The functionality of selection-based highlighting is intended to facilitate working with diagrams and increase their readablitity.
It is available both in the standalone version of the Entity Developer application and in the Visual Studio add-in.
This feature has the following logic:
| • | If the user selects an association, the application highlights the participating entities, corresponding navigation properties as well as the properties of the classes included in the referential constraint of the selected association. |
| • | If the user selects an inheritance, the application highlights the entities that participate in the selected inheritance. |
| • | If the user selects a complex type, the application highlights the entities that have the properties of this complex type and the corresponding properties within the entities. |
| • | If the user selects an enum type, the application highlights the entities that have the properties of this enum type and the corresponding properties within the entities. |
| • | If the user selects an entity, the application highlights the entities linked to the selected entity through associations and inheritances, the linking associations and inheritances themselves, as well as all the complex and enum types, if properties of these types are present in the selected entity. |
The picture below illustrates how this functionality works (the Order class has been selected as an example):
To turn highlighting on/off right-click the empty diagram area, from the shortcut menu select Options, go to the Notation tab, and in the Selection-Based Highlighting area select or deselect the Enabled check box as required.
