % is required, if any.

Note that the page grid also has a "finetune grid size" capability, in 1% increments. If you are using the page grid to print (see below), the "finetune grid size" overrides the "finetune print size" settings in the "EVE preferences" dialog box.

When you have finished printing, untick the "Show page margins" checkbox, to eliminate the visual clutter on the screen.

Page grid

The page grid is an element, that can be placed on the diagram just like any other element (see section "Elements menu"). Right-clicking on the handle of a page grid element brings up a dialog box (properties box): see section "Page grid dialog box".

It displays as a little red handle at top/left, with a grey grid, in inches or centimetres. This picture illustrates:

The total grid is exactly the size of the printable area of the paper.

The page grid has two major purposes:

1. Use the vertical and horizontal grey lines for alignment of elements.
   
2. Use the grid to see and choose exactly what will print on the paper.

The above sections on printing explained that the top/left of window will print at the top/left corner of the printable margins of the paper. Thus, you need to scroll the diagram to get it right for printing a page.

However, the grid offers another way of printing a page. The grid can be dragged wherever you want it on the diagram. Highlight the grid (left-click on the little red handle at top/left of grid element) and select "File/Print...".
That's it. It doesn't matter whether you are zoomed out or in or where the grid is in the window, EVE will automatically align the highlighted grid with the paper.

In the above graphic, I zoomed-out once from normal, to see the whole grid. I dragged the grid to frame exactly what I wanted to print on the paper. I then highlighted the grid element and printed. Whatever is within the grid appears on the paper. 

Note that the grid is annotated with measurements in inches or centimetres. These measurements have nothing to do with zoom-factor or the screen. These measurements are correct for printing on paper. This is the main purpose of the grid.
At normal zoom-factor, the measurements (inches or centimetres) are supposed to be WYSIWYG, however you may see that the divisions look slightly bigger or smaller than an actual inch or centimetre. This is because MS Windows does not necessarily know the exact pixels/inch of your display. However, the divisions should be very accurate on paper.

Note that the grid itself does not print. Nor will it export in any way, such as exporting to EMF/WMF or clipboard. 

You will notice that the properties box for the grid element has radio buttons for screen calibration of the grid divisions: see section "Page grid dialog box". Remember always that the grid divisions are correct for the paper, no matter what zoom-factor you are viewing at on-screen. However, you can choose any particular zoom-factor for which the divisions will also be nominally correct on-screen.
The default is normal zoom-factor, which means that the normal-zoom-factor on-screen appearance of the grid divisions is nominally WYSIWYG when printed. If you choose "in 1" in the grid-element properties box, then the divisions will appear correct when you have zoomed-in by one from normal -- at normal zoom-factor, the grid will appear smaller.
This is actually quite simple in practice, though may not seem so when this explanation is first read. 

Using the zoom settings in the grid properties box, you can make the grid any size you want. Then, you can place +ve or -ve values into the "Finetune grid size" edit boxes to adjust the grid size in 1% increments. The grid that you see on the screen represents your piece of paper -- whatever is framed within the grid will enlarge or shrink to print on the paper, exactly as it looks on-screen. Try it, to see how simple it is!

Printing troubleshooting

If you get a "print overrun" message when printing, check to see if the printer driver has a "page protection" setting and if so turn it on.

EVE does not have a printer setup dialog box - the program reads the printer settings on startup. Therefore, if you want to make any changes to the printer settings, quit EVE, make the changes and then restart EVE.
Note that you modify the printer settings by going to "My computer/Printers" icon, double-click to open, then right-click on the required printer driver and select "Properties" to change the settings. Make sure the required printer is set as "Default printer".

Note that some reconfigurability of the printer from within EVE is planned for a future version. However, one of the key philosophies of EVE was no impact on the operating system, so this will have to be done with caution.

If EVE gives error #19 or #20 when you try to print, it means that no printer driver is setup. This is a very unlikely situation, but a couple of users with laptops did report it. As they never previously printed from their laptop, they never setup a printer. To fix this, go to "My computer/Printers" by double-clicking on icon, then double-click on "Add printer"
(of course, "double-clicking" to open an icon or program is the conventional technique, but if you have the Windows desktop configured to behave like a web-page then you may only have to left-click on something to open it).

Clipboard

There is no Cut or Paste, only "Copy window to clipboard as bitmap".

The "Control/Copy window to clipboard as bitmap" menu selection will copy the current client window to the clipboard as a TIF bitmap.

If a diagram is larger than the window, you can take multiple "snapshots", or copies to clipboard, to capture the entire diagram. Each snapshot can be saved as a .GIF image, and if required (inside a text document) can be inserted into cells of a table to reconstruct the entire image.
To move the diagram one-window vertically or horizontally, for the purpose of taking multiple snapshots, go to "Control/EVE preferences..." to set the arrow-keys to jump a window width/height rather than incremental/accelerate diagram scrolling. 

Note that EVE uses the standard-VGA 4-bit color (16 colors) as much as possible. If you have your display set to 16-bit color (High Color, 65536 colors) or 24-bit color (True Color), and save the clipboard image as a 16- or 256-color GIF, sometimes the color mapping is not exactly right. The background should be white, but may not be. If you experience any problem with colors in the GIF image, change the PC's display to 16-color, then take the snapshots and save them as 16-color GIF -- color mapping will then be constrained to be correct.
However, if your EVE diagram contains bitmaps, you will have to set the video display to at least that number of colors -- most GIfs for example are 256 colours (8-bit).

EVE exports the bitmap to the clipboard in TIF format, however it may be pasted into a document or saved as a file in any desired graphic format. I mentioned GIF above, because GIF is most efficient at representing line drawings. There are some freeware/shareware apps that can take whatever is on the clipboard and save as a file in whatever format you want -- GIF, JPG, BMP, etc. If you paste from the clipboard into an application, such as Microsoft Word, you may have options as to what format it will be pasted. Some HTML editors for example will automatically paste it as JPG format, and there may not be any choice -- in that case, get a freeware/shareware program such as "ClipnSave" or "IrfanView" (see note below) to save it from clipboard as a GIF file first, if GIF is what you want.

