PlexiiDesign overview

PlexiiDesign is the design editor in PlexiiOffice. Use it for anything where the look matters as much as the words: a social post, a flyer or a business card, or a multi-page brochure, report or newsletter with margins, columns and master pages. Place text, shapes, lines and pictures anywhere on the page, keep everything in your brand's colours and fonts, and export a picture, a PDF or a print-ready PDF with bleed and crop marks.

Every design is kept in Office. You can also put a design on a desk with the Design widget, which shows the same design with the same editor. See Design widget.

Before you start

• PlexiiDesign is on every plan.
• Some tools need more:

Add keys in Settings > AI, under AI · API keys. See Add your own API keys.

Start a design

• From the PlexiDesign page. Press ⌘ K on a Mac or Ctrl K on Windows and choose New design. The PlexiDesign page lists every size, grouped into Publications, Social media, Marketing, Presentations and Logos & brand, with on-brand templates under each group and Your documents at the bottom. Click a size or a template.
• From Office Home. Click the Apps heading in the side menu, then the PlexiDesign tile. A new square design called "Untitled design" opens, 1080 × 1080.

See Start a design at the right size.

What you see

From top to bottom:

• The header: the arrow back, the design's name, Share, and whether your changes are saved. See The editor header, saving and the File menu.
• The menu bar: File, Edit, Insert, Layout, Tools and Help.
• The toolbar:

• The page, with rulers along the top and left edges.
• The page strip under the page: a button for each page, and + Page.
• The inspector on the right: settings for the element you have selected, or the page's Background when nothing is selected.
• The AI Assistant panel, on the far right while it is open.

Work on a design

Add and edit elements

• Click Text to add a text box that says "Your text". Double-click it to type.
• Click Rect, Ellipse, Triangle or Round for a shape, or Line for a line, in your brand's main colour.
• Click Image to add a picture from your computer: .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp or .svg.
• Insert > Widget from a desk places a live widget from one of your desks.

Drag an element to move it and drag its handles to resize it. Pink guides show when it lines up with another element, the page's edges and centre, the margins, columns or your own guides.

The inspector

Click an element and the inspector shows its settings:

• Shapes: Fill.
• Text: Font, Text color, Alignment, Style (bold, italic and underline) and Font size.
• Pictures: Alt text and Remove background.
• Every element: Opacity, Rotation (deg) and Text wrap, and buttons to bring it forward, send it back, duplicate it and delete it.

Select several elements, by holding Shift, ⌘ or Ctrl as you click or by dragging across an empty part of the page, and the inspector also shows Arrange, with buttons to align them, Distribute H and Distribute V for three or more, and Group and Ungroup.

Pages, masters and layers

A design can have many pages. Master pages hold what repeats, such as a header, a footer and the page number, and layers let you hide or lock groups of elements while you work. See Pages, master pages, guides and layers.

Long text

Text can flow through several linked frames and across pages, like an article in a magazine. See Thread text through frames. To lay a whole document out from your text in one step, see Lay out a document with Redesign.

Your brand

Brand kit holds your logo, brand colours and fonts. Logo places your logo on the page and Brandify recolours the page in your brand. See Brand kit, Brandify and your logo.

AI and pictures

• AI design drafts a whole on-brand design from a sentence, as one design or a set of variations to choose from. See Generate designs and copy with AI.
• The AI Assistant improves and shortens your copy and suggests headlines and captions.
• Stock, AI pictures and Remove background help with images. See Stock photos, AI images and background removal.

Export and print

Export saves a PNG image or a PDF, or a Print PDF (crop marks) with bleed for a print shop. See Export and print a design.

Keyboard shortcuts

These work while you are not typing in a box.

Help > Keyboard shortcuts lists these, with the guide and page-number shortcuts.

The file itself

File has New design, Make a copy, Rename, Version history and Move to trash. See Version history and Delete and restore Office files.

Common questions

Where are my designs? In Office, under Recent on Office Home, and under Your documents on the PlexiDesign page.

Can I put a design on a desk? Yes, with the Design widget. It shows the same design. See Design widget.

I picked a template and lost my work. A template replaces the design. Click Undo straight away to get it back.

What is the difference from PlexiiDraw? PlexiiDesign lays out pages of text and pictures. PlexiiDraw is for drawing: vector paths, brushes and painting. See PlexiiDraw overview.

Related tasks

• Start a design at the right size
• Pages, master pages, guides and layers
• Generate designs and copy with AI
• Export and print a design
• Design widget
• PlexiiOffice: your office suite