Axure tips & tricks

After teaching our Axure training course for the last couple of months and talking to participants about the things they want to do with Axure, I’ve discovered a few interesting tips & tricks that I’d like to share with you today:

1. Creating large tables

If you want to create large tables using the Axure table widget it’s often easier to type the data in Excel and paste it into Axure. When you try to paste, Axure will ask you if you want to “Paste as table data”, to which you should reply ‘Yes’. Unfortunately, any formatting applied in Excel will be lost but it’s still easier than re-typing everything in Axure.

2. Defining Styles

Axure has a styling system similar to Microsoft Word. You can define the default style for text, buttons and any other widgets, or you can define your own styles for things like headings or boxes. This means you don’t need to waste time applying the same colour and text settings to each object on your design. You can manage styles in the Style Editor that is accessible via the toolbar and the ‘Wireframe’ menu.

3. Exporting as an image

If your wireframe contains annotations and you try to export it as an image, the image will show the yellow rectangles with the footnote numbers. If you want to hide these rectangles and export a ‘clean-looking’ image of your wireframe, you need to untick ‘Show footnotes’ from the ‘Wireframe’ menu. This will hide the yellow rectangles both on your screen and on the images you export.
Have you discovered any other Axure tips & tricks that you’re proud of? Let us know in the comments below!

If you’re new to Axure and want to learn the ins and outs, sign up for our Axure training course.