I have found the freeware application IrfanView to be very useful. A bitmap graphic pasted into it from EVE can then be saved in a wide variety of raster image (bitmap) file formats. IrfanView is available from www.irfanview.com.

For further information on what to do with the graphic image once you've exported it to the clipboard, see section "Exporting high-quality graphic images".

Note that moving, deleting, or duplicating parts of a diagram is not done via the clipboard. This surprises some people, but EVE's technique is actually very efficient -- just different. See section "Further element manipulation" (below).

Further element manipulation

The above sections describe how elements may be created, highlighted (selected), moved and deleted by mouse and keyboard. However, what if you want to manipulate a group of elements?

Selection of multiple elements

Go to menu "Control/Selection rectangle" and the mouse cursor will change to a crosshair. Move to a starting-corner, press left-mouse-button, drag other corner, release mouse button. All elements within the rectangle will be highlighted (selected).

Note that this can also be done manually by holding down the SHIFT key, then left-clicking on elements.

If you want to select elements that don't all fit into a nice neat rectangle, you can draw multiple rectangles. Just keep going to the menu "Control/Selection rectangle" and draw rectangles until you've got all the ones you want.

Note that you cannot un-select any individual elements.

A left-button-click anywhere on a blank area of the window will deselect all the elements, in case you want to cancel the selection.

• NOTE
  With version 1.60, I modified the selection behaviour slightly. With heavy use, I found it somewhat tedious to have to go up to the menu "Control/Selection rectangle" to be able to draw a selection rectangle on the diagram. Therefore, it can now also be done directly, simply by pressing the left button on a blank area of diagram and dragging -- the selection rectangle automatically appears.
  This is fast and convenient, but has two small drawbacks:
  1. The procedure of pressing left button and dragging to a window boundary is used for scrolling the diagram. This still works, except that a selection rectangle is also drawn. My personal experience with scrolling is that the arrow keys are more convenient anyway.
  2. This quick method for drawing a selection rectangle is only good for one rectangle. If you try and draw a second rectangle, the elements inside the first become de-highlighted. You need to go via "Control/Selection rectangle" to draw multiple selection rectangles. 

Moving multiple elements

After having selected a group of elements as described above, go to menu "Control/Move selected elements". The cursor will jump to the first selected element, and as you move the cursor the selected elements will track the cursor (you don't have to press the left-mouse-button to drag, but can if you wish). Left-click to deposit them (or, if dragging with left-button held down, releasing it will deposit them).

Note that you can scroll the diagram and even zoom out while moving the elements. To scroll, press the arrow keys. To zoom out, go to "Control/Zoom out". The selected elements will continue to track the mouse until you left-click in the client-area of the window.

Take care when moving wires (lines). Be sure to draw the selection-rectangle (or draw another selection-rectangle, or add wires by holding down <shift> and left click on mid-point of wire) such that wires that are intended to be moved with the selected elements are also selected.

This graphic illustrates:

The selection-rectangle was drawn such that it encompassed the mid-points of all the wires attached to the elements that are being selected.

The wires will then move ok, and the wire-ends outside the selected group will stay unmoved. The problem that arises if you do not select a wire, say the one labelled "action_ptr", is that it may jump rings on the node being moved, especially if you drag the elements quickly. This problem may be addressed in a future version.

Duplicating multiple elements 

 This works in the same manner as section "Moving multiple elements" above, except that a duplicate copy of the selected elements is moved, and the originals left alone.

Importing another diagram

The menu "File/Import diagram..." will merge another .EVE diagram with the currently open one. Note that the imported diagram is copied into the current diagram and the original (the one being imported) .EVE file is left alone.

Of course, if another diagram is imported, parts of it may physically overlap existing elements on the screen, potentially creating a visual mess. Therefore, all imported elements are displayed as highlighted (selected), and the user may go to the menu "Control" and select "Move selected elements", "Duplicate selected elements" or "Delete selected elements".
Obviously the choice to "Move selected elements" is the logical one to use, to get the imported elements away from any overlapping with existing elements.

Only a certain maximum number of elements can be highlighted, see section "EVE limitations". If the imported diagram is too big, not all elements will be highlighted, meaning that some cannot be moved in one block -- EVE will warn of this.

"File/Import diagram..." can also be used to import an object library -- see section "Object library". And can import bitmaps from another diagram into the bitmap library -- see section "Bitmaps".

Resize selected elements

In EVE terminology, "resize" is different from "stretch". Composite-objects can be stretched, and this is described in sections "Stretch selected elements" (below) and "Stretching composite-objects".

• Stretching is "pulling things away" or "pushing things together". For example, you choose an x-coordinate and elements (or part thereof) to the left will move left, while elements (or part thereof) to the right will move right.

• Resizing enlarges or shrinks everything proprtionally. For example, if a group of highlighted elements is enlarged, they will all stay in the correct relative places, so the overall appearance/shape stays the same.

To resize a group of elements, this is what you need to do:

1. Highlight them. If an individual element or composite-object, just click on it.
2. Go to the menu "Control/Resize selected elements". A bounding rectangle will appear, in grey pen, with handles on right-side and bottom-side:
    
3. Drag a handle to enlarge or shrink the elements.
4. Left-click or right-click anywhere else to terminate the operation.

You can force resizing to maintain x (horizontal) and y (vertical) proportions, by holding down the SHIFT key. You get a memory-jog about this at Step-2 above, as a message appears in the menu-bar, stating this:

SHIFT: held down resizes text, keeps x/y proportions. BACKSPACE: undo.

The SHIFT key also forces any text to resize also.

That is, if you drag a resize-handle without holding down SHIFT, any text stays at the original size. Hold down SHIFT, and text will change size -- so entire selected group will retain exact appearance of original, except will be bigger or smaller.

The BACKSPACE key is a simple form of undo. It simply removes any resizing, restoring the selected elements to as they were when first selected. Note that if you "flip" the elements, the undo memory is cleared, and any further resizing will only go back to the state of the elements immediately after the flip.

