When building an experience, it's common to accumulate many assets in your Layers Panel. To manage this, consider using folders or groups, each with its unique functionality.
Note: If you are looking to optimize your content for screen readers, it’s best practice to use groups over folders. Please see this article on Creating Accessible Content in Ceros.
Here’s what you need to know about folders and groups:
Key Takeaways:
Folders primarily organize the Layers Panel, allowing you to simplify your assets into different sections.
Groups make multiple elements behave as a single object, enabling you to apply interactions and animations to the group instead of individual elements.
What is a folder?
Folders simplify your Layers Panel by collapsing assets into directories. They don't affect objects or your ability to select them on the canvas. Folders simply consolidate elements in your Layers Panel and can be targeted for interactions to show or hide multiple objects at once.
What is a group?
Groups enable you to combine a selection of components into a single object for manipulation, animation, or interaction. Even after grouping, individual assets can be manipulated by double-clicking on the object on the canvas or selecting it in the Layers Panel. Groups, like folders, can be targeted for interactions to show or hide all the assets in the group.
Here’s an example of when you would want to use a folder:
For experiences with many different elements, you can organize your Layers Panel by breaking down sections into different folders (e.g., Header Section, Middle Section, Bottom Section).
Take a look at the screenshot below, we’ve broken up this experience into different sections to keep ourselves organized. To select any individual objects, all we have to do is drop down the appropriate folder to access the contents within it.
If we didn’t break up our Layers Panel into folders here, this is what it would look like:
As you can see, your Layers Panel is much more manageable when broken up into folders.
When would you want to use a group?
In situations where multiple objects need to be manipulated as one, groups are useful. They can help organize content and be nested inside folders for optimal Layers Panel organization.
You can see in the screenshot below that groups are nested inside a folder. Folders and groups can be used in conjunction with one another to help optimally organize your Layers Panel.
Now…what are synced objects?
In addition to folders and groups, the Layers Panel has a Synced Objects button. Syncing objects lets you copy and paste objects (or groups of objects) anywhere in your experience. Changes to synced objects will synchronize across all pasted instances.
For more information regarding Synced Objects, please refer to this article.