You can create a reusable set of user interface elements
called a "part", which you can use to populate sketches and storyboards.
Parts can contain a single element, such as a menu, or can include
many elements that are aggregated in a container element, such as
a panel or group.
Before you begin
Reuse parts in user interface sketches and storyboard frames
to create persistent user interface elements. For example, if you
are creating sketches of Web pages that all have the same menu, first
create a part that consists of only the elements in that menu, and
then add the part to each sketch. If you later decide to change the
menu in your sketches, you only have to change the one part, for the
changes are automatically reflected in every sketch that contains
the part.
About this task
To watch a movie that shows you how to create a part,
click here.
Procedure
- Do one of the following actions:
- From the Artifacts project page, click .
- Click .
- In a user interface sketch, right-click an element or multiple
elements that are grouped in a single container (such as a shell,
panel, or group) and select Extract Part.
- In the New User Interface Part window, type a name for
the part. This name, which is displayed with the artifact in the project
pages and in the Project Explorer, can include uppercase and lowercase
characters and spaces.
- Browse to a project and a folder for the new part.
- (Optional) Add a tag to the new part.
- (Optional) Select a template for initial content for the
part.
- (Optional) Click Next, select attribute groups to
associate with the part.
- Click Finish. The
part editor opens.
- For parts with a single element, drag an element from the
palette to the Content Area. Important: The Content
Area must contain at least one element. Only elements
within the Content Area will appear when the
part is reused in another artifact.
- For parts with more than one element, drag a container
element, such as a panel or group, into the Content Area.
- To resize the container, select it and drag a sizing handle.
To modify its properties, right-click the container and click Properties.
- Right-click an element in the canvas for a menu of actions
you can perform on the element, such as cut, copy, delete, edit text,
or modify properties and appearance.
- Click .
What to do next
After you create a part, you can add that part to a sketch,
which populates the sketch with the elements in the part. If you later
change an element in the part, the change is propagated in each sketch
that includes the part. You can open the original part from within
the sketch by clicking on the icon

above the selected part in
the sketch. You can also add parts to storyboard frames and other
parts.