A warning about this, and this applies to all vector editors. Enlarging or shrinking can cause slight changes to the placement of each element relative to others in the group. Therefore, if you have a group of elements that are very precisely aligned, be hesitant to use resizing.

Align selected elements

You've got some elements on the diagram, and you would like them to be nicely lined-up, either vertically or horizontally. No problem, v2.00 introduced a very smooth tool for this.

To align a group of elements, this is what you need to do:

1. Highlight them. If an individual element or composite-object, just click on it.
2. Go to the menu "Control/Align-stretch selected elements". Crossed vertical and horizontal axes will appear and will follow the mouse pointer. Click to deposit it so it will look like this:
    
3. You can see handles. In the above graphic, you see that the vertical axis is on the left, so drag the handle on the right and you will see the selected elements move.
4. Drag the handle so that the selected elements move toward the vertical axis. Each element will stop moving as it touches the axis. Keep dragging until all elements have stopped on the axis.

One of the beautiful things about this mechanism is that it is gradual. Some other vector editors have alignment mechanisms that snap elements to an axis, which may do some unexpected things.

You can drag the alignment-axes around by dragging the handle in the middle, where the axes cross.

You can align elements on the horizontal axis by dragging the bottom handle.

There are two main points to remember about how alignment works:

1. When using the alignment tool, elements will stop moving if touching or straddling the target axis.
2. Composite-objects are treated as a single entity -- to reaarrange elements within a comp.-obj, use stretching (see below).

When you click anywhere else other than on one of the three handles on the alignment-tool, the alignment-tool will be deleted. The selected elements are still selected, and you will need to click again anywhere on the diagram to deselect them.

Stretch selected elements

Elements can also be stretched, using the same alignment tool as above. The difference in usage is that you hold the SHIFT key down while dragging an alignment-handle.

The most important principle here, as distinct from alignment above, is:

1. Elements will not stop moving when straddling the target axis.
2. Composite-objects are not treated as a single entity, but as individual elements.

What will happen is that all vertices (corners, or points) on the same side of the target axis will move together, either away-from or toward the target axis. For elements that straddle the target axis, those vertices on one side of the target axis will move together with all other vertices on that side.

In practice, this is most useful for composite-objects, as you can enlarge or shrink an object while keeping all vertices either side of the target axis in the same relative positions.

The usage of stretching is further explained in section "Stretching composite-objects".

Flip selected elements

Any group of selected elements can be flipped horizontally or vertically.

This mechanism is generic and works for individually-selected elements, composite-objects, or large selected parts of a diagram.

"Flip" does what the name suggests. For horizontal flip, EVE calculates a vertical centreline in the middle of the bounding-rectangle of the selected elements. Each side of the centreline is flipped, making a mirror-image. Similarly for vertical flip.

However, the flip-action of text and bitmap images is modified. This SVG graphic illustrates:

The bitmap location is flipped, however the image itself remains as-is. Thus, the bitmap retains its integrity in all flipped views -- obviously, the five-dollar note is not going to be correctly displayed if it becomes a mirror-image.

The text is flipped, and angle correctly flipped also, however the direction of the text remains as-is. Thus, the text remains readable in all flipped views, and never becomes a mirror-image. The rationale for this is that you may have a composite-object in the menu library, with text in it. This object is to be used in the diagram in various places, and may require to be oriented in different directions -- however the text must always remain readable.

Rotate selected elements

The menu "Control/Rotate selected elements 90 degrees" achieves this.

The selected elements are rotated 90 degrees in a counter-clockwise direction.

Saving and exporting

"File/Save" and "File/Save as..." will save the .EVE file.

"File/Selected elements save as..." is a useful variation on save-as. It will save-as only the selected elements.
Go to the section "Selection of multiple elements" to find out how to select elements. The original .EVE is closed.

LZP compressed format

When EVE was first created, files were saved uncompressed. Later, a compression technique was adopted, a custom method developed by myself. This custom method has very small compress and uncompress code, however compression is mediocre. With version 3.30 of EVE, LZP compression was introduced.

EVE is backwards compatible, that is EVE can open and save data files as uncompressed. EVE can also open the old compressed format data files, but versions 3.30+ cannot save in this format. Versions 3.30+ open and save in LZP format by default.

All EVE data files, regardless of compression format or lack of, have the filename extension ".EVE" -- there is no need to have different extensions, as EVE is able to determine the storage format by examining information stored inside the file.

To give an indication of the merits of the three data formats, the "eveintro.eve" data file saved uncompressed is 158,848 bytes. Saved in the old compressed format it is 56,430 bytes and saved in the new LZP format it is 43,359 bytes. A small .EVE data file was previously 640 bytes in the old format and became 317 bytes in the LZP format.

Just for interest, note that WinZip v8.0 compressed the uncompressed "eveintro.eve" file to 32,295 bytes in normal mode, and 30,507 bytes in maximum mode. An extra 28 bytes must be added to these values for correct comparison with the above EVE compression formats. Also, the small .EVE data file compressed to 330+28 in normal mode and 315+28 in maximum mode. Experimenting with some other .EVE files, sometimes WinZip did better, sometimes not. For example, a very large EVE diagram in LZP format was 117,490 bytes, whereas WinZip managed 127,702+28 normal mode and 121,680+28 maximum mode.

I wish to acknowledge Charles Bloom (www.cbloom.com), who developed the LZP algorithm. He has kindly given permission to use this algorithm in EVE.

As EVE automatically saves data files in the LZP format, they are about as small as possible, which is good for storage and particularly good for transmission, such as an email attachment. There is no need to zip a .EVE file prior to transmission.

Export EMF vector image

"File/Export selected elements as EMF..." saves the selected elements as a Windows Enhanced MetaFile (EMF) vector graphic file. This file CANNOT be opened inside EVE.EXE.

EMF files are Microsoft's enhancement of the WMF vector graphic standard. EMF files can be inserted and pasted into many Windows applications and opened in graphic editors. However, many applications do not display them correctly. The WMF format is better supported, however the curved lines in .EVE files are bezier curves, requiring EMF format.

