Link artboards?

[Totte]

Hi!

I'm trying out Artboards (In Designer) at the moment and currently I got 10 similar artboard.
Is it possible to link objects to mimic each other? Lets say I've made a rectangle to act as a background in each of the artboards,
and I want to change the background of all of them, without having to select each rectangle individually. Is this possible?

Bonus question: Is it possible to export all artboards at once as individual files? Instead of doing 10 exports selecting each artboard at the export window.

[Old Bruce]

19 minutes ago, Totte said:

Hi!

I'm trying out Artboards (In Designer) at the moment and currently I got 10 similar artboard.
Is it possible to link objects to mimic each other? Lets say I've made a rectangle to act as a background in each of the artboards,
and I want to change the background of all of them, without having to select each rectangle individually. Is this possible?

Bonus question: Is it possible to export all artboards at once as individual files? Instead of doing 10 exports selecting each artboard at the export window.

Try using symbols. Make the rectangle a symbol and you should be able to do what you want to.

[Totte]

4 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Try using symbols. Make the rectangle a symbol and you should be able to do what you want to.

Never used symbols, do you know any good tutorial video to get started by any chance? 😅

[Old Bruce]

there is the 'Official' video from Affinity 

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/designer/desktop/video/301628203/

it is on their Learning page for Designer, https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/designer/desktop/ worth a look in my opinion. Check out the export persona tutorials.

 

 

[Totte]

1 minute ago, Old Bruce said:

there is the 'Official' video from Affinity 

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/designer/desktop/video/301628203/

it is on their Learning page for Designer, https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/designer/desktop/ worth a look in my opinion. Check out the export persona tutorials.

 

 

Cheers! I watched those when the software was new, didn't recall where to find them 😅 Thanks for the help! 

[h_d]

'Unofficial' video:

Basically display the Symbols panel, select your rectangle, click Create, drag the symbol to the other artboards, select one of the nested rectangles in the Layers panel, and change its colour (or shape, or position, or anything...)

[loukash]

1 hour ago, Totte said:

Lets say I've made a rectangle to act as a background in each of the artboards,
and I want to change the background of all of them, without having to select each rectangle individually. Is this possible?

Yup:

1. delete all those rectangles, you don't need them
2. select all your "Artboard" type layers in the Layers panel
3. activate the Node tool
4. context toolbar > Fill

In other words: Artboards are objects. And vice versa: any vector object of any shape can be converted to an artboard. And back to an object again.

1 hour ago, Totte said:

Is it possible to export all artboards at once as individual files?

Click the Export Persona button in the toolbar.

[walt.farrell]

You could also use a Global Color as the Fill for your rectangles, and then change the definition of the color to affect all of them.

https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/Clr/globalClr.html

(By the way, you don't need to use a rectangle as the background for an Artboard. You can set the Fill color of an Artboard directly from the Context Toolbar. And you can use global colors for the Fill there, too.) (Edit: I see that was already mentioned )

[carl123]

 

Select > Select Object > Artboards

Change the colour in the Colour Panel

 

[Totte]

So.. that was easy by just filling the artboards Cheers.

Next problem; Let's say I got a different "icon" in each artboard. Any way to change the colors of all these icons at once? We back to objects as mentioned earlier?

[h_d]

Global colours as suggested by @walt.farrell are the way to go.

In the Swatches panel, Add  a new palette. This can be document, application or system-wide and by default will be called Unnamed (grrrr....)

Rename the palette if you want (mine is called Logos), then Add Global Colour:

 

 

 

Again, you can rename the colour if you want.

The white "dog ear" at the bottom left of the swatch indicates that it's global.

Apply that colour to your icons:

Right-click on the global colour in the swatches panel and Edit Fill:

All instances of the global colour will be updated.

(PS if you've got a different question, it's a good idea to start a new thread. Makes it easier to find )

[Totte]

Cool! Cheers, will have a go and experiment with it a bit and I think I'm good for now 😁 Once again, thanks guys. 

[loukash]

Other options:

• name those objects in the Layers panel, giving them all the same name, then Select > Select Same > Name
• tag those objects in the Layers panel, giving them all the same tag color, then Select > Select Same > Tag Color

[Guest]

13 hours ago, loukash said:

In other words: Artboards are objects. And vice versa: any vector object of any shape can be converted to an artboard. And back to an object again.

I hadn't realized an artboard could be ANY shape. 🤯

[loukash]

5 minutes ago, Bryan Rieger said:

ANY shape.