Changing the Size of Nodes in the Diagram

Changing the Size of a Node as a User

The user can normally change the size of a node. The type of node determines what the user can change.

Nodes which only show an icon, e.g. an event or gateway in a BPMN diagram, cannot have their size changed by a user. Do not confuse this with such a node's name shown. Names are shown outside of the node and are nodes themselves.

Names are an example of nodes which can only have their width changed. The node's height is automatically calculated so everything is shown. It is also not possible to make such nodes wider than the width the node needs so that the text is not wrapped.

Use cases are nodes which have a fixed page aspect ratio. The user can change the size of the node but the exact height and width is automatically set based on the page aspect ratio; the raster normally means that the page aspect ratio cannot be exactly maintained.

The user can normally change the height and width of nodes which can contain other nodes or edges themselves. Examples: class, process, task)

The lane in the BPMN diagram is an exception to this. You can only change its height. Its width depends on the width of the owning node (normally a process). When the height of a lane is changed, the height of the owning node is also changed.

How Can the User Change the Size of a Node?

The node needs to be selected and the diagram reserved.

The node has a selection rectangle round it. There will be handles on the selection rectangle if you can change the size of the node.

The Design>Arrange>Optimize Size (F8) command is active in the ribbon.

The user can change the size in the following ways:

• Select the Optimize Size (F8) menu item.

• Click on one of the handles in the selection rectangle with the mouse and move it.

• Double-click on one of the handles on the selection rectangle.

Optimizing the Size

Use Optimize Size (F8) to change the size of the node to make it as small as possible so that its contents is still all visible.

Long text within the node is wrapped. The text is not wrapped if it is smaller than 20 raster. Text which is longer than this is wrapped at blank spaces. If the text does not have any blank spaces, the text is wrapped at 50 raster or less. Hard returns are always wrapped, e.g. those that the user can insert in comments.

Double-Click on the Handle

Double-clicking on a handle makes the node as small as possible; the size is only changed to a size which can also be achieved by dragging the handle. e.g. double-clicking on the middle handle on the right-hand side means the node's height remains the same. Only the width is changed.

Changing the Size Automatically

All nodes are checked when a diagram is loaded to see if they are so small that contents would be covered. This can happen e.g. when one of the properties has been changed for the element shown so that it now needs to show additional information. If a node is too small, its height is increased.