Related thought. We often place 'Document Artefacts' on diagrams to collect background information and links relevant to the context of the diagram.
I have not yet figured out how to change the default font, font size, and paragraph spacing for default document type.
My Question is This:
Is the default document easily accessible in Sparx (somewhere) that I can change the default formatting for it to our preferred standard - and therefore don't have to set (reset) each document to our preferred font / font size / paragraph spacing?
...
You find the default normal doc in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Sparx Systems\EA\DocTemplates\Document Templates\Normal.rtf.
Its copied to
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Sparx Systems\EA\RTF Templates
I used to replace this with our organisation's Normal.dot just save it as rtf.
However since styles have been introduced I now use those and these can be found here.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Sparx Systems\EA\DocTemplates\Stylesheets
But these are stored as xml.
What I do in Sparx EA is Open one of the stylesheets and export it as a MS Word doc. I can do things much easier in MSWord than the built in word processor. Then I change all the styles to match my organisations fonts, colours etc. in MS Word Styles. Note its the embedded styles in MS Word and not the example text with styles you see in the stylesheet. Some folk change the example text thinking they are changing the style but they aren't. After all the styles have been defined I create a new styles sheet in Sparx EA then import the MS Word doc where I'd changed the styles and save it. I then use the new stylesheet and apply that to any docs generated. Usually takes around 1 or 2 hours to change all the styles and save them back into Sparx EA.
Usually have to create 3 base templates in this order;
- Stylesheet
- Coverpage
- Table of contents
I then create the doc templates as needed based for various document types. For example
This is usually one of the first things I need to do when joining a new organisation and set up Sparx EA.
Hope that helps spread a little light onto the dark corners of EA.
