OmniGraffle 2 App Reviews

I love OmniGraffle for OS X – its my go-to app for developing software wireframes in my business. When I got an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil, using OmniGraffle was one of my top two reasons for doing so. However, I have learned to my astonishment that iOS OmniGraffle randomly reverts to earlier saved versions, causing me to lose substantial amounts of work. Ill be working on a wireframe, then I close the document. I make sure OmniPresence syncs it. I re-open the document later and much of my previous work has disappeared. This app presents an unacceptable risk for professional use and should be avoided at all costs. My comments apply only to the badly flawed iOS version, not the excellent OS X version.

Once you learn how to use it, it is extremely easy to create flow charts and diagrams. I use this for work on a regular basis. I love that I can export to pdf as well.

For the price, and after hearing my co-workers rave about the Mac app, I expected a LOT more from the IOS version. Sadly disappointed. The UI is horrible, the number of screen touches required to take any action is way too many. Dialogs cover the item you are trying to modify properties of. Im also a bit confused: I pay $50 AND have to pay another $50 to get pro features? Notability and Paper provide much better features and functionality at a fraction of the price.

I use OmniGraffle (pro) on the Mac, and got OmniGraffle for iOS to sketch ideas or make edits when Im away from the Mac. Its ok for that, but the lack of sync to the Mac via existing services makes editing clunky: open Dropbox (where my files usually are), action-button-open file using OmniGraffle, edit, save back to Dropbox. More than one reviewer said theyd lost work using OmniPresence, so Im not using it. I think the iOS interface is good, once you get the concepts behind it (which are different than those behind the Mac version). I didnt bother paying for the pro version on iOS, and a havent missed it.

I have used Omnigraffle on OS X and really enjoyed the app. I wanted program that could accomplish some of the simpler tasks of that app for UML design on the iPad. I was hesitant to spend $50, but figured it was a safe bet considering how much praise the Omnigroup receives. Using the app is simply, frustrating. It takes a lot of steps to do simple things. When typing in the UML boxes, the text goes over the lines underneath and into the background making it hard to see what you are typing. The copy/paste feature only works sometimes. Everything is in a popover, which at first seems like a great idea to remove clutter from the user interface, but it is a big impedance if you are trying to make changes quickly across multiple objects. Of course, you could copy/paste styles, but you cant do that to groups either. I hope they can fix a lot of these things, but that will probably be in Omnigraffle 3 and cost another $50.

At work we use Visio for almost everything. ANd this is billed as having Visio support. Which it doesnt and you dont know that until they stick you for the extra $50 for pro that is supposed to have that support. Should have read more reviews online so I didnt waste time and money.