In versions of EVE prior to 2.70, I had the menu option of export as WMF, however I have removed it. I found that WMF support in applications is very patchy and inconsistent. However, all is not peaches and cream with EMF either.

Even some of Microsoft's own apps don't display EMF files properly! (* refers to the 1st released version, 1999) --

• Microsoft Publisher 2000* will display an EMF file created by EVE, except won't show the bezier wires -- useless! 
• Lotus/IBM WordPro (part of SmartSuite) Millenium Edition does display the bezier wires (properly also) but the text is not quite right. Also, it cannot be edited.
• Microsoft Word 97 displays the EMF perfectly and can be edited. Strangely, I cannot tell you about Word 2000*, because my home installation of Word 2000 refuses to display WMF or EMF at all, despite reinstallation of Office and Win98 (and also despite installing a patch that I downloaded from the Internet that was supposed to fix the problem -- if some kind MS person reads this, maybe you can send me an upgrade CD?).
• The wordprocessor in Sun StarOffice 5.2 will insert and display the EMF properly, except that it is converted to a bitmap. UPDATE: Open Office 1.0 (and Star Office 6) handle EMF beautifully, even in Linux (see note below).
• 602Text 2000, a freeware/shareware Word97-compatible cannot display WMF/EMF at all -- 602Text 2001 is supposed to be able to insert WMF graphics (not EMF), but it doesn't work.

Many applications will convert the EMF/WMF file to bitmap, which is unsatisfactory.

The good news on EMF

If an application will only import WMF, it's a crappy app. EMF is superior and is the way to go. I've given the bad news above about some apps that do not import EMF properly, however many applications do, and do it properly.

IrfanView
This is a freeware graphics viewer and converter. Doesn't like EVE's WMF files, but opens EMF files beautifully. Thanks to Carl Hennig who told me about this. Carl uses IrfanView to convert EVE's EMF files to other graphic formats, producing, in his words "absolutely stunning results". Version 3.33 has the output formats JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG, TIF, LWF, LDF, PCX, ICO, EMF, TGA, PBM, PGM, PPM -- I'm pleased to see he hasn't bothered with WMF!
You can download IrfanView from various freeware sites and from the author at www.irfanview.com.
Note that IrfanView only exports bitmap formats, going into it via EMF is somewhat roundabout. Simply copying to the clipboard from inside EVE and pasting into IrfanView will achieve the same goal, with the certainty that exactly what you see inside EVE will go into IrfanView -- see section "Exporting high-quality graphic images". 

OpenOffice
OpenOffice, the open-source version of StarOffice, has in May 2002 reached version 1.0. The vector drawing component, Draw, of OpenOffice imports EVE's EMF files very nicely (not WMF though). So, you would expect EVE's EMF graphics to insert nicely into Word, the wordprocessor component, and yes, it's beautiful.
I recommend that you seriously consider OpenOffice as a replacement for Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is multi-platform and runs nicely on my Linux machine -- I was astounded that OpenOffice displayed my EMF graphic perfectly on the Linux platform -- previously EMF has been strictly Windows-only.
(I confess I'm being drawn back to Linux, as I love the Lycoris distribution that I've just installed (May 2002) -- see my new Linux page). 

If you need high quality images from EVE, read the following section "Exporting high-quality graphic images". This describes bitmap output via the clipboard, rather than via EMF-to-IrfanView as described above.

Another way to get vector output that looks reasonably like what is seen on screen, is to print to PDF file -- see section "Printing to Adobe .PDF".

If you need vector output that looks exactly like what you see when running EVE.EXE, it is possible to "embed" EVE.EXE inside some applications. I have only done this with Multimedia Builder -- see section "Binding EVE inside Multimedia Builder". This has the feature that EVE.EXE is fully functional inside Multimedia Builder.

Another new and exciting standard for vector graphics is SVG, and the Web Edition of EVE can export to SVG. See section "Exporting as SVG file". This is the way to go for the future.

Printing to Adobe .PDF

The free Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer is not suitable. You need to purchase the Adobe Acrobat full product. This includes a printer driver called "Acrobat Distiller", which can print to file.

What you do is right-click on the "Acrobat Distiller" icon in the "My computer/Printers" folder and choose it as the default printer. Then start EVE.

When you print, output will be to a .PDF file. This is a vector image that can be viewed in the Acrobat reader.

A great advantage of the PDF format is its portability, including inclusion on web sites, as The Abode Acrobat reader integrates with web browsers. You can also insert a PDF file into some Windows applications that support OLE.

There are other .PDF generators out there, including a free one, and I would like feedback on how well they work with EVE.

However, I recommend that you checkout SVG as your first option.

Exporting high-quality graphic images

To export a diagram as a vector graphic image, see section "Export EMF vector image" above. This link also describes how to use a freeware application, IrfanView, to convert EMF to a wide range of bitmap file formats.
This section describes how to output bitmaps (raster images) via the clipboard and paste them into documents.

To export a diagram as a bitmap image, see section "Clipboard".

The bitmap image produced via the clipboard can be pasted into any Windows application. To reduce graininess, it is recommended to zoom-in one step in EVE.EXE, change the video card to a higher resolution if required, expand window to full-size, copy to clipboard. In a wordprocessor such as Lotus/IBM WordPro, paste the image then right-click on the image to change graphics properties. Select "Graphics scaling..." and change to "50%", "40%" or whatever is required. The image will display to fit the required space on the page, but when the document is printed, the graphic will print at full resolution -- ie., scaling on-screen does not make change the actual image file and all the bits are still there -- I cannot guarantee that this will work for all wordprocessors.

You can get remarkable results by using this technique. An extra word of advice -- I recommend that bitmap files exported from EVE via the clipboard be saved as GIF files, not JPG. GIF does a much better job with line drawings, and the file will be smaller. GIF's 16 or 256 colors limit is fine, except when you have JPG bitmap images embedded in the EVE diagram.
Unfortunately, when you paste a bitmap into some applications from the clipboard, the application automatically converts it to JPG format. Some applications have a "Paste special" menu item that gives you some choices.

