Workflow Designer Design Surface

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The design surface of the Workflow Designer is used to do the layout and design of the workflow process.

When you try to open the design surface for a process definition and a designer is open already for that process definition, that open designer will become active.

When the designer is open, the title on the Designer window is <process name> [Design], where <process name> is the name of the process definition.

Deleting the Process Definition

If the design surface is open and you select to delete the process definition for that design surface, it will close automatically when the item is deleted, without prompting for save.

Scrolling on the Surface

Horizontal and/or vertical scrollbars are available if the workflow (in the current zoom) cannot all be displayed in the available real estate of the designer window. The scroll bars always will be visible and enabled on the surface.

If you are dragging a selection across the canvas, scrolling automatically will happen for you if you drag into a region of the canvas that is not visible yet.

There is no maximum size to the virtual canvas.

Changing the scroll position will not dirty the diagram (that is, it will not display a save dialog). However, if you do not save, the current scroll position is persisted.

Selection on the surface

You can select objects on the design surface by using the mouse to click the object, or by using MouseKeys. You can select everything on the design surface by choosing Select All from the Edit menu.

Dropping non-workflow shapes

You will not be able to add or drop a non-workflow shape to the design surface. For example, you will not be able to add a hyperlink Label. All non-workflow shapes on the Toolbox will be disabled when the design surface has focus. In addition, the design surface will not be a valid drop target — for example, an icon is displayed if you are dragging a non-workflow shape over the design surface, and Paste will be disabled if you try to paste a non-workflow shape on the surface.

Snap to Grid

There are three properties available on the grid. These control Snap to Grid functionality. These are available only in the Property Grid; there is no property page for this functionality.

GridWidth Specifies the width of the grid spacing, in pixels. The default is 8.

GridHeight Specifies the height of the grid spacing, in pixels. The default is 8.

SnapToGrid A Boolean that will indicate whether shapes and transitions will snap to the grid. True is the default. If False, shapes and transitions can be placed randomly on the surface. If True, then

• State, Start shape and End shape top and left always will be aligned with a grid coordinate.
• Drawing a State shape (using the State tool) will place the upper left corner of the shape to the closest grid coordinate and will draw in grid increments.

If you switch from False to True, existing shape placement will not be affected (that is, shapes might not be on the grid). However, any subsequent movement or addition of shapes (including layout) will snap to the grid.

Layout

Layout

When adding shapes, you can place them on the surface wherever desired and organize them using two Arrange Diagram commands (Horizontal and Vertical) that will arrange the diagram automatically. Horizontal and Vertical will cascade off Arrange Diagram. The commands will be available either from the Format menu or from the Context menu of the design surface.

When Snap to Grid is on, shapes and bend points in the transitions are placed at grid coordinates. Otherwise, shapes and transitions can be placed anywhere.

Horizontal will arrange the diagram from left to right, according to the algorithm. Vertical will arrange the diagram from top to bottom, according to the algorithm.

Transitions

When you create transitions, the default layout will be determined by the algorithm.

See Also

Developing Office Developer Applications | Creating Projects | Developing Workflow Applications for Exchange Server | Developing Workflow Applications for SQL Server