Fed up with Visio - Modify things a bit and the whole diagram breaks

[Deathfish]

I have been using Visio for a few days now and I'm frustrated because I can't edit my UML sequence diagram a bit without the whole thing falling apart.

Say I have it already nicely done and I want to add an alt box. When I shift the whole thing down, some of the activation bars and message arrows are already anchored. So the whole diagram becomes a mess. I can't select a whole group of items and move them because this will screw up the relationships, anchoring, connectors within them.

What settings do I adjust to avoid this from happening?

 

[berkeman]

Have you tried the "Group" options? I feel your pain!

 

[Mark44]

I've done a lot of diagrams using Visio, but nothing with UML diagrams. If you have a collection of geometric objects with connectors between them plus text, callouts, etc., make the whole thing one group. Then when you move it, everything moves as a unit.

 

[DrDu]

As you seem to have just started, maybe you could also consider some more decent program.
On windows, I like iGrafx FlowCharter for producing all kind of flowcharts.