Auto Layout

Auto Layout, also labelled Tidy Up, is the structural tidier. Rather than nudging the positions you already have, it reads the arrow graph, works out how shapes connect, and computes brand-new positions, arranging connected shapes into clean layers. Unlike Auto-Align, it can legitimately move an element right across the canvas to give the diagram a proper layout.

What it does

• It reads the arrow graph, splits it into connected groups, and lays out each group, using a layered arrangement for flow-like diagrams and breaking cycles where the graph loops back on itself.
• It infers direction from where your shapes roughly sit now, so the result follows the orientation you were already drawing in.
• It works on the whole active tab. Shapes that aren't wired to anything (loose stickies, text, or images) pass through with their positions untouched, and spacing respects each element's size.
• It is origin-preserving: the laid-out block stays pinned to the diagram's current top-left, so the result appears where you're already looking instead of jumping to the canvas origin.
• It finishes with a grid snap (the same one Auto-Align runs), so the tidied output is also grid-aligned.

Layout styles

One arrangement doesn't fit every diagram, so alongside the smart default the Cleanup category offers a tile per style. All of them read the same arrow graph and differ only in the shape of the result:

• Auto Layout (the smart default): a layered arrangement with the direction inferred from where your shapes roughly sit now.
• Flowchart ↓ and Flowchart →: the same layered arrangement, but with the direction forced top-to-bottom or left-to-right, whatever your current positions suggest.
• Tree: an org-chart arrangement. Roots sit at the top and every parent is centred over its own children, so hierarchies read cleanly level by level.
• Mindmap: a radial arrangement. The most-connected shape becomes the hub in the centre and its branches fan out around it, with each level on a wider ring.

Every style is also available from the command palette ("Auto Layout: Mindmap", and so on). If a diagram isn't a perfect tree (a shape with two parents, or a loop), Tree and Mindmap still work: they lay out the main skeleton and reconnect the extra arrows across it.

Running it

Because it's one undoable operation with one activity-log entry, you can try a style and revert in a single step if you preferred the previous arrangement, so it costs nothing to try two or three and keep the one that reads best.

When to use it

Reach for Auto Layout when a diagram has grown organically and lost its shape, or when shapes were placed without much thought and you want the connections to drive the layout. If the diagram already looks right and only needs its drift cleaned up, use Auto-Align instead.