Skip to main content
Lew Wilson
Lew Wilson
Participant
April 15, 2011
Answered

[Design]-Provide a Master Artboard in XD.

  • April 15, 2011
  • 3 replies
  • 2787 views

For elements that are applicable on all artboards provide a "stand alone" Master Artboard like Powerpoint.

 

<The Title was renamed by moderator>

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Peter Villevoye

    I have 30+ years experience with Master Pages in tools like PageMaker, XPress, InDesign, PowerPoint, and Keynote, but I'd not endorse this kind of feature in software like Adobe XD, for these three reasons:

     

    1. Adobe XD caters for web and app design – not for static formats like print media or presentation sheets. This requires different approaches for elements at fluent positions (e.g. below the viewport) and responsiveness.
    2. There are much better solutions than copy/paste to deal with repetitive content – try Components ! These offer many advantages over having a Master Page and can be locally edited and centrally managed.
    3. Adobe XD is not about doing a lot of production work, but designing different ideas. So you probably need less similar designs...

     

    The only aspect which I'd like to be 'mastered' and which cannot be handled by a Component, is the background color of the artboard. But then again, there's no setting for that in InDesign either. In both environments I'd need to use some element to carry that color across multiple designs (like a rectangle on the Master Page in InDesign or a Component in Adobe XD)...

    3 replies

    Peter Villevoye
    Community Expert
    Peter VillevoyeCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    February 1, 2020

    I have 30+ years experience with Master Pages in tools like PageMaker, XPress, InDesign, PowerPoint, and Keynote, but I'd not endorse this kind of feature in software like Adobe XD, for these three reasons:

     

    1. Adobe XD caters for web and app design – not for static formats like print media or presentation sheets. This requires different approaches for elements at fluent positions (e.g. below the viewport) and responsiveness.
    2. There are much better solutions than copy/paste to deal with repetitive content – try Components ! These offer many advantages over having a Master Page and can be locally edited and centrally managed.
    3. Adobe XD is not about doing a lot of production work, but designing different ideas. So you probably need less similar designs...

     

    The only aspect which I'd like to be 'mastered' and which cannot be handled by a Component, is the background color of the artboard. But then again, there's no setting for that in InDesign either. In both environments I'd need to use some element to carry that color across multiple designs (like a rectangle on the Master Page in InDesign or a Component in Adobe XD)...

      HARSHIKA_VERMA
      Community Manager
      HARSHIKA_VERMACommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      January 31, 2020

      Hi Exitright,

       

      Thank you for reaching out and sharing your feedback. If I heard you right, this is the fucntionality you are looking for: https://adobexd.uservoice.com/forums/353007-adobe-xd-feature-requests/suggestions/12922758-global-master-artboard-templates-pin-objects-acro? If so, please submit your feedback and upvote the request to add your voice.

       

      Hope it helps.

       

      Thanks,

      Harshika

      T
      thesergie
      Participating Frequently
      April 15, 2011

      I do a lot of website wireframing and hi-fidelity design. A lot of the pages have a lot of common elements (header, footer, navigation, etc...). Using symbols is a big time saver for me, but it would be awesome to create a MASTER artboard! Indesign has master pages, but it would be nice to depend on one tool to do it all, especially with illustrator's tool set!

      So here's how it would work: Create multiple artboards for your project (in this case its a website design). Set the first artboard as the MASTER artboard. Whatever you put in the master artboard will be duplicated to all the other artboards (or the specifc ones you would select for it to copy to). When you change something, like a button in the main navigation, it will change in all the other artboards. When you create or edit something in a non-master artboard it will not change anything in the master artboard. So you'll probably have to unlink an element from the master-artboard to make it look unique (say if a different page needs it).

      That would be SO AWESOME!

      -Sergie

        V
        Visualplastik
        Participating Frequently
        May 18, 2011

        You could make those master elements into symbols, update one and then they're all updated. Break symbol open as needed.

        T
        thesergie
        Participating Frequently
        May 20, 2011

        Why didn't i think of that?

        Thanks brent!

        -Sergie

        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
        Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices