| Diagrams
can considerably enhance the presentation, and understanding
of a subject. As much as possible these diagrams should
have shapes and lines which symmetric. This typi-cally involves
creating simple shapes and then pasting them at even intervals.
For example in the graphic below (of a routing protocol)
the nodes are first laid out (these are the blue circles).
Next I've drawn lines through the nodes with single continuous
lines. This creates a smooth flow from one place to the
next (rather than with broken lines as these can look dis-jointed).
Notice that I've tried to make the centre of the circle
the focal point for the lines. This line which start
or end should start or end at the centre point. Also any
lines which flow through the circles will also go through
the circle.
Next the lines can be moved to the background
(typically by selecting the complete line, and selecting
Send to Background).
Finally the nodes can be given more depth
with a shadow, and the lines between the nodes can also
be thickened, to give:
A final check to see if all the nodes are
spaced evenly apart gives (and changing the colour of the
lines to black, which gives a better contrast with the background):
If you're interested, this diagram relates
to finding the best route through interconnected nodes.
The high-level diagram of this structure is:
which shows that there are several ways to
go from Node A to Node B. It can be seen from the diagrams
above that there are three routes which take four hops,
and one that takes five hops.
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