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Navigate design specs

  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 navigate through different views of a design specs link.

The share for development link has been made richer by including interactive prototype information along with design specs. Click the View specs toggle icon  in the shared link to toggle between a design specs and prototype view.  The new experience provides the following advantages: 

  • Designers can now efficiently communicate their design intent and provide all the resources developers need with a single shared link.
  • Developers can understand interactions and intended behaviors better and save time by avoiding constant switching between separate prototype and design spec links. 
  • Developers can easily switch between grid and flow view to view the design specs.

Grid view and flow view

To get a holistic view of your design flow with all the artboard layout information, you can choose to switch between Grid and Flow views. 

Efficient to navigate, the Grid view is a simple grid format of the artboard layout information, where as the Flow view preserves the artboard layout and its architecture.

To navigate to default Grid view, click the link name or the grid icon  in the upper left corner. To toggle between Grid view and Flow view, click the Flow view icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. 

Grid view
Grid view

Flow view
Flow view

In the Flow view, you can:

  • Communicate the design and layout hierarchy, and
  • Hover over an artboard to view its linked artboards.

In Grid view, you can:

  • View the thumbnail representation of all the screens,
  • Number of comments on a given artboard,
  • Search for a particular artboard by its name, and
  • View the linked screens for a given artboard.

Do feel free to share your feedback on the new experience using Adobe XD user voice.

Specs view

The specs view shows the artboard details, colors, character styles, and targets used. You can use the collapsible arrow to expand and collapse individual sections.

In the Properties panel, you can view:

  • Artboard details, unique colors and character styles used in that artboard, and the target artboard it is linked to.
  • CSS code snippets for your designs developers can copy-and-paste right into their code.
  • Instances where the colors and character styles have been used when you hover the pointer over
  • Hexadecimal color codes and custom labels for the colors used in the artboard.
  • Details of various interactions such as transitions, blend mode properties, overlays, voice, interactions, and auto-animate. 
  • Comments related to the artboard. 

At the bottom of the screen, there are arrow keys, and a Home icon. The left arrow key takes you to previous artboard, the right arrow key takes you to the next artboard while the Home icon takes you to the Home artboard.

For keyboard shortcuts specific to design specs, see Keyboard shortcuts.

Note:

You can view the custom labels only if the designer has given the color label names in the Assets panel.

Specs view
Specs view


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