Edit several layers at once

Select more than one layer and the Design tab edits them all. A change you make once lands on every selected layer, and fields where the layers differ read Mixed until you type a value. This is the quickest way to make a row of cards the same width, give every label the same weight, or retype the same word in a dozen places.

Select them

⇧-click layers on the canvas, drag a selection box, or ⇧-click a range in the layers list. See Layers for every way to select.

Size

• W and H in the Layout section set the width or height of each layer to the value you type. A layer with its proportions locked keeps them.
• Drag a handle of the selection box on the canvas to resize the whole group together: each layer scales and moves with the box. Hold ⇧ on a corner to keep the box’s proportions, ⌥ to resize from the centre.
• When the layers can all hug or fill, the W and H menus offer Fixed, Hug contents and Fill container for all of them at once.

Style

Fill, stroke, corner radius, opacity, blend mode, shadows and type settings all apply to every selected layer. A few handy ways in:

• Press 1 to 9 for 10% to 90% opacity, 0 for 100%.
• Copy one layer’s look with ⌥⌘C (Copy styles), then select the others and press ⌥⌘V (Paste styles). Fill, stroke, radius, effects, blend and type settings come across.
• Selection colours lists every colour in the selection once. Change one there and it changes on every layer that uses it. See Selection colours.

Layout and constraints

• Several auto layout frames: the auto layout block appears once, and direction, gap, padding and alignment changes reach all of them.
• Constraints: the horizontal and vertical menus read Mixed when the layers differ; pick one value to set it on all.
• Align the selection to itself with the buttons on the Layout heading, or arrange it with Space across, Space down and Tidy up. See Align, distribute and Tidy up.

Multi-edit text

Select several text layers (buttons and sticky notes count too) and press ↩, or press Multi-edit text at the top of the Design tab. Type once and every selected text layer takes the same words.

Multi-edit variants

On a set of variants, press Q (or the Multi-edit variants button in the Design tab’s header). Every edit you make on one variant now repeats on the matching layers of all the others: recolour the icon in one and it changes in every state. A toast tells you how many variants follow.

Press Q again, or double-click outside the set, to stop. Right-click a layer in a variant for Select matching layers to select the same layer in every variant.

Read more in Components and variants.

Shortcuts

Action	Keys
Multi-edit text	↩ (several text layers)
Multi-edit variants	Q
Copy styles / Paste styles	⌥⌘C / ⌥⌘V
Opacity 10% to 100%	1 … 9, 0

Catches

• Mixed is not a value. A field that reads Mixed changes nothing until you type into it, and then every layer takes the same value.
• Copy styles takes one layer. It is unavailable with several selected; pick the layer whose look you want first.
• Multi-edit variants works on one set at a time. A selection spanning two sets gets a toast instead.
• Multi-edit text is for text, buttons and sticky notes only. If anything else is in the selection, ↩ does nothing.
• Locked layers stay as they are when you type a W or H for several at once. With a locked layer in the selection, the selection box has no handles to drag.