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Create repeating elements

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  1. Adobe XD User Guide
  2. Introduction
    1. Release updates
    2. Common questions
    3. Design, prototype, and share with Adobe XD
    4. Color Management
    5. System requirements
      1. Hardware and software requirements
      2. Adobe XD, Big Sur, and Apple silicon | macOS 11
    6. Workspace basics
    7. Change app language in Adobe XD
    8. Access UI design kits
    9. Accessibility in Adobe XD
    10. Keyboard shortcuts
    11. Tips and tricks
  3. Design
    1. Artboards, guides, and layers
      1. Get started with artboards
      2. Use guides and grids
      3. Create scrollable artboards
      4. Work with layers
      5. Create scroll groups
    2. Shapes, objects, and path
      1. Select, resize, and rotate objects
      2. Move, align, distribute, and arrange objects
      3. Group, lock, duplicate, copy, and flip objects
      4. Set stroke, fill, and drop shadow for objects
      5. Create repeating elements
      6. Create perspective designs with 3D transforms
      7. Edit objects using Boolean operations
    3. Text and fonts
      1. Work with drawing and text tools
      2. Fonts in Adobe XD
    4. Components and states
      1. Work with components
      2. Work with nested components
      3. Add multiple states to components
    5. Masking and effects
      1. Create a mask with shapes
      2. Work with blur effects
      3. Create and modify gradients
      4. Apply blend effects
    6. Layout
      1. Responsive resize and constraints
      2. Set fixed padding for components and groups
      3. Create dynamic designs with stacks
    7. Videos and Lottie animations
      1. Work with videos
      2. Create prototypes using videos
      3. Work with Lottie animations
  4. Prototype
    1. Create interactive prototypes
    2. Animate prototypes
    3. Object properties supported for auto-animate
    4. Create prototypes with keyboard and gamepad
    5. Create prototypes using voice commands and playback
    6. Create timed transitions
    7. Add overlays
    8. Design voice prototypes
    9. Create anchor links
    10. Create hyperlinks
    11. Preview designs and prototypes
  5. Share, export, and review
    1. Share selected artboards
    2. Share designs and prototypes
    3. Set access permissions for links
    4. Work with prototypes
    5. Review prototypes
    6. Work with design specs
    7. Share design specs
    8. Inspect design specs
    9. Navigate design specs
    10. Review and comment design specs
    11. Export design assets
    12. Export and download assets from design specs
    13. Group sharing for enterprise
    14. Back up or transfer XD assets
  6. Design systems
    1. Design systems with Creative Cloud Libraries
    2. Work with document assets in Adobe XD
    3. Work with Creative Cloud Libraries in Adobe XD
    4. Migrate from linked assets to Creative Cloud Libraries
    5. Work with design tokens 
    6. Use assets from Creative Cloud Libraries
  7. Cloud documents
    1. Cloud documents in Adobe XD
    2. Collaborate and coedit designs
    3. Coedit documents shared with you
  8. Integrations and plugins
    1. Work with external assets
    2. Work with design assets from Photoshop
    3. Copy and paste assets from Photoshop
    4. Import or open Photoshop designs
    5. Work with Illustrator assets in Adobe XD
    6. Open or import Illustrator designs
    7. Copy vectors from Illustrator to XD
    8. Plugins for Adobe XD
    9. Create and manage plugins
    10. Jira integration for XD
    11. Slack plugin for XD
    12. Zoom plug-in for XD
    13. Publish design from XD to Behance
  9. XD for iOS and Android
    1. Preview on mobile devices
    2. Adobe XD on mobile FAQ
  10. Troubleshooting
    1. Known and fixed issues
      1. Known issues
      2. Fixed issues
    2. Installation and updates
      1. XD appears as not compatible on Windows
      2. Error code 191
      3. Error code 183
      4. Issues installing XD plugins
      5.  Prompt to uninstall and reinstall XD on Windows 10
      6. Issues with preferences migration
    3. Launch and crash
      1.  XD crashes when launched on Windows 10
      2.  XD quits when you sign out of Creative Cloud
      3. Issue with subscription status on Windows
      4. Blocked-app warning when launching  XD on Windows
      5. Crash dump generation on Windows
      6. Crash log collection and sharing
    4. Cloud documents and Creative Cloud Libraries
      1. Issues with XD cloud documents
      2. Issues with linked components
      3. Issues with libraries and links
    5. Prototype, publish, and review
      1. Unable to record prototype interactions on macOS Catalina
      2. Issues with publish workflows
      3. Published  links do not appear in browsers
      4. Prototypes do not render correctly in browsers
      5. Commenting panel suddenly showing up on shared links
      6. Unable to publish libraries
    6. Import, export, and working with other apps
      1. Import and export in XD
      2. Photoshop files in XD
      3. Illustrator files in XD
      4. Export to After Effects from XD
      5. Sketch files in XD
      6. Third-party apps not visible in Export

Learn how to create repeating elements in Adobe XD using Repeat Grid.

While designing for web or mobile apps, there is often a need to define repeating elements or content lists. However, it can be time consuming to create these elements or update when there are design changes.

The Repeat Grid feature changes a group of elements to a repeating element. You can simply pull the element in any direction and the grid repeats. When you modify any style of an element, the change is replicated in all the elements of the grid. For example, if you change the image size in one of the elements, all images in the grid are resized automatically.