What I have learnt over the years is that it is good to have several of each kind of application installed on your PC -- one of them is bound to do the right thing! 

Very high quality bitmap images

The technique of zooming in, as described above, is fine, however it also means that you see less diagram in the window. The way around this problem is to create a table in your wordprocessing document, and paste pictures into each cell of the table. Here is how:

1. Create a table, say 2 rows and 2 columns.
2. Set the border width and spacing/gap/padding between the cells to zero.
3. Over in EVE, go to "Control/EVE preferences..." and tick the checkbox to jump one window width/height for each arrow-key press.
4. Zoom in once or twice. Size the window so that you are seeing say the top-left quarter of the desired image.
5. Select "Control/Copy window to clipboard as bitmap". Paste into top-left cell of table.
6. Press right-arrow key, then copy to clipboard again. Paste into top-right cell.
7. Press down-arrow key, copy to clipboard, paste into table.
8. Ditto, left-arrow, clipboard, paste.

You can then scale the images to say 25%, to get them to fit on the page. With professional wordprocessors such as WordPro, the original images are retained in the document, even though scaled down, and will print all the bits on a printer of sufficient resolution.

You can get superb quality using this technique, with the advantage that it is exactly as seen on the screen. WMF/EMF files do not have this consistency over different applications.

Exporting as embedded

This option is kind of like "Save as...", except that it saves the EVE data file inside EVE.EXE. The resulting file has a filename like "something.eve.exe", and is an executable.

What actually occurs during the save process, is that a copy of EVE.EXE is made and the datafile is appended to it. Thus there is just the one file.

Double-click on this .EVE.EXE file, and EVE runs, with the data file automatically opened.

Why would you want this? Having it as a single file could have some use, such as an email attachment. It remains to be seen whether this option proves to be useful for users.

Exporting as SVG file

Scalable Vector Graphics is the new international open standard for vector graphics. You need the Web Edition of EVE to activate this feature.

See page EVE WE intro for an introduction to SVG and how to obtain the EVE Web Edition.

See page evewemanual.htm for the EVE WE User Manual extension to this manual.

Here is an SVG image created inside EVE. It is about one-sixth the size of the equivalent GIF file:

SVG graphics exported from EVE look pretty well spot on, that is, just like they do in EVE. Unlike EMF, SVG is a full multimedia specification, allowing hyperlinks, animation, etc., so most of those goodies in EVE, such as the link activator and animation activator, export to SVG. SVG graphics can be inserted into documents in many Windows applications, such as Microsoft Word, and viewed in web browsers.

Element dialog boxes

These are boxes that pop-up when you right-click the mouse pointer on an element -- anywhere in an ellipse or rectangle, or on the knee (mid-point, or handle) of a wire, or on the tiny circle (handle) on a label element. I also sometimes refer to them as "property boxes".

Ellipse dialog box

The entries in this properties box should be fairly self-explanatory. One feature that only ellipses have is multiple rings. See section "Rings". If you right-click on a particular ring of a multi-ring ellipse, you have the option of deleting that ring or inserting another outside of it, by means of the checkboxes.

A feature that all elements have is that they may be freestanding on the diagram or "owned" by another element. I refer to the owner as the parent element, and the element that has a parent is a child. See section "Parents and children".

The "Width" and "Height" edit-boxes have beside them an "Exact" checkbox. Normally, you leave this checkbox alone, unticked. EVE paints ellipses and rectangles by rounding down the width and height to even numbers -- in the above case they're even already. This can result in a discrepancy of 1 diagram-unit (= 1 pixel at normal zoom factor) when painted on the diagram. This rounding down is done for a reason -- it enables sticky wires to stick accurately, and concentric rings to look concentric.
However, sometimes when you want an ellipse or rectangle to align perfectly with other elements, the slight discrepancy is noticeable. For example, due to rounding, the width can be either 40 or 42, not 41, but if you tick the "Exact" checkbox, you can get it to display exactly at a width of 41 diagram-units. This is a subtle enhancement, that is mostly useful for getting composite-objects to look perfect. The "Exact" checkbox only works on ellipses with just one ring.

The "Selectable only on boundary" checkbox restricts mouse-pointer selection of the element to the element's boundary. Normally, clicking anywhere inside the element will select it. This is discussed further in section "Working with overlapping elements".
Note that if an element is already selected, by left-click on it, it becomes highlighted and is then selectable within its entire interior. That is, a left-button press and drag anywhere within the element will drag it, irrespective of the "Selectable only on boundary" checkbox. That is, the checkbox only applies to the initial selection of the element.

You can also select "partial ellipse" shapes. The Pie and chord are filled shapes, the arc is not.
When a pie, chord, or arc is selected, there are two extra resizing handles that will appear in the diagram when the partial-ellipse is highlighted. These are for adjusting the ends of the partial ellipse. The easiest way to see how these work is to just use them.

Color morphing is a feature that will be available for all filled elements. It provides borders and 3-D effects. See section "Color morphing".

Rectangle dialog box

Again, the selections are fairly self-explanatory. See above for links to further explanations.

The greyed-out edit-boxes in the above dialog box are for rounded rectangles. The "Rounded corners" checkbox enables switching between normal rectangle and rounded rectangle.

Color morphing is a feature that will be available for all filled elements. It provides borders and 3-D effects. See section "Color morphing".

Line dialog box

All elements can have an owner, however this group of lines (or wires) can have an owner for each end.

Notice the arrow scaling edit box. An entry of zero is the default size, and a positive value causes a bigger arrow than the default, a negative value causes a smaller arrow. Note that the default arrow size adjusts with line thickness, the thicker the line, the bigger the arrow. So, the arrow scaling entry is an extra scaling factor on top of this.

Note that you can switch the line type between curved (Bezier), segmented and straight.

Be aware that these are "sticky", see section "Sticky wires". If you don't want a sticky wire, you can tick the "Disable auto-stickiness" checkbox, or use an open multi-segmented line (polyline). See the section immediately below.

