There are several ways to open the Symbol Editor:

If the Symbol Editor is opened for a type that has an existing symbol, the symbol is automatically loaded into the editor (if there is no existing symbol definition, the Symbol Editor will initially be empty).

To clear the editor and start with an empty symbol, select Symbol | New. Please note that this new symbol is still attached to the currently selected type.

To save the symbol definition, select Symbol | Save or press the Save button in the toolbar. By default, the symbol is saved to its owner, i.e. either a type or library symbol. To explicitly save a symbol to the symbol library or into another type, select Symbol | Save Copy To..., select an existing symbol or create a new library symbol in the Symbol Browser, and press the Save button.

To import a symbol from the symbol library into the Symbol Editor, select Symbol | Import From Library..., choose the symbol you want to import in Symbol Browser and press the Import button. The individual symbol elements of the imported symbol will be pasted into the Symbol Editor. It is possible to import symbols regardless of their types but please note that if the imported type is of a different type than that currently open in the Symbol Editor, any incompatible elements will be filtered out – e.g. a role line will not be imported into an object symbol, nor a connectable into a role symbol. Similarly, type specific property associations within symbols – like text fields’ connections to properties – will be cleared if the type does not contain the required property. These associations can be reattached by editing the individual symbol elements afterwards.

To import a bitmap as a symbol element, select Symbol | Import Bitmap... and select the bitmap file from the file dialog that opens. Supported file types are .bmp, .gif, .jpg and .png. For more information about bitmap symbol elements, see Section 3.2.8.

The Symbol Editor provides a mechanism for exporting symbol elements as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) documents and importing these documents back to MetaEdit+. SVG is an XML notation for describing vector graphic images. MetaEdit+ supports the SVG Tiny 1.2 profile – for more information about this format, please refer to www.w3.org/TR/SVGMobile12.

To export the current symbol's elements to an SVG file, select Symbol | Export SVG.... Enter the name for the SVG file when prompted. To import elements from an SVG document, select Symbol | Import SVG... and select the SVG file from the file dialog that opens. If errors are encountered during the export or import, a warning dialog will be shown providing information about the possible cause of the error.

To edit the icon for the current symbol select Symbol | Icon Editor. For more information about the Icon Editor, please refer to Section 3.4.

It is possible to define whether or not it is allowed to scale instances of this symbol in a Diagram Editor. The scalability option can be set separately for horizontal and vertical scaling in Symbol | Properties.... Disallowing a scale direction here will disable the respective scaling handles in the Diagram Editor when the element is selected there. Similarly, scale related options will be disabled in the element’s Format dialog.

To exit the Symbol Editor, select Symbol | Exit or close the Symbol Editor window. If there are unsaved changes, a dialog as in Figure 3–2 will be shown to prompt whether or not to save them.

To undo Symbol Editor operations, select either Edit | Undo or press the Undo toolbar button (or press Ctrl+Z). To redo, select Edit | Redo or press Redo toolbar button (or press Ctrl+Y).

Using the grid helps you position and scale symbol elements accurately. When the grid is active, elements are not moved or scaled completely freely anymore, but with defined steps. To set the grid step, select View | Choose Grid... to open the grid size dialog (Figure 3–3). In the grid size dialog you can set the grid step values for both axes either by entering them into their respective number fields or by using the sliders. If you want to make sure that the grid for both axes is the same, check the Uniform grid checkbox. Pressing the Default button will restore the default grid step values.

To make the grid visible in the drawing area, select View | Show Grid or toggle it on by checking the Show checkbox in the Grid section of the status bar on the bottom of the window. To activate the grid, choose View | Snap to Grid or check the respective checkbox in the status bar. Once activated, all further element operations will conform to the grid steps. However, activating the grid does not force symbol elements to align themselves along it. To do this, select Align | Align to Grid or press Align to Grid button in the toolbar: this will align the top left of the selected elements (or all elements if none are selected) to the nearest grid point.

In addition to the normal scrollbars it is also possible to reposition the work area with the Scroll Tool. You can activate the tool by pressing the Scroll button in the toolbar. Once the tool has been activated, you can scroll the work area by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the hand cursor.

The Symbol Editor is opened with a 200% zoom by default. To change the zoom, either:

Or:

Or one of the following:

To refresh the drawing area, either select View | Refresh from the menu or press F5.