The Display Section: Fields and Rules

Choose what each node and relationship shows, and let rules restyle them based on their values.

Every Node Type and Relationship Type has a Display section in the Properties panel. It decides two things: what an element shows on a diagram (its fields) and how it looks depending on its values (its rules). Set it once on the type and every element of that type follows.

Fields: what a node or relationship shows

A node has four places for text, from top to bottom:

• Label: the main name
• Subtitle: a short line under it
• Body: a longer text, such as the description. It is cut off with "…" when it doesn't fit, and you can resize the node to show more.
• Footer: a line at the bottom

A relationship has three: Middle (on the line), Source end and Target end.

For each place, choose what goes there: the element's Label, its Description, its Auto-ID, the Type name, any of its Properties, or Hidden to leave it empty. Default keeps Metapad's normal behaviour (for example, the node's name in the Label).

Example: for a Requirement type, show the Auto-ID in the Subtitle, the description in the Body and the priority property in the Footer. Every requirement on every diagram then reads like a card.

The Container type in the C4 template shows its technology in the Subtitle and its description in the Body, and has its own type icon.

Rules: style by value

Rules change an element's look when its values meet a condition, so you can see status at a glance.

1. Under Rules, click + Add rule.
2. Choose when it applies:
   • All conditions: every condition must hold
   • Any condition: one is enough
   • Always: no condition; useful as a final fallback rule
3. Click + Condition and pick a property, a comparison (equals, not equals, contains, greater than, less than, at least, at most, is empty, …) and a value. Tick not to turn a condition around.
4. Under Then, set what changes:
   • Nodes: Fill, Border, Text colour, and a Status icon (Dot, Check, Warning or Cross)
   • Relationships: Line colour, Width, Dash (Solid, Dashed or Dotted), Label background, and flow animation (see Animating Relationships with Flow)

Anything you leave at Unchanged keeps the element's normal style.

A rule on the Container type in the C4 template: when status equals deprecated, the node gets a Warning icon.

Order matters. Rules are tried from top to bottom and only the first matching rule applies; later rules are not combined with it. Use Move up and Move down to reorder them.

Example: a Risk type with three rules, in this order:

1. severity at least 8 → red fill, Warning icon
2. severity at least 4 → amber fill
3. Always → green fill

Different on one diagram

Right-click a node or relationship on a diagram and choose Display…. Changes there apply to that diagram only. Fields you don't set show what they take From type. For rules, the dialog shows Rules from the type. Click Override rules here to give this diagram its own list (it starts as a copy), and Reset to type default to go back.

Good to know

• Subtypes pick up their parent's display when the relationship has Inherit views turned on (see Type Hierarchy).
• Fields and rules show wherever the diagram appears: the canvas, the Reader, published sites and exports.
• On simulation diagrams, rules on agents follow the value at the current step as you play through a run. Relationships keep using their own stored values.
• Rules written by AI tools over MCP can contain nested conditions. The editor shows those read-only, but you can still reorder or delete them.