With the "Disable auto-stickness" ticked, if you drag a line-end, it won't try and stick to another element. You can still manually enter the element-number of an owner into the "Who owns me?" boxes.

For convenience, the Elements menu has a "Un-sticky line, straight" entry, which has this checkbox already ticked. This is convenient when you want to draw dimensioning lines on a diagram and you don't want the ends to automatically snap to a nearby element.

The checkbox "Don't display handle if locked" is ticked for new lines. The handle referred to is the little red dot that displays in the middle of the line. This disappears when there is any kind of output, such as to clipboard, printer, EMF or SVG. However, if this checkbox is ticked, the handle also does not display on-screen if the line is locked ("Lock" checkbox ticked).
The purpose of this is for when the line is part of a composite-object: it is then a component of a bigger object and it is usually inappropriate for its handle to display.

Polygon dialog box 

The multi-segment element can be a closed polygon or an open line (polyline). It can have the number of vertices (points) required by clicking on the appropriate button. The number of vertices includes the two ends in the case of an open line.

A most important thing about the open multi-segment line (polyline) is that it is not sticky (see above section for description of sticky wires). See section "Non-sticky wires".

The Bezier polyline is a variation, with Bezier curve segments rather than straight segments. You will find that when you click on the vertice-number buttons, the number of vertices is constrained to a multiple of 3, plus 1.

You can see in the above figure that each vertice has an x and y coordinate. These can be edited, except for those that are greyed-out. Also the vertices can be individually dragged on the diagram.

EVE versions prior to 2.10 were limited to 14 vertices maximum (the first column in the above graphic) and this is retained for backwards compatibility. That is, the polygons/lines created in older versions of EVE are stuck with this limitation.

EVE from version 2.10 allows up to 42 vertices (points).

Version 2.10 also introduces "vertice management":

Insert button	Click on this button, then click on a vertice-number button. A new vertice will be inserted, with coordinates midway between those it is inserting between. The "Number of vertices:" box will increment. For example, click on "4" and vertice-4 will become vertice-5,  and the new vertice-4 will be midway between vertices 3 and 5.
Delete button	Click on this button, then click on a vertice-number button. The vertice will be deleted. The "Number of vertices:" box will decrement.

When you click on a polygon/line to select it, each vertice will display as a draggable handle and the number of the vertice will display alongside it. This numbering makes it very easy to insert and delete vertices in the properties box.

A little higher on this page, you can see that the ellipse and rectangle properties boxes have a checkbox "Selectable only on boundary" -- if not ticked, they are selectable anywhere within their interior. Prior to v3.03, polygons were only selectable on their vertices, however this was inconsistent with ellipses and rectangles, so now new polygons by default are selectable anywhere within.
However, by ticking the checkbox "Selectable only on vertices", then the polygon becomes selectable only when there is a left-mouse-button press over a vertice. For polygons in diagrams created prior to v3.03, this checkbox will be ticked.

Note that if a polygon or polyline element is already selected, by left-click on it, it becomes highlighted and is then selectable within its entire interior. That is, a left-button press and drag anywhere within the element will drag it, irrespective of the "Selectable only on vertices" checkbox. That is, the checkbox only applies to the initial selection of the element.
Note that the "interior" of a polyline is the polygon formed by joining the first and last vertices.

Note that ticking or unticking the "Selectable only on vertices" checkbox has no effect for polylines. They remain always initially selectable only on their vertices.

Picture icon dialog box

A most important point about the picture icon is that it can display on the diagram as a bitmap. A bitmap may be loaded from a GIF, JPG, or BMP file. See an explanation of how a bitmap is loaded via "File/Import a picture..." in section "File menu", and more information about bitmaps in section "Bitmaps".

When a bitmap is loaded into the database, it is assigned a number. Numbering is from 1, which is the first bitmap loaded. How do you relate the numbers to what the bitmaps look like? It is quite simple -- move the icon dialog box so that the icon is visible on the diagram. Then, enter a number in the "Pict#:" edit box, then press "APPLY".
The bitmap will appear. Thus, you can scroll through the bitmaps and find the one you want.

I may streamline this process a little bit in the future, maybe with up/down arrows that don't need the extra step of pressing the "Apply" button. Maybe I could even have thumbnails appearing on the dialog box?

It is perhaps a little obtuse, but you can delete a bitmap, that is, remove it from the database, from within a picture icon dialog box. Bitmap deletion is not done from a menu item. Select the Pict# to be deleted, tick the "Delete" checkbox, and click on "Apply".
Please be aware that the "Delete" checkbox deletes the bitmap entirely, and it is no longer available for any icons -- when a bitmap is assigned to an icon, for the sake of compactness the bitmap is not duplicated -- there is only the one original bitmap, so if you delete it, it's gone.

The "Display size" width and height boxes are normally read-only and are automatically computed. You can only manually change them if the icon is locked, that is, the "Lock" box is ticked. This also allows the icon to be stretched when it is part of a composite-object -- see section "Stretching composite-objects".

• Display size:
  To clarify this point a bit further. Bitmaps normally display at 100%, so the "Display size" width and height will be the same as the "Original size" width and height.
  For various (good) reasons, I imposed a constraint. You have to tick the "Lock" checkbox, then you can change the "Display size" width and height -- press the "Apply" button to see the effect on the diagram.
  If you ever untick the "Lock" checkbox, the bitmap will revert back (eventually) to 100% -- so, for a custom width and height, make sure that "Lock" is ticked before you get out of the dialog box. 

The "Selectable only on boundary" checkbox restricts mouse-pointer selection of the element to the element's boundary. Normally, clicking anywhere inside the element will select it. This is discussed further in section "Working with overlapping elements".

Fonts

The "Font" section of the dialog box is almost self-explanatory. There are three default fonts; Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New, selectable in the "Name:" listbox. You can add any fourth font to this list by pressing the "Choose a font" button.

The "Choose a font" dialogbox allows you to also choose a "character set", that is, an international language set, if the font supports it. For example, there are "Turkish" and "Hebrew".

Note that the "Control/EVE preferences..." dialog box allows you to choose a default character set, that will apply to any new label or icon -- read this section for more notes on fonts.

