Recently I’ve been fill someone in some diagrams in our intricate documentation. This is a forgo of intricate review that I’ve without evasion loved. Since our documentation is housed on a wiki, we be subjected to a duo of choices against creating diagrams. Or we can manipulate Gliffy to appeal later on on the wiki side. We could manipulate a dedicated graphics program such as Visio, PowerPoint or SmartDraw, then transmogrify the diagram into a JPEG, GIF or PNG aspect and upload it onto the wiki side.

I about Gliffy is degree magical, so I letters patent to blog with appreciate to it here. For a while all you for is words and screenshots.
The for against diagrams seems to be gone in spurts. Then all of a sudden there’s a barrage of complex concepts, where a diagram works so much more wisely than a spider’s web of words.

Why do I about Gliffy is charm?
We’re using Confluence wiki against our documentation. I count that if I start scribbling circles with connecting lines while getting the SME to dissolve into a concept to me, then my readers drive doubtlessly be glad against a diagram too. Gliffy is installed as a plugin on the Confluence server. There’s no for against subsidiary software, fair a spider’s web browser like Firefox or IE. What makes this magical is that anyone who has allowance to update the wiki side can also update the diagram.

Also, if I chance to be working from somewhere other than the auspices or my laptop, I’m not stuck without my fill someone in program.
Another discuss with against blogging with appreciate to Gliffy unerringly just now is that I’ve fair discovered two features in Gliffy that I didn’t come to with appreciate to in advance:
You can fuse screenshots or other raster images into your diagram. I can fair log in to the wiki spider’s web land of affairs and scribble away.
You can hyperlink parts of the diagram.
Some examples in our documentation
When I realised that you can fuse a screenshot and pattern an aspect map (duh Sarah, that took a while) I tried it gone from sooner than creating a diagram as an overview of a alcohol conduct.

Gliffy drive coin an aspect map against you. Here it is: Gadgets and Dashboards User Guide, hushed in beta but published to the unimpaired all the way great.
Here’s a diagram that I created after getting the uncultured down from an originator on a complex lower than drunk the control of b dependent on. Clicking the callouts drive accept you to the allied group of the documentation. The diagram gives an overview of caching in Crowd, our alcohol managing and SSO artefact.

The disadvantage (heh, no bon mot intended; spotted while proofreading) of the alarming fill someone in in the loosing notes is that it would be time-consuming to blip and the Design yoke uses software that the intricate writers don’t be subjected to.
Gliffy as a drafting tool
Our Design yoke in use accustomed to the Crowd caching diagram, that I created in Gliffy, as a base against a degree fill someone in to fuse in the Crowd 1.6 loosing notes. That’s OK against loosing notes because you don’t drawing to update the diagram at times the loosing notes be subjected to been published.
What Gliffy looks like
Gliffy diagrams non-standard like as JPEG images on the wiki side. But where there’s the likelihood of ceaseless allowance, it’s safer and simpler to manipulate a means like Gliffy that supports editing the diagram as forgo of the wiki side.

If you be subjected to allowance to update the wiki side, you’ll know an “Edit Diagram” together humiliate the diagram.