By Dani Beaumont
If you like using keyboard shortcuts to speed up your work, you're going to really enjoy the improvements to the nudge command and the addition of nudge to resize in the latest release of Adobe XD.
Now XD has always supported the ability to select an object or a group of objects and then move them on the canvas by using the arrow keys. So notice here in the Properties inspector, as I move this object towards the right with the Arrow key it's moving at one pixel increments. So the x value is changing by one pixel.
XD has also supported the ability to hold the Shift key with that same right Arrow key held down to jump that movement by 10 pixel increments. I can also move in the down direction or the up direction holding that Shift key and the up arrow for example to move in 10 pixel increments.
In this latest release of XD or XD 23 or later, holding down the Command key or Alt on Windows and pressing the Arrow key is going to now grow the overall size of the object by one pixel at a time.
So I'll hold down the Command key and I'm going to go ahead and hit that right arrow key again, watch in the Properties inspector how the width of the group of objects is now resizing by one pixel in size.
If I hold the Shift key and the Command key on Mac and then again hit that right Arrow, it's going to grow the overall width of the group of objects to be larger and it's going to respect whatever the responsive resize behaviour is that I defined for that group. The resize behaviour is going to originate from the upper left hand corner of this group of objects.
So again, with Shift and Command keys held down, if I hit the down Arrow, it's going to grow the overall group size by 10 pixels and it's going to originate that resize behaviour from this upper left hand corner.
Now both nudge and nudge to resize are pretty handy but even more so with the new Align to Grid capability. I'm going to come here to my artboard and select it and in the Properties inspector and the grid area, I want to go ahead and enable a square grid. And, I'll click off.
With that Grid now enabled, I'm going to come and select my object and let's zoom in a little bit more tightly. Let's say as I'm working, it's sitting a little bit between the grid lines in the design.
The first thing I can do is if I want to move that object by 10 pixel increments, holding the Shift key and then that right Arrow key. Notice how the first time I make that move, the object moved to line up with the first grid line to the right of the design.
If I now come in the upper direction here holding the Shift key and the up Arrow -- keep an eye on the design here as it jumps up to that first grid line. Going to the right again is going to continue to snap to that grid value, once it's there if I release all the keys and just use my arrow key again, I'm free to move it 1 pixel at a time to come off of that grid structure.
And, as you might expect with the object still selected, holding Shift and Command on the Mac or Shift + Alt on Windows and then resizing the group of objects. So hitting that right Arrow is going to resize by snapping to the grid and support that responsive resize behaviour.
So if you're as big a fan of keyboard shortcuts, as I am, I think you're going to really enjoy integrating these new commands into your everyday workflow. I encourage you to give it a try.
If you’re a fan of using keyboard shortcuts, you’re going to love the XD shortcuts that make quick work of adjusting the size and position of objects on the design canvas. Find out how keyboard shortcuts can considerably speed up your workflow.
