Omnigraffle

The easy way to create diagrams for home, work or school

If you’ve ever needed to create diagrams for a school, work or home project, OmniGraffle (£79.99, omnigroup.com) has your back. A perennial MacFormat favourite, it enables you to make everything from hierarchical charts and software wireframes to plans for your next kitchen or garden. Available from the Mac App Store as well as from Omni Group directly, OmniGraffle comes with a huge range of illustration tools, plus built-in shapes and stencils that make quickly creating complex infographics a breeze. If you can’t find the shape or stencil you’re looking for, OmniGraffle makes it easy to create and save your own, with additional stencils available free either from Omni Group or from its OmniGraffle user community at http://bit.ly/OU94gF.

One thing that counts against OmniGraffle is that there is quite a steep learning curve, at least in the beginning, and the built-in Help menu is of limited use. Luckily, the user interface is well laid out and organised, and you can usually find the option you need in one of the inspectors, which are available as sidebars, palettes or floating panes.

For more experienced users, OmniGraffle is also available in a Pro version (a £79.99 upgrade), which adds even more capabilities. There’s also a capable iOS version for iPad users (£39.99). It supports the iPad Pro’s Apple Pencil, and also offers a Pro upgrade as an in-app purchase.