Abstract: Editing an appearance object corresponding to a control object having a plurality of attributes and displayed on a graphical user interface. The graphical user interface displays a plurality of interconnected appearance objects in a strategy diagram, where each of the plurality of interconnected appearance objects corresponds to an aspect of a control process. An appearance object is selected for editing. A pre-defined symbol from a template is selected using a graphical editor. The symbol includes either elements representing attributes of the control process or a symbol definition. The symbol replaces the appearance object in the strategy diagram. The symbol definition is modified using a symbol definition editor. The elements are modified corresponding to a desired change of an attribute of the control process.