Supercharge the Repeat Grid in XD with External Text and Graphics
Codify Design Studio.
The repeat grid in Adobe XD offers one of the most unique workflows for designing and producing large amounts of repeating information. Combine the repeat grid with external text and graphics to supercharge your productivity.
Creating a repeat grid in XD
When you need to design content that has repeating elements, like a gallery listing or a search results page, the repeat grid can save you loads of time. To begin, design one of the items that will be repeated.
In the example above, I want to list a series of ingredients in my layout. Each ingredient listed will have a small photo and a label, so I began by creating a small square and a text box. Once created, I selected each item, then clicked on the Repeat Grid icon in the inspector panel in XD. This new custom group features resize handles that allow you to resize the group as it replicates the original elements both vertically and horizontally.
Customizing items in an XD repeat grid
Items in a repeat grid maintain their individuality while sharing styling properties with other items in the grid. This means that each item in the grid can have unique text values and images.
Once you have your repeat grid set up with the number of items you want, double-click an item to select the individual elements that make up the grid. Each item can be customized with alternate text and graphics while keeping their relationship with other items in the grid.
Populating a repeat grid with text and images
You can automate the population of information into an XD repeat grid using a series of images or a simple text document. If you select a range of images in your operating system and drag them onto any individual item in a repeat grid, XD will automatically place the images into the grid. The first photo in the list will be assigned to the first item in the repeat grid, and so on, until the grid is full or every photo is used. This powerful feature allows you to quickly design repeating content with real information.
The second way to dynamically populate an XD repeat grid is with plain text. In the example above, the text document contains each ingredient name on a separate line. When the text document is dropped over a text box in the repeat grid, each line of text is assigned to the corresponding item in the grid. Just as with the photos, the first line of text will be assigned to the first repeat grid item, and so on, until the grid if full or each line of text is used.
Learn more about designing and prototyping in Adobe XD
Join Chris Converse in the Start Using New Tools to Do Old Tricks webinar, and learn to bring your Photoshop comps into XD in order to speed up your design process and add interactivity to your designs. XD offers revolutionary tools for replicating layout elements and adding interactive elements.
In this recorded session you’ll learn how to:
- Open Photoshop files in XD.
- Get comfortable with the Repeat Grid.
- Load text files into your layouts and grids.
- Automatically place a series of photos in a grid.
- Add interactivity to your layouts.
- Create fixed elements within your prototype.
- Preview your design on mobile as you work.
Adobe Creative Cloud e-learning series