Visibility

Hiding and showing shapes.

Hiding a shape takes it off the board without deleting it. Each shape is in one of three states:

  • Visible: drawn and selectable in the visible space, where you normally work.
  • Hidden: you hid it. It isn't drawn or selectable in the visible space, and it stays hidden when you reopen the board.
  • Transparent: nothing of it shows, because of its style or an animation at the current time. It counts as hidden even though you didn't hide it. See Transparent shapes count as hidden.

Hidden and transparent shapes are kept in the hidden space. When the board has any, the hidden space switch appears next to the Main panel, so you can go there to see and edit them. See Visible and hidden spaces.

To move a shape out of the way only while you select, ghost it instead.

Hide or show the selection

Toggle the selected shapes between hidden and visible.

  • Operation: click Show or hide selected shapes in the Actions panel, in Creation mode:
    • hides the selection.
    • appears when any selected shape is hidden, and shows them all.
  • Result: the shapes disappear from the board or come back, and stay selected. Hiding a group or frame also hides the shapes inside it. Showing a shape doesn't change its opacity, styles, or animation.
  • Tip: a hidden audio shape still plays during its animation.
The Show or hide selected shapes button outlined in orange in the Actions panel

Before hiding the selected triangle:

A circle, a selected triangle, and a rounded rectangle

After hiding it, the circle and rectangle stay visible:

The triangle is hidden while its selection outline remains between the circle and rectangle

Hide or show a named selection

Toggle every shape of a named selection at once.

  • Operation: click the eye on its entry in the Selections list of the Side panel. See Named selections.
    • means the selection is visible; click it to hide.
    • means at least one of its shapes is hidden; click it to show them all.
  • Result: all the shapes in that selection change together. Its saved animation blocks are not affected.
The visibility button outlined in orange beside Shapes in the Selections list

Visible and hidden spaces

The board has two spaces:

  • Visible space: this is where you normally work. It shows only visible shapes.
  • Hidden space: shows only hidden shapes, in their place on the board. Here you can select, move and edit them, and show them again.

To move between them:

  • Operation: turn on the hidden space switch next to the Main panel.
  • Result: the board shows the hidden space until you turn it off.
The hidden triangle selected in the hidden space, with the hidden space switch outlined in orange

Transparent shapes count as hidden

A shape counts as hidden, even if you never hid it, when:

  • Its Opacity is zero.
  • It's made only of a stroke and a fill, and neither is visible.
  • An animation makes it transparent at the current time, for example before its opacity or stroke reveal starts.

These shapes appear faded in the hidden space. The eye buttons don't make them visible: change the style or animation that makes them transparent. Look there when a shape seems to vanish after a style change or while scrubbing an animation.