Hello, folks! Following in Paulo’s footsteps from his sneak-peek into Stacks a little while ago, I’m here to pull back the veil of secrecy again with a look at the new ways you’ll soon be able to insert and replace Components. Some of these changes are in the 102 beta already, and the rest will be coming in a new beta really soon.
I’ve put together a summary of the changes you can expect below, but you can get a good feel for them in this walkthrough video…
Components are now in the Command Bar
We’ve moved Components from the old Insert Window into the Command Bar. From there you can search all your Components, filter by group, and get much richer previews (we’re especially proud of Text Styles!). We found the Insert Window felt too slow to use, and the previews you got for Components were often unhelpful. Filtering to only search within a specific group was also a frustrating experience. We think what we have now with the Command Bar is a much faster and easier-to-navigate way to pick Components — and because this is the Command Bar, you can do it all without taking your hands off the keyboard.
On the subject of previews, you can now also decide whether a Symbol should have a light or dark background in its preview. No more white Symbols on a light grey background when in Light Mode.
Replace Components using the Command Bar
Another big improvement over the Insert Window is that you can now use the Command Bar to replace Components. No more digging through finicky menus in the Inspector to find the group you’re looking for, not being able to search in a specific group, or having to squint at tiny previews. With a Component selected just press ⌥⌘R.
A new, compact popover for picking replacement Components from the Inspector
If you’ve been using the 102 beta, you’ve probably already seen most of those changes, but we’ve also been working on a new, second way to replace Components. If you click any of the Component buttons in the Inspector — maybe you’re changing a Text Style, or swapping a nested Symbol — you’ll see a brand new popover for picking your Component. The popover works just like the Command Bar: you can navigate to different groups or Libraries, search inside any group, get rich previews, and use the same shortcuts. The new popover is the default when you want to replace a Component from the Inspector (so you’re kept in-context, and the Canvas is kept clear) but you can always use the Command Bar by ⌥-clicking.
We’re really excited to hear what you think of these changes, and to get them into your hands. All the changes I talk about in the video will be going out in a new beta really soon, but in the mean time please let us know what you think.