Any changes to the fields in the fonts section of the properties box are immediately displayed in the title edit-box. That is, the title edit-box displays with the correct font.

A very useful point also is that any of the text settings also immediately display on the diagram if changed. For example, change the font angle, and it will immediately display on the diagram with the new angle. To be able to see it though, the dialog box has to be dragged aside.

In the case of the main label edit-box, after making a change, click on any field outside the edit-box to update on the diagram. This is because it is impractical to update the label on the diagram everytime a character is typed or deleted. The correct terminology is that the edit-box has to "lose input focus" to update on the diagram.
All other edit-boxes, checkboxes, list-boxes and radiobuttons will update immediately they are typed into or clicked on.

Pressing the "Cancel" button will abandon any changes made to title settings. Even though these changes are displaying on the diagram, pressing "Cancel" will restore the original settings.
However, the picture icon dialog box does compromise this, and the actual title text and the raster picture will not restore to any original setting.

Picture customise

This is a work-in-progress. The transparent-color boxes are currently read-only and only for GIF files.

The "EDIT PICTURE" button will open an external paint application. The paint application must be chosen in "Control/EVE preferences...", which can be saved to an "eve.ini" file so will be the default paint application for all new EVE diagrams.
When the button is clicked on, the external paint application will open, with a temporary image file called "temp.gif", "temp.bmp" or "temp.jpg". The graphic format will be whatever the graphic was before it was imported into the EVE diagram.
When finished editing, save the file then exit. You will be back in EVE with the modified image displaying.

With regard to choosing a suitable paint application, there are many to choose from. A free one is 602Photo, as described in my "best-of-the-best freeware" page: www.goosee.com/best/.
A basic choice is "MSPAINT.EXE", that you will find in "C:\Program files\Accessories\". Note that on Win95 systems, MSPaint only handles BMP files -- MSPaint is the EVE default, so if you are running Win95, go into "EVE preferences..." and choose something that can handle BMP, GIF and JPG.

Color morphing is a feature that will be available for all filled elements. It provides borders and 3-D effects. See section "Color morphing".

Label dialog box

The label element simply displays a text label. Explanation of some of the fields of this dialog box can be found above, in descriptions of other element dialog boxes.

The checkbox "Don't display handle if locked" is ticked for new labels. The handle referred to is the little red dot that displays at the top-corner of the label. This disappears when there is any kind of output, such as to clipboard, printer, EMF or SVG. However, if this checkbox is ticked, the handle also does not display on-screen if the label is locked ("Lock" checkbox ticked).
The purpose of this is for when the label is part of a composite-object: it is then a component of a bigger object and it is usually inappropriate for its handle to display.

Plain text display width

Plain text:
If you type in text to the "Enter text for the element" edit-box, the default behaviour is that text will display as one long line on the diagram, unless the ENTER key is typed, even though word-wrap occurs in the edit-box.
Type ENTER key when you want a new line.
Default behaviour has the "Automatic width calculation" checkbox ticked.

If you untick the "Automatic width calculation" checkbox, then you can enter a "Custom width". Custom width will force wordwrap to constrain lines within this width. This has no relation to any wordwrap occurring in the "Enter text for the element" edit-box.

You can also visually resize the text width. Left-click on the label's main handle to highlight the label element. A box will appear, with a resizing handle. Drag the resize handle as required. This will only work if the "Automatic width calculation" checkbox is unticked. This picture shows the resize-handle:

Plain text:
Notice that some text is below the box. As you drag the resize-handle, the grey box should enclose all the text. If it does not, as in this case, it is EVE's way of telling you that there is a disagreement with calculated word-breaks if the diagram is to be exported to SVG. To avoid this disagreement, drag the resize handle until the grey box encompasses all the text. This is further explained in the evewemanual.htm. Note: you only need to be concerned about this if you intend to export to SVG, otherwise don't worry if text is below the box or not.

Right-aligned text

Text is automatically left-aligned, with the left margin just to the right of the label element's main handle.

You can make the text flip over to the left side of the main handle and right-align, by attaching the label to another element and moving the main handle to just-left of it. In other words, if the label handle is on the left side of its owner, it displays the text on the left, away from the owner, and right-aligned.

If you ever want to override this default alignment behaviour, you can see above that there are radio buttons for forcing left or right text alignment.

HTML labels default to left-aligned text, and require tags to achieve right, center alignment or full justification, as explained below.

HTML markup tags

Labels can now display text in "HTML" mode. That is, HTML markup tags can be placed in the text source and will display as directed by the tag. The dialog box indicates accepted tags -- all others will be ignored. Therefore, you can use a HTML editor and copy via the clipboard into the label dialog box edit box.
This snapshot illustrates:

HTML labels can be rotated to any angle and will keep the proportions.

Here is the source code for the above example label:

<big>Big heading</big><br>
This label has <i>italic</i>, <b>bold</b>, <font color="#FF0000">colored</font> 
text,  achieved by HTML markup tags.<br>
<small>Small text</small><br>
<i><font color="#0000FF">Combinations</font></i> allowed.<br>
Labels can be rotated and will keep the proportions.

All ASCII characters below 32 decimal are ignored, including the tab, carriage-return and line-feed characters.

You can see from the dialog box picture, which tags are recognised. The paragraph tag "<p>" is recognised, and the closing tag "</p>" is optional. However, if there is any extra text within "<p text>", then the closing </p> is required.

Currently, right, center alignment and full justification entries are recognised within the "<p>" tag. For example:

The HTML source code for this is:

<p align="justify"><big>Big heading</big> This label has <i>italic</i>, 
<b>bold</b>, <font color="#FF0000">colored</font> text,  achieved by HTML 
markup tags. <small>Small text</small> <i><font color="#0000FF">Combinations
</font></i> are <big>allowed</big>. This paragraph is fully justified.</p>
<p align="right">Labels can be rotated and will keep the proportions. 
This paragraph is right aligned.</p>

When you click on the "Markup tags" radiobutton, the checkbox "Automatic width calculation" becomes unchecked. Therefore, you may enter a custom width, either in the "Custom width:" editbox or by dragging the resizing handle on the diagram.

