Clearly, anybody new to graph drawing and/or the yFiles graph visualization library should read the entire Developer's Guide to learn all about yFiles.

Without knowledge of the benefits of (automatic) graph drawing, be sure to not miss out on "Preface." Then proceed with the chapters on yFiles Basic (namely, "General Concepts in yFiles" and "Working with the Graph Structure") to know about the concepts, the graph structure implementation, and how to use it. Together, these are the most important chapters to understand and remember.

The parts on yFiles Layout ("Automatic Graph Layout") and yFiles Viewer ("Displaying and Editing Graphs" and "Input and Output") are independent of each other and therefore can be read in any order. Accordingly, any of these parts can be omitted if the respective library component is not of interest.

The remaining chapters and appendices can equally be skipped the first time. Note nonetheless that they provide essential information for the interested reader. In contrast, the glossary cannot be consulted often enough. It explains common graph structure related terminology as well as all terms specifically used with yFiles.

Except maybe the section on graph analysis algorithms at the end of "Working with the Graph Structure," experienced yFiles users can easily skip these chapters. (However, it may also be true that even experienced users will find some of the sections interesting enough to dwell upon... "Binding Data to Graph Elements" might be such a candidate.)

The parts on yFiles Layout ("Automatic Graph Layout") and yFiles Viewer ("Displaying and Editing Graphs" and "Input and Output") should be read carefully and often. "Automatic Graph Layout" provides in-depth information concerning all layout algorithms, while "Displaying and Editing Graphs" covers (nearly) every aspect relating to user interaction and visual representations. The chapter on input and output file formats can be read independently of the other Viewer chapter.

"Graph Hierarchies" is a must-read particularly for everyone doing nested graphs. It explains the mechanism and the preparations necessary for both the layout and the viewer side.

The chapter on the settings framework, namely "Settings Dialogs and Components," explains the yFiles classes that provide a convenient way to quickly create settings dialogs and components.