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Design & the editor

Layers, groups and styles

Everything you put on a slide is a layer. The Layers panel on the left keeps them organized; the Properties panel on the right styles whatever you've selected.

The Layers panel

The left column lists every layer on the current slide, top of the list = front of the design. Drag a row to restack it. Each row offers Rename, Lock, Hide and Delete — lock the background photo you keep dragging by accident. It collapses to a slim rail.

The Layers panel, headed “Layers” with a collapse button. Sixteen rows, each with a drag handle and a type icon — Aa for text, a rounded rectangle for a shape, a picture icon for an image. Reading down: “Fresh bakes …”, “$7”, “Seasonal Fru…”, “Row rule”, “$6”, “Sourdough &…”, “Row rule”, “$5”, “Almond Croi…”, “Row rule”, “$4.5”, “Flat White”, “Morning Menu”, “Kicker rule”, “SUNRISE CA…” and “Pastry card”. Long names truncate with an ellipsis. Nothing is nested — this slide's layers are all at the top level.
Every layer on the slide, front at the top. A text layer takes its name from its own words, so the list reads like the design.

Group what belongs together

  1. 1
    Select two or more layers.Shift-click them on the canvas, or in the Layers panel.
  2. 2
    Press ⌘G, or click Group.It becomes one row you can move, lock and hide as a unit, named “Group” until you rename it. ⇧⌘G ungroups.
  3. 3
    Nest groups if you need to.A group can hold other groups — a header block can carry its own logo-and-title pair.

With several selected you also get Distribute horizontally and vertically, and Selection colors — every color in the selection, swappable in one move. Clip content, on a single whole group, trims anything past its edges.

Groups are an organizing tool for you, not something the screen knows about. Grouping, renaming and collapsing rows changes nothing about how the slide plays.

The Properties panel

The right column is sectioned — Position, Layout, Appearance, Fill, Stroke, Effects, Motion, and Typography for text.

The Properties panel with a text layer selected, sectioned all the way down. Position holds alignment buttons, X 96, Y 250 and Rotation 0°. Layout holds W 888 and H 440. Appearance holds 100% opacity and a blend mode reading Normal. Arrange holds four stacking buttons. Text holds the words “Morning Menu”. Typography sets Fraunces, Semibold, size 190, line height 1.02 and letter spacing 0, over alignment rows. Autofit reads “Shrink text to fit”, and Fill begins at the bottom edge.
Every section one text layer gets, in order. A shape or an image shows a shorter column — only the sections it can honor.
  • Fill — Solid, or a Linear, Radial, Angular or Diamond gradient with its own stops and Angle. Add fill stacks up to four paints.
  • Stroke — width, Align (Inside, Center, Outside), a Solid, Dashed or Dotted dash, and its own opacity.
  • Appearance — Opacity, Corner radius with Independent corners, Blend mode, Flip horizontal and Flip vertical.
  • Effects — Drop shadow and Inner shadow (up to four), Layer blur, Background blur, Noise, and a one-click Glass preset.
  • Typography — font search, weight from Regular to Bold, size, Line height, Letter spacing, alignment, Decoration, Case and Autofit.
Three sections of the Properties panel, divided by hairlines. Fill holds one paint — a dark brown swatch, the hex #2B2118 and 100% opacity — with a plus beside the heading. Stroke holds no stroke yet, only a dashed Add stroke button. Effects follows with a plus of its own.
The plus on a section heading is how you stack a second paint or another shadow onto the same layer.

A control you expected isn't there?

Each layer type shows only the styles it can honor — Fill is for text and shapes, Corner radius skips text, Background blur is shapes only. Nothing here is held back by your plan.

Motion

Motion choreographs how one layer joins and leaves the slide. Give it an Entrance, an Exit or both — each takes a Motion preset (Fade, Blur reveal, Rise, Slide from left, Slide from right, Scale, Wipe across, Wipe up), a Delay and a Duration.

The Motion section of the Properties panel, under the line “Choreograph how this layer joins and leaves the slide.” Entrance and Exit are each a select, and both read None.
A layer starts with no motion at either end. Choose a preset and that cue's Delay and Duration appear beneath it.

Motion animates one layer. To fade between whole slides you want Transition on the Slide panel instead — Crossfade, Soft dissolve, Push left, Push up or Blur through.

Keyboard shortcuts

Click the ? button at the bottom of the tool rail — or press ? — to open Keyboard shortcuts. It docks under the canvas and stays open while you work.

The Keyboard shortcuts sheet, a dark panel docked under the canvas. Tabs across the top read Tools, View, Zoom & slides, Text, Selection, Edit, Transform & arrange and Undo, with Tools open and a close button at the right. Three columns pair each tool with its key: Move V, Hand tool H, Text T, Rectangle R, Ellipse O, Line L, Arrow ⇧L, Pick color (eyedropper) ⌃C and Ask AI ⌘K.
The Tools tab, open. Of the keys listed below, grouping, locking and hiding are under Selection and ⌘R rename is under Edit.
  • V and H switch between the move and hand tools.
  • T, R and O drop a text box, a rectangle or an ellipse onto the slide.
  • ⌘G groups, ⇧⌘L locks, ⇧⌘H hides, ⌘R renames.
  • ⌘K opens Ask AI.

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