de048b4d21
New docs/user-guide/ section covering: canvas navigation, selection & manipulation, drawing shapes, text editing, pen tool, layers & pages, context menu, exporting, auto-layout, components, and variables. Each article includes Mac+Win/Linux shortcuts tables, cross-platform note, cross-links between related articles, and consistent structure. VitePress sidebar updated with User Guide as first group (12 entries).
88 lines
3 KiB
Markdown
88 lines
3 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Auto Layout
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description: Flexbox-based auto layout in OpenPencil — direction, gap, padding, alignment, and child sizing.
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---
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# Auto Layout
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Auto layout uses Yoga (flexbox engine) to position children automatically within a frame. It handles direction, spacing, alignment, and responsive sizing.
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::: tip Cross-platform shortcuts
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⌘ = Ctrl, ⌥ = Alt on Windows and Linux.
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:::
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## Enabling Auto Layout
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- Select a frame and press **⇧ A** (Shift + A) to toggle auto layout on or off
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- Select loose nodes (without a parent frame) and press **⇧ A** to wrap them in a new auto-layout frame
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When wrapping a selection, nodes are sorted by visual position: left-to-right for horizontal layout, top-to-bottom for vertical.
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## Layout Direction
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Choose how children are arranged:
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- **Horizontal** — children flow left to right
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- **Vertical** — children flow top to bottom
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- **Wrap** — children wrap to the next row/column when they run out of space
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## Spacing
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### Gap
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The space between adjacent children. Set a single value that applies between all children.
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### Padding
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The space between the frame edge and its children. Set a uniform value for all sides, or expand to set each side independently (top, right, bottom, left).
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## Alignment
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### Justify (main axis)
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Controls how children are distributed along the layout direction:
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- **Start** — children pack to the beginning
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- **Center** — children are centered
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- **End** — children pack to the end
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- **Space between** — children spread with equal space between them
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### Align (cross axis)
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Controls how children are positioned perpendicular to the layout direction:
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- **Start** — children align to the start
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- **Center** — children are centered
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- **End** — children align to the end
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- **Stretch** — children stretch to fill the cross axis
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## Child Sizing
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Each child in an auto-layout frame can have its own sizing mode:
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- **Fixed** — uses the child's explicit width/height
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- **Fill** — stretches to fill available space in the parent
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- **Hug** — shrinks to fit the child's content
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## Drag Reordering
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Within an auto-layout frame, drag a child to reorder it among its siblings. A visual insertion indicator shows where the child will be dropped.
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## Properties Panel
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When an auto-layout frame is selected, the Layout section in the properties panel shows all auto-layout controls: direction, gap, padding, justify, and align.
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## Keyboard Shortcuts
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| Action | Mac | Windows / Linux |
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|--------|-----|-----------------|
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| Toggle auto layout | ⇧ A | Shift + A |
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## Tips
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- Auto layout recomputes immediately after creation, so the selection bounds update right away.
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- Nest auto-layout frames for complex responsive layouts (e.g., a vertical frame containing horizontal rows).
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- Use "Fill" sizing to make a child take up remaining space, like a flex-grow: 1 in CSS.
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- See [Drawing Shapes](./drawing-shapes) for creating the frames that auto layout applies to.
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- See [Components](./components) for using auto layout within reusable components.
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