How to use the Dynamic Element Selection in Studio

Summary

The Dynamic Element Selection feature in Bynder Studio allows designers to bundle mutually exclusive design elements into a single, intuitive selection tool. By grouping various elements—such as different logos, headlines, or images—designers can provide Content Creators with a streamlined dropdown menu, reducing canvas clutter and simplifying the variation process.

Who?

This feature is automatically enabled for all Studio Designers.

Why?

Implementing Dynamic Element Selection offers several key benefits:

  • Efficiency: Consolidates multiple "walls of toggles" into a single, clean dropdown menu.

  • Improved UX: Content Creators see only what is relevant to their current selection, making the template easier to navigate.

  • Granular Control: Designers can maintain specific permissions for individual items within a group, ensuring that only approved elements are replaceable or editable.

  • Flexibility: Supports mixed element types (images, text, and shapes) and nested groups for complex template structures. 

How?

Before you configure

  • Layer Strategy: The order of the items in the dropdown list follows the layer order in your Studio Editor. Place your "default" or most common choice at the top of the layer stack to ensure it appears first in the dropdown for the end-user.
  • Permission Management: Edit permissions are attached to specific items, not the whole group. For example, if you have five logos in a dropdown and only one is set to "replaceable," the end-user will only be allowed to replace or edit that specific logo.

Set up Dynamic Element Selection (For Designers)

  1. Open your template or design in the Studio Editor.
  2. Select the elements you want to group together (e.g., different images, or various text headlines).
  3. Group these mutually exclusive elements together in the Layers panel.
  4. Select the newly created group.
  5. In the right-hand properties panel, locate the Dynamic Element Selection section.
  6. Toggle on Enable single-select.
  7. Once enabled, use the Active selection dropdown just below the toggle to preview how each option looks on the canvas. The toggle is directly applied to the canvas, allowing you to view and edit each element separately. The selected element in the Editor when (re)publishing the design, will be the selected element in newly created variations.
  8. Publish your design.

The Content Creator Experience

When a Content Creator (CC) opens the design to generate variations, they will experience a streamlined workflow:

  • Simplified Canvas: The CC will only see one option visible on the canvas and in the right panel by default.
  • Intuitive Dropdowns: Instead of a wall of toggles, they will use a single dropdown menu to select their desired element.
  • Contextual Editability: The dropdown acts as a gateway. Selecting an item automatically hides the others and immediately reveals the specific editing actions allowed for that element (such as editing text, changing a color, or swapping an image).

Capabilities and Limitations

  • Mixed Element Types: Elements do not have to be of the same type to be grouped into a Dynamic Selection. You can bundle images, text, and shapes together.
  • Nesting: The feature allows for the nesting of multiple dynamic selection groups within one another for highly complex, structured templates
  • Republishing behavior: When selecting a different element in the editor and republishing the design, the newly selected element will take the place of the original element. If the variation’s element was changed by an end-user, republishing the design will not affect the selected element. 
  • Audio elements not supported: The Dynamic Element Selection supports any kind of element available in Studio, except for Audio-only elements
  • Content Properties: Content properties only apply on elements within the Dynamic Element Selection.   

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