Layers

Every frame, shape, text and picture on a page is a layer. The layers list in the File tab of the left rail shows them all, under the pages, as a tree: what is inside a frame sits indented under it. The top of the list is drawn on top on the canvas.

Use the list when the canvas gets crowded: to pick a layer hidden under others, to move one into another frame, or to hide and lock what you are not working on.

Select layers

On the canvas:

• Click selects the outermost layer under the pointer inside a screen. Double-click, or press ↩, to go one level in. Once you are in, the layers beside it are one click each.
• ⌘-click selects the deepest layer under the pointer straight away.
• ⇧-click adds or removes a layer from the selection.
• Drag on empty canvas to draw a selection box. Drag on a frame’s empty background to select inside that frame.
• Right-click and open Select layer… to pick from every layer under the pointer.

In the layers list:

• Click selects one layer; ⌘-click adds or removes one.
• ⇧-click selects every row between the last one you clicked and this one.

From the keyboard:

Action	Keys
Select all	⌘A
Select inverse	⇧⌘A
Select parent	Esc
Select children	↩
Next / previous sibling	⇥ / ⇧⇥

Rename

Double-click a row’s name, or select a layer and press ⌘R. Clear names make a crowded page much easier to find your way around.

When you duplicate a layer whose name ends in a number, the copy takes the next free number: “Card 2” copies as “Card 3”.

Reorder and nest

• Drag a row above or below another to change the order, or onto a frame to put it inside. Hold ⌥ while you drag to drop a copy instead.
• Drag above the first row to bring a layer to the very front; below the last to send it to the back.
• From the keyboard: ⌘] and ⌘[ bring a layer forward or send it backward one step; ⌥⌘] and ⌥⌘[ bring it to the front or send it to the back.

Inside an auto layout frame, the order in the list is the order on screen. With one layer selected there, the arrow keys move it earlier or later in the row or column.

Hide and lock

Each row has an eye to hide or show the layer and a padlock to lock it.

• ⇧⌘H hides or shows the selection.
• ⇧⌘L locks or unlocks it.

A locked layer cannot be moved, resized, deleted or cut, and clicks on the canvas pass through it to whatever is underneath. That makes locking a background the easiest way to stop grabbing it by mistake. Everything inside a locked frame is locked with it.

Find a layer

• Press the magnifier at the top of the left rail and type in Search layers. It matches a layer’s name and the words in a text layer.
• Each row has a Zoom to this layer button that brings it into view on the canvas.
• ⌥L collapses the tree: the whole list with nothing selected, or just the selection. Right-click the list for Collapse all or Collapse selection.
• ⌥1 brings the layers list back into view.

Delete

Press ⌫. A toast tells you how many layers went, and ⌘Z brings them back. Locked layers are left in place.

Hide the whole interface

⌘\ (or ⌘.) hides the rails and the top bar so only the canvas shows. Press it again to bring them back.

Catches

• There is no separate Layers tab. The layers live in the File tab, under the pages.
• A locked layer cannot be clicked on the canvas. Unlock it from its row first; clicks on the canvas go through it on purpose.
• Layers inside an instance belong to its component. You can change them as overrides, but you cannot drag new layers into an instance. See Components and variants.
• Arrow keys inside auto layout reorder, not nudge. Outside auto layout, arrows nudge by 1 and ⇧ with an arrow by 10.