Book Image

Balsamiq Wireframes Quickstart Guide

By : Scott Faranello
Book Image

Balsamiq Wireframes Quickstart Guide

By: Scott Faranello

Overview of this book

<p>Balsamiq Mockups is an easy to use, engaging tool for anyone looking to strategize and brainstorm ideas around product design and information architecture. With Balsamiq, you can strategize, create, prototype and present your ideas clearly and effectively to audiences large and small.<br /><br />"Balsamiq Wireframes Quickstart Guide" is a fast paced and easy to follow instructional book that gets you up and running quickly while challenging you to be the best you can be using the tool. With this book in hand, it will take only minutes to present an idea on screen.<br /><br />Wireframing is one of the key steps of effective user interface design and architecture. Finding the right tools to get your thoughts onto the page quickly and clearly is vital to your success. This book will have you on your way in no time. "Balsamiq Mockups Quickstart Guide" will walk you through the entire application in a fast, simple and engaging way. You will be presented with wireframe samples, exercises and real-world examples that will engage, challenge and enable you to become an expert wireframer and Balsamiq user. Whether you are looking to communicate ideas to your team, a client, a product manager, an IT developer, or if you are wireframing for the fun of it, this book is for you. By the time you are finished, you will have mastered the tools to do whatever your mind can think up. The rest is up to you.</p>
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Grouping layers


As you become more comfortable with Balsamiq, you will begin to add many widgets and layers to your wireframes. You will find that moving multiple widgets around the page can be tricky. To make it easy, you first have to group them.

Perform the following steps:

  1. 1. Using your mouse and pressing Shift,click on the elements you want as part of your group. You can also drag around the area that you want to group.

  2. 2. With your desired set of elements selcted, press Command + G/Ctrl + G or choose Group from the Edit menu.

Notice that the selected elements change color to indicate that they are now grouped. You can now move the entire group around the canvas, as shown in the following screenshot:

To ungroup, press Command + Shift + G or select Ungroup from the Edit menu at the top of your screen.

Note

Sometimes, not all the elements are successfully selected. For example, if you drag around a group of elements to select them and one is not shaded then that item is not selected. To fix...