Understand Actor (Use Case) Presentation Options

An actor (use case) specifies a role played by a user or any other system that interacts with the subject. It may represent roles played by human users, external hardware, or other subjects. Below are all presentation options available to use case actor in Visual Paradigm and what are their meaning.

Options	Available Setting	Meaning	Example
Display Option
	Follow Diagram	Follow to diagram’s Actor Display Options.
	Stick Man	Only show the name of the actor (override diagram’s setting).
	Box Shape with Keyword	Show fully-qualified parents below actor name (override diagram’s setting).
	Box Shape with Icon	Show immediate parent name below actor name (override diagram’s setting).
Follow Diagram		Follow to diagrams display option to present the actor in standard notation or steretoype icon.
Standard		Display actor in standard notation.
Stereotype Icon		Display actor with stereotype’s icon.
User-Defined		Display actor with predefined images or image from file system.
Primitive Shape		Display actor as primitive shape such as Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Oval, Triangle, Octagon, Diamond, Pentagon, Trapezoid or Hexagon.
Caption Placement
	Top Left	To display the caption at the top left of the actor (not applicable to actor as stick man).
	Top Center	To display the caption at the top center of the actor (not applicable to actor as stick man).
	Top Right	To display the caption at the top right of the actor (not applicable to actor as stick man).
	Middle Left	To display the caption at the middle left of the actor.
	Middle Center	To display the caption at the middle center of the actor.
	Middle Right	To display the caption at the middle right of the actor.
	Bottom Left	To display the caption at the bottom left of the actor (not applicable to actor as stick man).
	Bottom Center	To display the caption at the bottom center of the actor (not applicable to actor as stick man).
	Bottom Right	To display the caption at the bottom right of the actor (not applicable to actor as stick man).
	Follow Diagram	Specify the actor to follow diagram’s Caption Placement setting.
Show/Hide Stereotypes		Show/hide stereotypes on the selected actor.
Show/Hide Tagged Values		Show/hide tagged values on the selected actor.