Many diagramming tools include a brain dump UI component, which allows the user to enter a bunch of random thoughts all at once. It’s usually just a simple text area, where you type one thought per line, without having to worry about organizing anything. It would be nice if you created something like this in FL, as I think people would use it more. Even better if this could run as a separate helper application in the system tray, that could be opened via a keyboard shortcut to instantly create a FL diagram.
Apparently, this is on the list of updates to the next version - copy a list from a text file or from an excel list of entities and create new entries from the list.
You actually can already do this in FL. With the text inspector activated, look just to right edge of the text inspector and you’ll see a symbol that looks like a small FL note. Select that and you can add multiple entities. One of Wolf’s videos also talks about this.
You actually can already do this in FL.
Not really. This only allows you to enter one item at a time, and you have to wait for FL to render the node after each entry, which takes about a second. In other diagramming applications, the brain dump component is a text area, where you can quickly enter multiple items, or paste in a list from another application.
Also, it’s not convenient to access this. You have to open FL, select the text inspector, click on the tiny little quick entry icon, etc… To make it convenient, it should be a separate helper app that runs in the system tray and can be quickly opened by clickin the icon, or with a keyboard shortcut.
Typing entities into a spreadsheet and saving as .csv file will allow you to import those items into FL in bulk. Personally I like to use “cmd e” to open the “quick create entities” dialog form. If in a group setting I can push FL out to a large format TV or monitor. I can usually type the entities in as fast as the person is speaking. From there I will make groups, and rough connections, speaking them aloud to get buy-in from the group. It goes pretty fast. Its the logic and talking it all through that takes time.
Where is the CSV import format described? What degree of per entity data can be exported?