Use custom properties including tooltips, custom links, and placeholders in draw.io

Scratching the surface

You’re probably used to working with shapes in draw.io, drag and dropping them onto the canvas, customizing the size, color, etc. However, shapes in draw.io contain extra information that isn’t immediately apparent – this is in the form of metadata or custom properties. These powerful properties allow you to do all sorts of things, like display information when hovering over a shape, and display the current page number of a multipage diagram.

In this blogpost, we’ll look into the different types of custom properties and what they enable you to do in draw.io.

1. Tooltips

One use case is adding tooltips to shapes. Tooltips add textual information to a shape or connector to provide viewers with additional information, without cluttering up your diagram.

To add a tooltip:

1. Right-click on a shape or a connector;
2. Select Edit > Edit Tooltip, or use the shortcut, Alt+Shift+T
3. Add your text;
4. Click Apply.

Once this is done, any user hovering over that shape, in the diagram editor or Confluence preview, will see that tooltip.

Tooltips will display both in the draw.io editor and the diagram preview in Confluence

2. Custom links

In draw.io, you can add links to shapes. These links can take users to internal or external webpages, to Confluence pages, and even Confluence page headers. Custom links can also link to different pages of a multipage diagram, essentially acting as buttons that help diagram viewers navigate between the different pages.

To add custom links to diagram shapes:

1. Right-click on a shape;
2. Select Edit Link or use the shortcut, Alt+Shift+L
3. Add the type of link you wish to use:
   1. Add a hyperlink: Under the Edit Link dropdown menu, copy and paste, or drag and drop hyperlinks to specific webpages.
   2. Add a link to a specific diagram page: To link to a page of a multipage diagram, select the page you wish to link to from the dropdown menu.
   3. Add a link to a Confluence page heading: To link to a Confluence page heading, select the heading from the Confluence Page Anchor dropdown menu.

4. Click OK.

Add links to pages of a multipage diagram to help users navigate between pages

3. Placeholders

Placeholders add additional information to your shapes that act like variables. There are a number of predefined placeholders in draw.io that will display information like a shape’s dimensions, the file name of the diagram, and the current date and time. For example, %pagenumber% will display the number of the current page of a multipage diagram.

To add a placeholder:

1. Right-click on the shape and select Edit Data,
2. Check the box Placeholder, and hit Apply;
3. Double-click on the shape and type in the placeholder you wish to use.

Checking the “Placeholders” option under Edit Data allows you to use predefined placeholders

In addition to the predefined placeholders in draw.io, you can create your own custom properties that can function as placeholders. For more information, see, Work with placeholders in labels and tooltips.

Create rich, interactive diagrams with draw.io

These custom properties in draw.io take your diagramming even further. Shapes in draw.io are versatile; they not only display processes, they become mini information hubs that provide users with key additional details, as well as guide users through a multipage diagram.

Give tooltips, custom links, and placeholders a try, and see for yourself how rich and interactive your diagrams become!

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