Stack Elements

Stacks are containers that group multiple elements together in a horizontal or vertical layout.

They act like a flexible canvas within your page, allowing you to precisely position and arrange elements to keep them from overlapping or drifting apart as the screen resizes.

How to create a Stack

Steps:

1. Click an element that you want to be in the Stack.

2. Hold down the Shift key and select the other elements to stack them together.

3. Select the stack direction: Stack vertical or Stack horizontal. The stack direction can also be set to Wrap using the Inspector panel.

Pro tip: Quick stack your selected elements vertically by using the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + (Enter/ Return).

• Once you use a stack, nested elements will be set to auto-space between.

• You can't apply constraints to any elements within the stack. However, you can still apply constraints to the stack itself.

Learn more about Constraints here.

To detach an element from a stack, simply select it and drag it out.

To add a new element to a stack, drag it over the stack until you see the blue indicator and drop it.

To unstack elements, select the stack in the editor, then clich Unstack, or use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + + .

How to manage a Stack

Steps:

1. Select the Stack you want to edit

2. In the Inspector panel, make relevant changes to the settings.

Besides other common settings (colors, backgrounds, effects, etc.), settings specialized for Stack are included in the Design tab > Auto layout.

• Direction: Set the way the stack will flow:

  • (Vertical): Add, remove, and reorder objects along the y-axis.
  • (Horizontal): Add, remove, and reorder objects along the x-axis.
  • (Wrap): Arrange objects in multiple rows and columns in a frame. Objects will flow horizontally and wrap to the next line.
• Distribute: Set the alignment of the element when stacked horizontally.

• Align: Set the alignment of the element when stacked vertically.

• Gap: Change the gap (margin) between the rows and columns within the stack.

If the stack direction is set to vertical or horizontal, you'll be able to set the gap between elements vertically (row gap) or horizontally (column gap), respectively.

When you select a stack in the editor, the margins between the elements are indicated by the pink strips. Move elements further apart or closer together by dragging these handles to adjust the spacing of all the elements at once.

Pro tip: The margins (pink strips) between the elements included in a stack are equally set. If you want to make an element that is further apart from others, you can set more spacing to that element specifically.

• Padding: Padding controls the empty or white space between the boundary of a stack and the elements within it. You can adjust padding uniformly for all sides, or fine-tune it individually for top, right, bottom, or left.

Absolute element control

When an element is placed within a Stack (Auto-layout), it cannot be freely repositioned. Instead, it aligns with the direction of the stack. However, enabling the Absolute Position option allows you to freely drag and position the element as needed, just like in normal layouts.

• Static: Default position; follows the normal layout flow.

• Relative: Stays in the layout flow but can be moved slightly from its original spot.

• Absolute: Removed from the layout flow and positioned relative to its nearest positioned ancestor or the page.

• Sticky: Acts like relative but becomes fixed when scrolling reaches a set point (e.g., sticky headers).

Static

Static position places elements according to the normal flow, without allowing custom positioning adjustments.

Relative

Relative position acts as a container for Absolute elements, allowing them to be positioned relative to the container.

Absolute

The Absolute Position option lets you freely drag and position the element, just like in regular layouts.

Sticky

You can customize the spacing of a sticky element by adjusting the Inset setting.