|||
Each line in the text box is one variable in the graph. A variable is any factor in your theory of change - something which could be different. Something you can control, or something you want to happen, or anything in between.
A variable
Another variable!
That isn’t much fun. We want to draw edges between the variables, usually with arrows to show which change contributes to what.
Arrows can be specified in four different ways for convenience. Just paste any of these examples into the text box to try them out and adjust them.
You can just use spaces before the variables, like this:
me
child a
grandchild a
grandchild b
child b
grandchild c
grandchild d
Spaces are good for when you think about the effects of something.
Supermarkets charge for plastic bags
Far fewer plastic bags purchased
Much less plastic waste
Somewhat more hemp bags purchased
Somewhat more hemp waste
Shoppers more conscious of waste
Or you can use dots, which reverses the order.
goal
.result a
..subresult a
..subresult b
.result b
..subresult c
..subresult d
This way you can build up nice tidy hierarchies, but you can also have ragged ones too:
goal
.result a
..subresult a
...sub-sub result x
...sub-sub result y
..subresult b
.result b
..subresult c
Don’t let your planning tools force you to be regimented if you don’t want to be!
Look what happens when you repeat things:
goal
.result a
..subresult a
..subresult b
.result b
..subresult a; color=orange
..subresult d
This way, one parent variable can have more than one child. Notice also that we added ; color=orange to give that variable an orange fill colour. Colors are listed here.
Sometimes a variable can have one near child and one further away:
goal
.result a
..subresult a
..subresult b
.subresult b; edgecolor=blue
.result b
..subresult a
..subresult d
Notice also that we coloured in the edge to draw attention to it, by writing ; edgecolor=blue.
Everything you can do with dots, you can do with spaces:
Supermarkets charge for plastic bags
Far fewer plastic bags purchased
Pollution?
Somewhat more hemp bags purchased
Pollution?
Really, for quick sketches, that is all you need. But there is a lot more you can do with Theorymaker, so read on if you want more control.
The last diagram was pretty nice but we’d like to point out that one of these effects is small and negative, another is large and positive.
Supermarkets charge for plastic bags
Far fewer plastic bags purchased; edgecolor=black
Pollution?
Somewhat more hemp bags purchased; edgecolor=red
Pollution?
I can even add labels to the edges and make them different widths.
Finally, this diagram needs a different shape. On the web interface, I can just drag the proportion slider to the left to make it shallower. Or I can do the same thing by writing proportion, putting a small number for shallow and wide:
Supermarkets charge for plastic bags
Far fewer plastic bags purchased; edgewidth=4; edgecolor=black
Pollution?
Somewhat more hemp bags purchased; edgewidth=1; edgecolor=red; edgelabel=negative
Pollution?
proportion=.1
Oh, and if you are lazy you can abbreviate all these things:
Supermarkets charge for plastic bags
Far fewer plastic bags purchased; ewid=4; ecol=black
Pollution?
Somewhat more hemp bags purchased; ewid=1; ecol=red; elab=negative
Pollution?
pro=.1
So we looked at how to ose dots and spaces and how to change the appearance by adding things like edgewidth=3.
Sometimes it is convenient to combine spaces and dots.
goal
.result a
goal 2
.result b
Sometimes we want to draw diagrams with loops in them. Theorymaker doesn’t stop you.
Parent gets angry
Child gets upset
Parent gets angry
If you find yourself repeating variables a lot and you don’t want to copy and paste, you can use an alias by putting some easy shorter form in front of the full name, separated by a double colon.
Pa
Child gets upset
Pa::Parent gets angry
You have to define the alias on the last appearance, othewise this will happen:
Pa::Parent gets angry
Child gets upset
Pa
Those two techniques are nice and easy but for more complicated cases you can use to=. You can specify more than one target, separated by spaces.
a;to=b d
b;to=c
c
d
A space is used to separate targets. So what to do if the target of the “to” has spaces in its name? Just remove the spaces.
b with gaps in name
a;to=bwithgapsinname d
d
Finally, you can use a decimal point notation which is very common in project designs.
a
a.1
a.1.x
a.1.y
a.2
If you are using the decimal point notation and want to have meaningful labels, you have to use aliases.
x :: Goal
x.a :: Result a
x.a.1 :: Result a.1
x.b :: Result b
x.c :: Result c
Note that I put some spaces in before and after the colons to make it easier to read. You can leave them out if you want.
Combinations of these specifications can also be used.
a
a.1
c;to=a
.d
One of the neat things about Theorymaker is that it is easy to add edges, arrows, between variables.
If you are specifying more than one target with to=, and you decorate the edges, look what happens:
a;to=b c;edgelabel= my label
b
c
If you don’t want this effect, you can use additional lines:
a;to=b;edgelabel= my label
a;to=c;edgelabel= my other label
b
c
You can also control the arrowheads.
a
b; edgedirection=both
c; edgedirection=none
Grouping boxes are specified using an initial -. If you want boxes inside boxes, use more dashes.
-School
Principal;to=Teacher
--Classes
Teacher;to=Motivation Learning
---Students
Learning
.Motivation
Empty boxes are possible too.
-box one
--inner box
There is also a handy way to add notes (with matching colours) to your items. So if you use ;note_two=some note in a variable, a note “some note” labelled “two” will appear at the bottom of the item. If you do this in multiple variables, the fill colours match.
-Project school
b::Teachers;note_number=30;note_importance=high
Intervention;to=b
-Comparison school
cb::Teachers;note_number=30
Dummy intervention;to=cb
One more feature: you can mark variables which are valued or which are inputs quite simply:
goal;valued=yes
.result a
..subresult a
...other contribution a
..subresult b
...input b;input=yes
.result b_val
..subresult c
...input c;input=yes
..subresult d
...input d1;input=yes
...input d2;input=yes
There are also shortcodes for some features which you can add at the end of your variable names or aliases:
_val means this is a valued variable_inp means this is an input variable_def means this is a defined variable_sce means this box is a scenario_mul means this box contains multiple cases_dot makes a dotted line
--Group 1_sce
c_inp
a_val
--Group 2_mul
b_dot;to=d
d