Introduction: Visibility in Flexitive


Traditional design tools treat each new fixed pixel size (eg. 1920x1080) or aspect ratio (eg. 16:9) as a separate, self-contained file that's not linked to other sizes. One design concept is often built into dozens of sizes and treating each size as a self-contained, independent file makes the design build and subsequent revisions long and tedious.


In Flexitive you can think of each 'page' as a design concept, that can contain one size (like a 1920x1080) or dozens of different sizes. Every size that's activated in a Flexitive page shares the same uploaded assets, and some actions, like animations. For a full list of shared actions, check out our article on 'What Changes Affect All My Sizes vs. Only One Size'. By sharing assets, and some actions, between different sizes that are part of the same design concept, Flexitive makes the entire design product process shorter at every step.


Since each 'page' in Flexitive can contain multiple sizes:

  • Elements aren't deleted from particular sizes, elements are hidden or shown on particular sizes. When you want to delete an element from a particular size, you should hide the element from that size. If you delete the element, it will disappear on every size. For example, if you've activated a 300x50 and a 900x150, they may have a similar layout because they share the same aspect ratio (6:1) but the 900x150 has significantly more space (total pixels) available. On the 300x50, we'll want to hide elements that are visible on the 900x150. For an example of designs that share an aspect ratio but have different layouts, check out these Flexitive designs.

  • If we have more than one size activated (eg. a 300x50 and 900x150) and we add a new element to the 900x150, by default that new element will be added to all other activated sizes. Although you can choose what sizes we want a newly added element to appear on.
     
  • When building a Flexitive page that contains portrait and landscape sizes, you'll likely have elements with a portrait or landscape orientation. You'll want the elements with a portrait orientation hidden on landscape sizes and vice-versa.


When you add a new element to the canvas, that element will be added to all activated sizes.


Using the Visibility settings in the Customize panel, you can make elements in Flexitive visible on a specific size, all portrait sizes or all landscape sizes.



Visibility and the Layers Panel


In Flexitive, elements hidden on a size will be greyed out in the layers panel. In addition, the Eye icon to the right of the element in the Layers panel will be struck through with a green line.



To hide an element using the layers panel, tap the Eye Icon next to the element you want to hide. You can also make a hidden element visible again by tapping the Eye Icon of a hidden element.



At the top of the Layer Panel, there is a toggle to Show Hidden Layers. When the Show Hidden Layers toggle is set to On, elements that are hidden on the size you are working in will by greyed out in the layers panel, and displayed as semitransparent elements on the canvas. When the Show Hidden Layers toggle is set to Off, the elements will be hidden from both the canvas and the Layers panel. Elements can be selected by tapping on them in the Layers Panel, learn more about the Layers Panel here.


To change the visibility of an element in more than one size at a time, select the element and use the Visibility Settings in the Customize Panel.