If you have a text element in the grid, only the style of the text element is replicated and not the content. So, you can style text elements quickly while keeping the content different in the grid elements.

You can replace placeholder text in a repeat grid by dragging a text file onto the grid.

Create a repeat grid

At its core, a Repeat Grid is a special type of group. You can create a Repeat Grid by selecting an object or a group of objects and convert them to a Repeat Grid.

  1. Design the base element that you want to repeat - for example, a combination of image thumbnails and text.

  2. Select the elements you want to repeat.

  3. Convert the selection to a Repeat Grid by clicking the button in the Property Inspector or by using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + R (Mac), or Ctrl + R (Windows).

    Large handles appear on the boundary of the element.

    Handles for repeating an element or a group of elements
    Handles for repeating an element or a group of elements

  4. To repeat the element in a vertical grid, drag the handle at the bottom of the element. To repeat the element in a horizontal grid, drag the handle at the right of the element.

    Vertical repeat grid

    Horizontal repeat grid

  5. To select elements in a grid to edit, double-click the grid.

To ungroup the grid elements and work on them separately, select the grid and click Ungroup Grid in the Property Inspector.

You can access the Repeat Grid’s component elements by double clicking inside the group.

After you make your changes, exit the edit context by pressing the Escape key.

Note:

You can also access the component elements by drilling down into the element in the Layer panel or by directly selecting it.

Adjust the padding between two elements in a repeat grid

To adjust the padding between two elements in the grid, hover over the gap between the elements. When the cursor changes to double arrows, drag to increase or decrease the padding.

Vertical grid with repeating elements
Vertical grid with repeating elements

Work with text in a repeat grid

You can use text in multiple ways in a Repeat Grid. You can either update each individual instance of a text object in a Repeat Grid, or you can choose to drag a pre-filled .txt document to a Repeat Grid and have the contents of the text file automatically populate the text objects in a Repeat Grid. 

Update individual text elements in a Repeat Grid

  1. Cmd + Click (Mac) or Ctrl + Click (Windows) a text object in your Repeat Grid to select it. 

  2. To edit the text element, double-click it and change the text.

Note:

Changes to the content are not applied to other text objects in a Repeat Grid. However, any style applied to the text object applies to all text objects.

Drag a return-separated text file to your text object in a Repeat Grid

You can replace the placeholder text in a repeat grid by dragging a text file onto the grid.

  1. Create a text file with the extension .txt. You can create this using Mac’s TextEdit or Windows’ Notepad (save as .txt), or any other text editor. Ensure the encoding is set to UTF-8. Separate each line of data with a return. 

  2. Drag the text file on to the repeat grid.

    Dragging a text file over an object in a Repeat Grid
    Dragging a text file over an object in a Repeat Grid - To be updated

    The repeat grid is populated in the same sequence of the text as in the text file. If there are more grids than the lines of text in the file, the sequence repeats.

Work with images in a repeat grid

With images, you can build repeated patterns of objects, where the image fill of an object is repeated in a pattern that you define.

You can choose to create an image fill pattern by dragging images one-by-one into an object, or select multiple images and then drag them to an object on the repeat grid.

Dragging image files over an object in a Repeat Grid
Dragging image files over an object in a Repeat Grid - To be updated

Replace images in a repeat grid

To replace the images in the grid, open Finder or File Explorer, and navigate to the location where you have stored the images for your project. Select all the images that you want to appear in the grid, and drag-and-drop them onto the target object within the repeat grid.

The older images are replaced with the new images, which are resized automatically.

Create interactions from a repeat grid

You can wire a repeat grid to other artboards in Prototype mode in the following different ways:

Wire the entire Repeat Grid for a single interaction

  1. In Design mode, create a second artboard in your file using the Artboard tool (A).

  2. Switch to Prototype mode by clicking the Prototype tab or by using the Ctrl + Tab keyboard shortcut.

  3. Select the Repeat Grid in your first artboard. A connector with an arrow appears on the right side of the object at its midpoint.

  4. Drag the connector to the next artboard. Select your transition options in the pop-up, then press Escape or click outside the pop-up to dismiss it.

  5. Preview by either pressing the Play button in the upper right corner of the application frame or by using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Enter (Mac) or Ctrl + Enter (Windows). Click anywhere over the Repeat Grid to play the interaction.

Wire a single element of a Repeat Grid for an interaction

  1. Select an object within the Repeat Grid.

  2. Drag the connector on the right of the rectangle and drag it to the artboard you want to link. Select your transition options in the pop-up, then press Escape, or click outside the pop-up to dismiss it.

  3. Preview by either pressing the Play button in the upper right corner of the application frame or by using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Enter (on Mac) or Ctrl + Enter (on Windows). Click the object to verify the interaction.

Create a group of elements within the Repeat Grid and create an interaction from the group

You can also create a group of objects within your Repeat Grid, and then create interactions from that group.

  1. Select an object in your Repeat Grid and then Shift-click other objects to add it to your selection.

  2. After selecting the objects, right-click, and select Group from the context menu. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + G (Mac) or Ctrl + G (Windows) to group the objects.

  3. Switch to Prototype mode. Drag the connector from the group to the artboard you want to link.

  4. Preview by either pressing the Play button in the upper right corner of the application frame or by using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Enter (on Mac) or Ctrl + Enter (on Windows). Click the group to verify the interaction.

Import content with repeat grid

Here is a sample video to get you started with repeat grids. 

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