Realtime label update

Any changes to the text settings of the properties box are immediately displayed in the label edit-box. That is, the label edit-box displays with the correct font.

A very useful point also is that changes to any of the text settings also immediately display on the diagram. For example, change the font angle, and it will immediately display on the diagram with the new angle. To be able to see it though, the dialog box has to be dragged aside.

In the case of the main label edit-box, after making a change, click on any field outside the edit-box to update on the diagram. This is because it is impractical to update the label on the diagram everytime a character is typed or deleted. The correct terminology is that the edit-box has to "lose input focus" to update on the diagram.
All other edit-boxes, checkboxes, list-boxes and radiobuttons will cause an update immediately they are typed into or clicked on.

Pressing the "Cancel" button will abandon any changes made to text settings. Even though these changes are displaying on the diagram, pressing "Cancel" will restore the original settings, including any changes made to the label.

Page grid dialog box

The page grid represents the piece of paper that you intend to print to. Place it on the diagram to frame the section of diagram that is to be printed. Note, you can have any number of page grid elements on the diagram. The grid can be made any size you want on-screen, but still repesents the physical piece of paper, so whatever is inside the grid will enlarge or shrink accordingly when printed.

The page grid is described in section "Page grid".

Link activator dialog box

The link activator element can be attached to any other element. It turns that element into a "hot spot", that is, a link.

The link activator is a small square, color-coded to indicate the type of link. The link activator is like the handle in other elements, in that it is only there during editing and is not seen when there is any kind of output to clipboard, file or printer. Handles can also be hidden via the "Control/EVE preferences..." dialog box.
This graphic shows a link activator and a animation activator attached to a picture icon:

Currently, these are the available link actions: 

A link may also be activated by a single left click. See section "EVE preferences dialog box".

In the above example, a link activator is attached to a picture icon. Therefore, a single or double click on the icon will invoke the link. However, if you want to get any visual effects, it is necessary to attach an animation activator, also shown in the example. Animation activators are introduced below. For example, the animation activator can provide a color change in the icon when the mouse pointer passes over, or the mouse pointer can change to a pointing hand.

However, the goto link activator does provide animation effects. It scrolls the diagram to specified destination coordinates, and can be made to scroll instantaneously, or gradually over a specified time duration. As this is overlapping into animation-effects, the goto link is further described in the section "Animation".

Home folder

When specifying a link to an external text-file, sound-file, Win app, or .EVE file, it is important to understand how the path is to be entered. Here is a snapshot of the text-file link:

The "[path]" is shown in square brackets, meaning that it is optional.

You could of course specify an absolute path, such as "c:\my documents\test1\eve_faq.rtf", however that is cumbersome and limits portability. Instead, you can make the path relative.

The "home" folder or directory is the same as the currently open .EVE file.

Or, if you have just started EVE and haven't yet saved or opened a .EVE file, EVE initially sets the home folder as the same as the eve.exe executable.

In the above illustration, I just put "eve_faq.rtf", meaning that it is in the same folder as the currently open .EVE diagram. That is, if the external file is in the home folder, there is no need for a path prefix.

Note that I could have put ".\eve_faq.rtf", which means the same thing. That is, the ".\" prefix means "current folder".
Another useful relative prefix is "..\" which means "parent folder", that is, one-up from the current (home) folder.

Animation activator dialog box

I was prompted to support animation in EVE as it is available in the SVG specification 1.0. EVE currently has very basic animation, simply moving an element or composite-object over a fixed linear line in a fixed time, continuously or when mouse-over, mouse-click or mouse-on. Also there is "animation" of the colors and visibility, including flashing.

The Elements menu has the item "Animation activator", see section "Elements menu". This element can be placed on the diagram and attached to the element that it is desired to animate. A right-click on the animation activator brings up this dialog box:

Normally, after selecting "Animation activator" from the "Elements" menu, you would point to the element to be animated, press the left mouse button, and drag to where you want the animator to be, then release button. This places the new animator element and assigns it an owner immediately. Otherwise, if it doesn't have an owner, you have to enter an owner element number in the above dialog box.

The animation activator element appears on the diagram as a little square with grey border, red fill, and a grey line drawn to whatever element it is attached to, as shown here:

Note that like handles, the animation activator disappears when there is any kind of output, such as to clipboard, printer, EMF/WMF, or SVG.

These are the trigger events:

Note: the "target element" is the element to which the animation activator is directly attached.

Usage of the animation activator is further described in section "Animation".

Menu dialog boxes

Various dialog boxes are available via the menu "Control", "Control/EVE preferences..." and "Control/Toolbox...".

Text find dialog box

An important requirement for practical usage is to be able to find a text string anywhere in the diagram.

Invoked from the menu "Control/Text find...". Finds the elements that contain the specified string. A "replace" feature has not yet been implemented, but this is a start.

The text find dialog box is modeless, meaning that the diagram can be worked on as each instance of the string is found (while the text-find dialog box is still there). After a string is entered into the edit-box, the "Find" button is pressed, and EVE will highlight the first element found that contains the string. Note that you may have to move the Text-find dialog box, as it may be on top of the highlighted element.

If the found element is off the window, the diagram is scrolled so that the element is located in the exact centre of the window.

You could then edit the element in the diagram. Pressing the "Find" button again will find the next element with the string, and so on.

Note that if part-way through the search, you change the text string in the edit-box and then press "Find", EVE will see that the string has changed and will automatically restart the search from the beginning of the diagram.

In the above dialog box you can see the delimiters for the text string. You do not enter these into the edit-box -- these are what EVE looks for before and after your text string, to constitute a valid "whole word" (note: "cr" means carriage-return character, "lf" means line-feed character). Note however, that you can put any of these special characters inside the text string if you wish, and they will be treated as part of the string, but EVE will still require valid delimiters before and after to recognise it as a valid "whole word".

USEFUL:
If you leave the edit-box blank. each press of "Find" button will successively highlight every label in the diagram,