Use case: Once an advanced UI has been built , users want a way to quickly select nested components in order to modify their properties and attributes. In this stage of design, designers are less interested in manipulating sub-elements of a component, and more interested in selecting the component itself to modify properties and variables.
Current challenges: the deep-select modifier (CMD/CTRL) is currently the most efficient way to access deeply nested items, however it is fairly indiscriminate and will often select the deepest nested element under the cursor. With complex components this often means a graphical element like a frame or a text element, requiring the user to step out of the hierarchy, often a number of steps, before arriving on the parent component, or they must use the mouse to then select the parent component from the Design properties panel.
Recommendation / Request:
Provide an optional modifier key to be used while deep-selecting to restrict selection to only components. It could still select the deepest nested component in cases where there is ambiguity. For example, (on the Mac):
- CMD-click to select the deepest nested layer under the cursor (current functionality)
- CMD-right-click to get a menu of all the nested layers under the cursor (currently functionality but please fix the layer select bug)
- CMD-Opt-click to select the deepest nested component under the cursor
- CMD-Opt-right-click to get a menu of only nested component layers under the cursor.
This would greatly improve the efficiency of working at later stages of mockup/design.
Optional shortcut: please provide a shortcut/hotkey for “Select Parent Instance” which can currently only be accessed via a hidden UI control in the Design properties palette when hovering over the parent instance.