Freeform Pencil and other Annotation Support
It would be helpful to have some freeform and annotation support in Mockups. The reason for this is that I created a Mockup of a semi transparent layer on a page and I wanted to squiggle out the background so the location of the layer was clear.
Also, it would be to have annotation Arrows, Text Boxes, and other shapes that you can apply colors to in order to note or draw attention to specific areas of the Mockup.
Also, it would be to have annotation Arrows, Text Boxes, and other shapes that you can apply colors to in order to note or draw attention to specific areas of the Mockup.
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Inappropriate?Hey Dan, better annotation tools are definitely on the roadmap, thanks for submitting your feedback, this will bump up the priority of the feature! :)
I’m thankful
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Inappropriate?Being able to have arrows to show the connection from a link/button to a new page/dialog box would be useful to me, as my current use case involves WML, which typically consists of a set ('deck') of small pages ('cards') which link together.
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Inappropriate?I definitively would love to see a freeform pencil, lines, and other shapes. Currently you can only draw horizontal and vertical lines.
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?If this ends up getting implemented I have a few suggestions:
- Annotations should be on a new layer and not mixed with the other layers.
- You should be able to toggle on/off the annotations
Annotations will be helpful, but they should not become part of the UI design. I see it similar to MS track changes.
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I agree with Michael's comments. Annotations should not be part of the design.
Now, free form penciling or sketching should be part of the design. There are a few elements that may need to be drawn since there isn't a tool or symbol for them. It would be nice to allow this drawn elements to be its own layer etc, just like any other inserted shape.
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?As far as pencil and sketching, I am bit skeptical. I would much rather see Balsamiq round out the icon and UI Library, rather than allowing users to free form draw something that is missing.
What is it that is missing? If the icon palette was extended to include dingbats and weddings, would that cover it? That is unless your trying to model a game UI or some new undiscovered UI pattern. -
Inappropriate?@Michael: What is missing? I find myself mocking up a UI that will be rendered in WPF and will display what is essentially an electronic circuit, which provides the ability to select different paths between blocks, rerouting to something else, splicing something in. I need to rough out what this might look like, which is where freeform drawing capabilities would be useful. ATM I'll revert to Paint.NET but I'm losing the advantage of doing it in Balsamiq. Sometimes there are things beyond Line Of Business applications that you want to prototype. Even LOB apps will start looking funkier as WPF takes hold, and because the forms controls take will become LESS standard, freeform tools to draw how things are to be customised will be needed. And (as is requested elsewhere) the ability to essentially build up new control elements for ready reuse.
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Hi Fivey, would the image upload feature help with this? You could draw / scan / take a screenshot of the custom control you need and just import it as an image in your mockups...you can try a pre-release of 1.5 with image upload here: http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mock... - I'm interested in hearing what you think! -
Inappropriate?I just need arrows to show the flow between screens - I don't think that is there now and it seems pretty basic
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Hi Chris, Arrows are coming in 1.5! You can test them here: http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mock... -
Inappropriate?I'd love to see freeform sketching integrated - ideally with some smoothing, but just a simple sketch with tablet feature would change this from a useful tool to a vital one...
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Inappropriate?Yes, I absolutely agree with Martin. I would love to see a freeform sketching feature. I'm using Balsamiq Mockups integrated with Confluence, and a lot of times you just want to add a simple freeform sketch to illustrate an idea.
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Inappropriate?Seeing how well Balsamiq works got me thinking of other ways to apply the tool. It mostly revolves around the addition of a freehand pencil tool. Of course this could open up a can of worms, but you could also get away with just tweaking the current Arrow (or horizontal/vertical rule) and forgo the freehand aspect.
But if you wanted to go further and create a simple freehand pencil:
- Draws a basic line - click and drag
- Each line is then an object which you can group together to make objects
- Ability to rotate, adjust thickness, and change color
With the freehand pencil tool we could begin to use Balsamiq to create quick sketches like in the book The Back of the Napkin. Maybe add a few stock stick men that you can adjust in minor ways.GoAnimate gives you a few emotes with their stock characters - smile, happy, etc. If you skim the Napkin book you'll see a few basic objects that you could also build intoBalsamiq. Many of these wouldn't be that far from the current markup objects. But I also understand that catering to this might take Balsamiq away from its singular focus on being a web layout tool. It's just an idea.
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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Thanks for the ideas Justin. I am trying to resist the temptation to turn Mockups in a generic graphics tool, but I consider yourself heard, I'll think about adding basic shapes and free-form pencil in the future. -
Inappropriate?More basic shapes would be great (Circle please). Free form would be great too.
I’m happy
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Inappropriate?I can't tell you how important this idea is to me. The ability to freehand sketch a page and then lay components on top of the sketch would be a HUGE incentive for me to push my boss into buying a license or 3
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