Version 2.0 of Database Designer for MySQL is new generation of this product. There are lot of new features, some old features were rewritten from scratch.
Please note:
Non-expired registration keys from 1.x version will work with version 2.0 too.
New Ribbon-based GUI
Graphical User's Interface (GUI) in version 2 is based on Ribbon (like that found in MS Office 2007). Ribbon is a set of Tabs with buttons, dropdown controls and other controls that provide you with access to the Database Designer for MySQL functions.
Please take a look at Ribbon topic for additional details.
GUI Skins
Now you can choose different GUI Skins for Database Designer for MySQL to appear according to your preferences.
There are several skin examples in GUI Skins topic.
New Compare Diagram tool
You can compare diagram with diagram, diagram with database and even database with another database now! You can also compare revisions of the same diagram (or even revisions of different diagrams if it makes any sense to you).
Details are in Compare Diagram topic.
Diagram versioning (diagram revisions)
Now you can create diagram snapshots called revisions. You can open previous revisions using new Revision Manager, save revisions to separate model file. Another useful feature is comparing diagram revisions using Compare Diagram tool to track changes of diagram between two revisions. You can also build SQL code according to compare results. This can be very useful for modifying real database after diagram modification.
Diagram versioning also is useful as backup solution when you want to save particular state of your diagram.
There is Diagram Versioning (Revisions) topic with more details on this.
New Modify Engine for Database Modification
Database Modification tool is completely rewritten in version 2.0. it is based on using Compare Diagram tool now. This allows to compare physical database with diagram more precisely, review all found differences and select ones you want to apply to database. Please take a look at Database Modification topic for details.
There is also new, more careful way of updating database structure according to diagram changes using one more new feature - Diagram Revisions. You can create revision of your diagram before changing it. And then apply only these changes to physical database rather then compare whole database structure to diagram.
There are additional details available in Comparing Diagram Revisions topic.
Diagram Synchronization with physical database changes
Version 2.0 brings one of long-awaited and most wanted features: Diagram Synchronization with physical database changes. Database Designer for MySQL compares physical database with your model, shows you list of differences and allows you to apply all or several of these differences to your model. For example you'd add column using "ALTER TABLE tbl ADD ..." query. With Diagram Synchronization you can get this new column in your database model.
This feature based on new Compare Diagram tool. This means that you can compare everything you want but not only physical database with your model. For example you can compare two revisions of Model_A and apply differences to Model_B and so on.
Additional details are available in Diagram Synchronization topic.
Manual drawing of references
One of the most wanted features. Now you can draw references manually point-by-point or let Database Designer for MySQL calculate them automatically as before. No more crossed references or hidden below table shape reference's labels!
Additional details are available in Manual Reference Drawing topic.
Ability to group objects on diagram
Starting from version 2.0 diagram objects can be united to object groups. Object Groups are the way to add more organization to your diagram. They allow to group several diagram objects to single object group giving it some name. All objects in this group will be moved with group. You can also delete whole group with or without all its objects.
Please take a look at Object Groups topic for additional details.
Unicode support
Full Unicode support for all editors and GUI is added. This means that you can use every character which your language supports including hieroglyph and other complicated character sets.