You can use the Display Options command to change the appearance of a diagram and symbols on it, such as showing page boundaries, rulers, grids, and shadowing symbols and text. You access the Display Options command by selecting Format > Diagram Format > Display Options with a diagram open. The display options are saved as diagram properties. When you re-open a closed diagram, the options remain as set in the prior session.

Displays dashed page markings on the diagram surface to indicate where diagram symbols are positioned in pages if you print the diagram out.

Displays a ruler on the X and Y axis of a diagram.

Displays a grid on the diagram workspace.

Displays a set of tools on the toolbar that enable you to draw symbols such as a Person, Computer Workstation, Phone, and so forth. These symbols are intended to enable you to present information in layman's terms during a presentation.

Selecting this choice makes intersecting straight lines jump over (or loop or bridge) each other where they cross. This functionality is available for straight lines that cross one another, and straight lines that intersect elliptically curved lines (no bridging is done where curved lines intersect curved lines.

You can provide a shadow for all node symbols on a diagram by toggling on the appropriate choice(s) below, and then adjusting the thickness of the shading by using the control sliders to the left and bottom of the Preview box. You can also change the color of the shading by clicking the Shadow Color button in the lower left-hand corner of the Display Options dialog.

Node symbols include all symbols on a diagram that have a body to them; in other words, they are not line symbols. Node symbols include most symbol types: entities on an ER diagram, processes, events, or gateways on a Business Process diagram, object lifelines on a UML Sequence diagram, and so on.

Line symbols include all line types that are drawn to, from, and between node symbols.

Text symbols include any text that you add to the diagram workspace through the Text tool on the toolbar.

To set the background color of a diagram workspace