Adding elements to component instances

[team_alaska_design]

I see this question has been asked before, but I’m wondering if anything has changed (looks like it was last asked in 2022). Say I have a master component containing 4 separate ‘blocks,’ with each block including an icon, body copy and a link. If I instert an instance of that component in my design, I know that I can easily delete one of the blocks and the component will adjust with no issues, but what if I want to add in say a 5th block…are we still unable to do that?

[Junko3]

Hi @team_alaska_design, Thank you for reaching out about this!

Upon testing on my end, it appears that this is not possible at the moment.
You might already be aware of a potential workaround, which involves detaching the instance in your file and adding elements to the frame.

I understand this requirements, and this would indeed be a valuable feature request so I move this post in to “Share an idea” category. Also, I came across a similar feature request from other community members in 2022 here:

Modify a component instance

Hello, Could be nice to modify a component instance. Here an example: I want to be able to create a “list” component. And by definition I don’t know how many items I will have in this list. Today I have to create hidden children in the list so I will be able to unhide them if necessary in my instances. I want to be able to create this generic list with some basics constraint and then to be able to drag into it any element I want.

Additionally, here is another similar request:

Add items to autolayout in component instances

We often have the problem that we don’t know how many items we should include in a component, for example a toolbar. We often end up adding some hidden extra buttons. This works, but it has some really annoying downsides: We have to guess a good maximum number of items We have to detach if we want to add more We cannot handle separators in a good way, other than adding them everywhere and hiding them It’s way too difficult to reorder items I suggest that autolayouts can have a property that …

If you agree, I can merge your post with one of them (and reopen it) to increase visibility. Please let us know if you support this idea.

Thank you once again for your valuable input!