In recent years, design applications have become focussed on drag-and-drop functionality, and we here at Easil love the method ourselves. But with many discussions with our user base and, in particular, the growing sector of users that simply need to access a team template and make simple text changes in a minute, we found the need for simplification.
As such, we’re excited to unveil our latest addition to our suite of DIY editing tools for teams. Say hello to ‘Quick Input,’ the feature that’s about to redefine the way you approach text replacement in your designs, and your team templates.
Why not just edit text on the design canvas?
Clicking and selecting text and editing on canvas seems simple enough. You select your text box, double-click, and enter your new content.
But what about when your design is complex? For example, if your design contains text on angles or if it is slightly layered behind graphic elements. Selection can become complicated, and you may inadvertently move a graphical element out of position, which can quickly turn your design into an unprofessional mess.
Further to that, the Easil team came across further concerns with users unable to differentiate between text content that was permitted to be updated and which text boxes were fully locked down.
Quick Input fields take care of all of these scenarios, as well as playing very nicely with another new feature in the application – Smart Fields.
How to set up team templates with Quick Inputs
Every time a text box is added to a design, it automatically creates an Input field that can be edited through access from the Quick Input tab in the right sidebar, next to Layers.
But where the feature really shines is when team templates with restrictions are setup to use the additional features to simplify further and show what text can be edited in a template – at a glance.
These features are available to team members with ‘Designer’ role applied:
- Edit Field Name
- Lock Text
- Re-arranging Quick Input Text Field Hierarchy
- Quickly access existing Smart Text Fields
- Update Collection Text (also available to team Members)
It’s important to note that Quick Input mode does not support rich text formatting. This means that a single text box that needs editing is best to contain one size font, one font family, one font color, etc. These types of editing options are still available on the canvas. Any text updated within a Quick Input field will remove formatting and take it down to a basic text format. In addition, text tables are not supported.
Let’s go through each of these features in detail:
Editing a Quick Input Field Name
Each text field created can have an optional title added to them which can be used to advise your team of the recommended – or mandatory – content that they should be placing in that field. Placeholder content does half the job, but when there are variables, you can detail them here. For example, Facebook handle, Instagram handle, or phone numbers for different divisions.
- Click on the Layers & Inputs tab, and then ‘Quick Input’.
- At the top right of each text box, click on the elipsis (…) and then ‘Edit Field Name’.
- In the modal that opens, type in the new title of that field, and then ‘Update’.
- Repeat for all other fields in your Design.
Tip: For the most efficient workflow, it’s best to set these field names before you complete any resizes. That way the Field Names will apply to any new sizes to add to the Collection, saving you setup time!
Locking a Quick Input Text Field
When you apply locking to a text field via the Quick Input tab interface (or via locking down all in the Locking tab), that text field is greyed out for the template Designer.
This indicates that the field will appear in the following manner for your team-mates with ‘Member’ role applied:
- When a Member clicks on a design in Quick Input, they will only see text fields that they are permitted to edit (eg, unlocked), simplifying the interface for them.
- Those same text fields remain visible on the design canvas, but are paired with a ‘fully locked’ icon.
- Any Smart Text set to appear for them will auto-populate into the field, without the need for the user to manually input content.
This solves the issue of users not knowing what text they can or cannot edit, and having to click through text boxes throughout the design.
- Click on the Layers & Inputs tab, and then ‘Quick Input’.
- At the top right of each text box, click on the ellipsis (…) and then ‘Lock text’.
- This applies ‘all’ editing restrictions to the text box.
Tip: We recommend adding locking after completing your resizes, as you may need to reposition or edit text elements before locking them down.
Re-arranging Quick Input Text Field Hierarchy
To make things more logical for your team mates and the way they enter text, you can also re-arrange the order that the fields display in the tab, from top to bottom. By default, Easil will display these with text Layers that are at the top of your design at the top, and lowest layers displayed at the bottom.
Often when creating a design to be visually pleasing, these details do not align with how they would best be displayed for a user editing. With the ability to re-arrange on the Quick Input tab, but retain the order on your Layers tab, you can have the best of both worlds!
Click on the dots to the left side of the field to grab the field, and drag it up or down to it’s new position. It will be automatically saved on completion.
Quickly access existing Smart Text Fields
Each Quick Input field also provides the template Designer with a quick method for adding already created Smart Text Fields. By clicking within any field, you can type in the left curly bracket { and view the list and apply smart text within the field.
Smart Text fields provide each member of your team with dynamically generated content from their pre-filled data. For example, if you have a business card template with these fields, each would automatically update when the user opens the template with the matching fields:
{user.name}, {user.email}, {user.phone}, {user.website}
Each member adds their Smart Text field for setup within My Uploads > Smart Text.
Learn more about Smart Text here.
Update Collection Text with one click
The final update that comes with this feature launch is an enhancement to our popular ‘Update Collection’ feature, which was previously accessed via right-clicking after a text box had been updated.
With this improvement, any design collections* will provide the user with the ability to update each Text box within the Input tab field, or on canvas, and then hit the ‘Update Collection’ button at the bottom of the panel, and instantly update the text content to linked designs!
*Design Collections are required to be created using the resize method to provide the link between the designs, and the linked text boxes. Learn more about creating Collections in this article.
OVER TO YOU
That’s it for the wrap of this new feature, but be sure to read more about Smart Text and how it can work side-by-side with input mode, creating greater efficiency and accuracy for your team mates.
