New Creately UI Experience for Confluence and JIRA Users
The new face of Creately

We have some very exciting news for our Confluence and JIRA users. We’ve done a major upgrade to the drawing canvas and the object libraries so you can create better looking diagrams in less time.

The Confluence diagramming plugin release support Confluence 5.7 and upwards and JIRA diagramming plugin release support JIRA 6.3 and upwards. Keep reading to learn about how the new changes will improve your diagramming experience in Confluence and JIRA.

Get things done faster with the new interface

First thing you’ll notice when creating a new diagram is the new flat interface that is easy on the eye. Not only that, it will stop you from getting distracted by the surrounding elements in the drawing canvas and help you focus more on the actual drawing of the diagram.

Major revamp for more than 30 libraries

Some of the prominently used diagram libraries in Confluence and JIRA got a major revamp so your diagrams will look even better. Diagram library objects were redesigned according to the modern flat redesign trend to give your diagrams a sleek modern look.

Plus the objects now have colors that are suitable for the specific libraries and also complement the different objects in a library. Of course you can still change the styles to your preference. But for non designers out there this will help you focus on the content and not worry about applying matching colors.

Below you’ll see how a use case diagram will look like when you draw using the new shape libraries.

New library shapes for use case diagrams

A use case diagram drawn using the improved libraries

Usability Improvement and Bug Fixes

Other than the look and feel there are plenty of usability improvements in object libraries, especially for smart objects.

Some of the improved areas include

Additionally many of the reported bugs are fixed in this release.

Performance Optimization

Performance optimizations were done across the board to help you get things done even faster. Frequent events like diagram opening time and  object loading time are considerably improved and you should see an immediate difference when opening large diagrams with many objects.

To get the latest releases of the plugins simply go to the plugin manager and click the update button.

We love to hear from you about these latest changes to the user interface and the object libraries. You’re feedback is what helps us do better. You can contact support or simply get in touch via our social channels.

Creately For JIRA Just Got Better!

The Creately Diagramming experience has now been updated to be compatible with JIRA 6.2.4. With JIRA’s latest version release made on 2nd of May, we have updated the Creately for JIRA plugin compatibility so you can continue using the Creately plugin as you update JIRA.

With this version release, JIRA has fixed some bug fixes which meant users couldn’t update their expired license after upgrading to a later version of JIRA. They have also fixed some minor bugs and done some updates in this version release. You can read the detailed version release note for version 6.2.4

As we mentioned in our previous blog post you can experience the better way of diagramming with Creately in the latest JIRA version. Check out our plugin on the Atlassian Marketplace to enjoy these new features.

You can create your diagrams with Creately for JIRA directly inside the JIRA issue you’re working on. To add a diagram simply click the “More” menu and then the “Add/Edit Creately Diagram” option – the screenshot below shows this.

Create your diagrams with Creately plugin which is compatible with JIRA v6.2.4

Create diagrams with Creately for JIRA v6.2.4

The diagramming experience with Creately for JIRA is the same smooth and reliable diagramming experience that is available across all our platforms.

Smooth and reliable diagram experience

Smooth and reliable diagram experience

Diagrams created using Creately for JIRA are embedded directly in the JIRA issue that they relate to and can be easily viewed with a click on the thumbnail.

Embed diagram with ease

Embed diagram with ease

Each diagram inside your JIRA can be re-edited. Just go through the “More” menu again and you’ll be able to choose an existing diagram to edit or create a new diagram.  You can also delete diagrams through the same screens.

Edit/Remove the diagrams

Edit/Remove the diagrams

Creately for JIRA is one stop for all your diagramming experience. You can explore the 1000’s of templates in our diagram community directly from within JIRA.  Not only that, you can also import Visio documents, stencils and templates related to your issues or projects. The ability to export high resolution images and import and export diagrams as SVG makes your diagramming experience easier than ever before.

Stay tuned for the latest announcements on our ongoing optimization process.

More Creately Updates

Diagramming in Confluence and JIRA Just Got Better
options available to users when exporting diagrams

Last few months were very exiting for us, we managed to release two of our most requested features, namely and SVG document support. Now our Confluence and JIRA plugin users can enjoy these features by upgrading to the latest version of the plugin. The new releases support Confluence 5.3.4 and JIRA 6.1.3.

Want these features for Confluence pages and JIRA issues? Check out our plugins at Atlassian

Lets find out how you’ll benefit from these features

Ability to Import Visio Documents, Stencils and Templates

Now you can easily import your existing Visio diagrams to Confluence or JIRA. Use the “Import Visio File” option in the “Import” drop down and the rest will be self explanatory. Your Visio file be saved as a Creately diagram and you can work on it as any other Creately diagram.

Because you can open Visio files it serves as a great way to view Visio files as well.

Support for Importing and Exporting SVG Documents

SVG is perfect for high quality prints and any links you added to the diagram will be preserved when you export a file as SVG. This means clickable object you added to Creately diagrams will still have them if you export them as SVG or PDF.

But that’s not all. SVG is a universally recognized file type supported by software like Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape. Hence you’ll find many free SVG graphics which you can easily import and add to your diagrams. We’ve made it easy for you by adding SVG image search to the search box.

Because its universally recognized you can use it to modify Creately diagram in other diagram editors as well. Most diagram editors support SVG so if you want to edit your Creately files in MS Visio simply export the diagram as a SVG, import it to Visio and start editing. Perfect if someone doesn’t have Confluence or Creately for Confluence but still want to edit the diagram.

You can add styling to imported files, scale them and do plenty more to make them fit perfectly to your diagram. Simply put, SVG gives you boundless diagramming opportunities.

Export as Creately Editable SVG

You might have noticed an option called “SVG(Creately Editable)” in the export window. This option allows you to export your Creately diagram as an SVG but still retains Creately specific data so you can import and modify it later in Creately.

This is really useful if you want to back up your Creately files in a format that can be easily viewed by others without Creately. Also this enables you to share your Creately diagram without using the in built collaboration features.

Word of caution though, if you only want a SVG file then you should not use this option. Because it has Creately specific data built into it the file size is larger thus wasting your space unnecessarily.

High Resolution Image Export

Want to printout a bigger version of your diagram? Use our custom scaling for high resolution printouts for your diagrams. The below image highlights your options.

options available to users when exporting diagrams

You’ll be spoiled for choice when it comes to exporting

New Options for JPEG, PNG and PDF Export

The above image highlights the new options available to Confluence and JIRA users when it comes to exporting diagram. You can choose what part of your diagram to export, what’s the size of the exported diagram should be and in case of PDF’s whether to include the diagram links in the exported PDF.

The releases include bug fixes and improvement to usability as well. We’d love to hear you thought about these new enhancement to the plugin. If you have any question or feedback drop us a mail at support@creately.com and we’ll make sure to get back to you.