Pages, frames and sections

A file holds one or more pages. Each page is an endless canvas, and on it you draw frames: the screens, cards and pieces of your design. When a page fills up with frames, sections gather them into labelled sheets, one per flow or per state, so the canvas stays easy to read.

Use pages to split big pieces of work (a marketing site, the app, a style guide), frames for every screen, and sections when one page holds several flows side by side.

Pages

Pages sit at the top of the File tab in the left rail, above the layers.

• Press Add page (the plus by Pages) for a new one. A new file starts with Page 1.
• Double-click a page to rename it.
• Drag a page to reorder it. Hold ⌥ while you drag to duplicate it instead.
• Right-click a page for Rename, Duplicate, Copy link to page, Move up, Move down and Delete page. Deleting asks first.

A file always keeps one page, so the last page cannot be deleted. With nothing selected, the Design tab shows the page itself, where you can change its Canvas background.

Draw a frame

1. Press F (or A) for the Frame tool.
2. Drag on the canvas for any size, or click once for a 390 × 844 frame.

While the Frame tool is on, the Design tab lists ready-made sizes in groups: Phone, Tablet, Desktop, Presentation, Smartwatch, Paper and Social media. Pick one to add a frame at that size.

A new frame is white and clips what spills past its edges. Turn off Clip content in the Layout section to let content show outside it.

To change an existing frame’s size to a preset later, open the menu on the Layout heading: it reads the frame’s current size and offers Custom size and the same groups.

Frames inside frames

Draw a frame inside another and it nests there, ready to hold a card, a header or a button row. A frame you create with a single click always lands on the canvas, never inside another frame.

To put layers you already have into a new frame, select them and press ⌥⌘G (or ⌘G), or right-click and choose Frame selection. The layers must share a parent.

Rename a frame

Double-click a frame’s name above it on the canvas, or its row in the layers list. ⌘R renames whatever is selected.

Sections

A section is a quiet grey sheet behind your frames, with its name on top.

• Draw one: press ⇧S and drag over the frames you want in it. A section drawn over frames takes them in. A single click makes an 800 × 600 section.
• Wrap a selection: select frames and press ⌥⌘S, or right-click and choose Wrap in new section. The section fits around them with some room to spare.
• Move frames in and out: drop a frame on a section to add it; drag it off to take it out.
• Resize to fit: with a section selected, press Resize to fit in the Design tab (or right-click) and it shrinks or grows to wrap its contents.
• Remove a section but keep its frames: right-click and choose Remove section, keep contents, or press ⌘⌫.

Sections can sit inside other sections, but never inside a frame.

Part of the prototype

A section’s Design tab has a Part of the prototype checkbox, on by default. Turn it off for a section that holds a style guide, wireframes or old versions: its frames are then left out of Preview and of your published site, while staying on the canvas. See Link screens and Preview.

Move around

• Zoom with ⌘+ and ⌘−, or pinch on a trackpad.
• ⇧1 zooms to fit everything, ⇧2 to the selection, ⇧0 to 100%.
• N and ⇧N step to the next and previous frame.
• Hold Space and drag, or press H for the Hand tool, to pan.

Shortcuts

Action	Keys
Frame tool	F or A
Section tool	⇧S
Frame selection	⌥⌘G
Wrap in new section	⌥⌘S
Remove section, keep contents	⌘⌫
Next / previous frame	N / ⇧N

Catches

• A section is never a screen. Preview, links and publishing look at the frames inside it, not the section.
• Frame selection needs layers that share a parent. Layers from two different frames cannot be framed together.
• Clicking a layer inside a frame selects that layer. Click the frame’s empty background or its name to select the frame; dragging on its background draws a selection box inside it.
• Pages, frames and sections are on every plan.