The File Menu

New

Begin a new drawing from scratch. The current modifications can be saved or discarded.

Open

Open an existing document from disk. See 'Save As' for a description of the available file formats.

Save

Save the current document using the current file name and file format. The current file is always displayed in the title bar.

Save As

Save the current drawing to a file. This lets you specify the file name and file format to be used. yEd supports different file formats. Note that only some of them can be used for persistence purposes since not all of them represent a lossless format.

yFiles Graph Format '.ygf'
The native format, which can be used to store the data in such a form that it can be read in again without any loss of information.
Graph Modeling Language Format '.gml'
A human readable format which can be used as an interchange format. Note that some of the information will be lost if the document is saved using this format and later read back in.
Trivial Graph Format '.tgf'
A simple human-readable format that can vbe used to read and write the graph structure and label information. No graphical or geometrical information will be stored using this format.
GraphML Format '.graphml'
An XML based graph format that can only handle structural information of the graph. Note that this format is not available for all yEd versions.
Scalable Vector Graphics Format '.svg'
An XML based graphics format that is export only. Note that this format is not available for all yEd versions.
Windows Metafile Format '.wmf'
Exporting to this vector graphics format is useful if one wants to add high-quality diagrams to Windows text processing and graphics applications like Microsoft WordTM or Microsoft PowerPointTM. Note that this format is not available for all yEd versions.
Graphics Interchange Format '.gif'
An export only image file format. Note that this option will basically export a screen shot of the current graph, i.e. the current size and viewport will be used in the image, too.
Joint experts Picture Group Image Format '.jpg'
An export only image file format. Note that this option will basically export a screen shot of the current graph, i.e. the current size and viewport will be used in the image, too, although the quality will be much better in most cases, since anti-aliasing routines will be used for the rendering.
XML + XSL
Import of arbitrary XML files. An XSLT stylesheet must be given that transforms the XML input into a valid GraphML. Predefined stylesheets for Ant build scripts, the OWL web ontology language and others are included.

Print

Opens a dialog, which enables the user to print either the whole graph or the visible contents of the current view only. The size of the output can be controlled by either specifying a scaling factor to be applied before printing the graph or by specifying on how many page rows and columns the output should fit. When choosing the latter option the scaling factor will be adjusted automatically so that the graph nicely fits on the poster.

Preferences

Opens a dialog, which lets you specify the behavior and display of the editor. See The Preferences Dialog for more details.

Default Node

Opens a dialog, which lets you specify the default visual appearance of newly created nodes. See The Default Dialog for more details.

Default Group Node

Opens a dialog, which lets you specify the default visual appearance of newly created group nodes. See The Default Dialog for more details.

Default Edge

Opens a dialog, which lets you specify the default visual appearance of newly created edges. See The Default Dialog for more details.

Load Profile

Loads previously saved editor settings.

Save Profile

Saves the current editor settings to a file. Among the saved settings are the current settings in most of the option dialogs, default node and edge appearance and the application geometry.

Apply Defaults

Applies default settings to the editor.

Most Recently Used Graphs

Displays a list of graphs that recently have been loaded or saved.

Quit

Saves the current editor settings and quits yEd. Upon a restart the saved settings will be initially applied to the application. Note that settings will be stored in the user's home directory within a folder named '.yed'.

The Edit Menu

Undo

Undoes the last modification to the document.

Redo

Redoes the last undo step.

Cut

Copies the current node selection and all induced edges to the clipboard and removes it from the document.

Copy

Copies the current node selection and all induced edges to the clipboard.

Paste

Pastes the contents of the clipboard

Delete

Removes the current selection from the document

Select all

Select all nodes contained in the document.

Deselect all

Clear the current selection.

Raise

Moves the current selection to the front.

Lower

Moves the current selection to the back.

Find

Opens a dialog, which lets you find elements in the graph structure. See The Find Dialog for more details.

Find next

Highlights the next element, that matches the criteria, that were specified during the last call to Find.

Find previous

Highlights the previous element, that matches the criteria, that were specified during the last call to Find.

The View Menu

Zoom In

Zooms into the current view one step.

Zoom Out

Zooms out of the current view one step.

Zoom 100%

Sets the zoom level to 100%.

Fit Content

Zooms and moves the viewport, so that the whole graph gets visible.

Refresh

Repaints the current viewport.

Mode

This submenu can be used to switch to different modes. See The different view modes for a more detailed description of the different modes.

Edit Mode
This is the standard mode. It is used primarily for modifying the contents of the document.
Navigation Mode
This mode can be used to navigate more easily through the document. It is primarily used for browsing.
Area Zoom
This mode can be used to quickly zoom into a desired area. This is achieved by dragging a rectangle on the view, to which this mode will automatically zoom. This mode will switch back to the previously active view mode as soon as the user finishes dragging.

The Layout Menu

The layout menu provides access to the powerful layout algorithms that are part of the yFiles API. Layout Algorithms contains a more detailed description of the different options.

The Tools Menu

The tools menu provides access to a wealth of useful tools that can be used to gain information about, the currently edited document, modify the document visually and structurally and to create all new documents from scratch. Tools offers a more detailed description of the available tools.

The Hierarchy Menu

This method is only available in the non-classic version of yEd. It provides access to the hierarchic features that are available in yEd. These are described in more detail in Working with Hierarchic and Nested Graphs.

The Help Menu

Contents

Shows the help file.

About

Displays version and legal information.