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M
m4rguerite
Participant
December 12, 2020
Question

Artboard sizes: content height vs viewport height?

  • December 12, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 332 views

When I started my current project, I mistakenly left all the artboards (specifically the heights) at the size of the mobile device I'm using as the default artboard. I have a fixed header and fixed button at the bottom of the screen, and I made everything between those scroll at the correct height. I'm able to position my artboards on the pasteboard in a way that makes sense to me, each one the same size and very organized looking. 

 

In all the tutorials I've seen they always say to adjust the height of the artboard to the content and then adjust the viewport. I just don't see a reason to do so, especially at this point. It is annoying to have to click further into each artboard if I have to edit something that's not in view by default but I've found that temporarily increasing the artboard size and then readjusting works just fine. The ONLY thing that makes it not ideal is in Prototype view, all the threads/hover states that aren't in the default view still show up at 100% opacity. I've adjusted how I view it (I've learned to ignore them) in this mode so I can benefit from the logical layout I've created. 

 

Does anyone see any issues with this in the future? Or a reason why I shouldn't do it? I just started using XD in the past couple months so I'm betting I have much less experience than most people on here. Enlighten me.  🙂

 

Also, if it matters, it's a small-ish school project. Nothing super complex going on. 

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    1 reply

    Spas K.
    Community Expert
    Spas K.Community Expert
    Community Expert
    December 12, 2020

    Hi Marguerite, could you maybe upload a screenshot of your configuration, so we can better understand how you've set it up?

     

    I'm not sure I understand how you handle the situation where you have more content than fits on the screen.

     

    Unless all your content is in a group, any element that falls outside the artboard will be put in the pasteboard, and won't show up on that screen when previewing the prototype. I personally try to avoid clicking through groups, scroll groups and components if I can avoid it.

     

    Extra clicks and drags = extra work and time wasted.

     

    Maybe it's okay for smaller projects, but if you have one or multiple artboards that are 8000px high (not unusual for mobile devices), it will be annoying to resize the artboard each time you need to change or rearrange something. 

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