Designer: Symbol (text) overrides possible?

[dorian_grey]

Hello,

 

is it possible to override Symbol contents, similar to Sketch?

Currently I have around 40 artboards, where 20 each have the same layout, but different text content. Coming from Sketch I thought this sounds like the ideal case for two Symbols with overrides ... but now I have no idea how to do that in Designer.

 

Any help very much appreciated!

[Aammppaa]

What you need to look at is the Sync button in the Symbols Panel.

 

It is on by default, but can be turned off to make alterations to one instance of a symbol. Just remember to turn it back on again afterwards!

 

I believe that text can be de-synced, but this has the complication that it is the whole text object that is de-synced rather than just the content. This means that if you later reposition, recolour, change the font etc of the symbol it will not propagate to all instances.

 

You may be able to resolve this limitation by making a text style that you can use to reformat the text.

[dorian_grey]

The Sync button doesn't seem to work properly: Sometimes it doesn't have any effect at all (changes still sync to other instances), sometimes the whole instance gets disconnected. Also, some elements within a symbol seem to be de-synced by default, directly after creating the symbol. At least they show the orange dotted line, which indicates the de-sync status.

 

Also, that only the whole element is de-synced and not only the text content, is a real pain. In general Designer's Symbols still seem to be lacking a lot - hope they get improved over time.

[Aammppaa]

3 hours ago, dorian_grey said:

Sync button doesn't seem to work properly

Can you give an example?

 

 

3 hours ago, dorian_grey said:

Some elements seem to be de-synced directly after creating the symbol. They show the orange dotted line, which indicates the de-sync status.

I was just looking at this. Text does always seem to be shown as de-synced, even though it isn't (changes propagate correctly). This may well be a bug.

 

All symbols have unlinked attributes: transforms and constraints (shown when you tooltip over the symbol in the layers panel. This is by design as it allows for placement, resizing, rotation etc.

[dorian_grey]

 

8 hours ago, Aammppaa said:

Can you give an example?

 

12 hours ago, dorian_grey said:

Sometimes it doesn't have any effect at all (changes still sync to other instances), sometimes the whole instance gets disconnected.

 

The idea of unlinking certain attributes is interesting - but I'd prefer to select, which attributes are unlinked. In my usage I mostly want to change content (text, images) of a new instance, but without messing with the layout.

[adubwood]

Hey there,

I know this is an old thread(let me know if I need to repost somewhere else), but this problem is still happening...

I did however stumble upon an easy work-around/magic-trick that will essentially re-link any unlinked text AND object elements in the symbol:

1. Select the unlinked(dashed line) text/element, position it where it needs to be...
2. Then cmd + J (ctrl + J) and viola! The duplicated object is now back in sync with everything else.
3. Delete the original "problem" element and your back in business.

Hopefully this works for the rest of you, I've been losing hair over this myself! lol

[ashf]

On 5/28/2019 at 2:11 PM, adubwood said:

Hey there,

I know this is an old thread(let me know if I need to repost somewhere else), but this problem is still happening...

I did however stumble upon an easy work-around/magic-trick that will essentially re-link any unlinked text AND object elements in the symbol:

1. Select the unlinked(dashed line) text/element, position it where it needs to be...
2. Then cmd + J (ctrl + J) and viola! The duplicated object is now back in sync with everything else.
3. Delete the original "problem" element and your back in business.

Hopefully this works for the rest of you, I've been losing hair over this myself! lol

Does this still work?
I can't reproduce this.

[adubwood]

As far as I know it does, but I'm not sure... I haven't had to deal with the issue since the last time I posted. I'm on a mac though if it makes any difference.