Visible/Hidden Style Control in the Pages Panel

When developing overlay pages, accordion content, or modals, it often becomes necessary to hide those pages, sections, or elements using the Styles Panel property sheet.

The thing is, since those items are usually hidden at design time, you can't just click on them in-line where the Styles Panel would be contextual. Instead, you must navigate to the item using the Navigator Panel. Already, each item has an icon that indicates if it is visible on the page or not but if you wish to make it visible so that you can make any changes, you have to first select the item than go back over to tab over to the Styles Panel and scroll up to the visibility section. It would be far easier and more elegant if the indicator on the left Pages Panel acted more like a switch so that from right where the user has already navigated, that object could be made visible and the user can proceed with the rest of the UI as normal then re-hide it just as easily. This is one of those rare instances where redundancy is actually simpler for the user. It would greatly improve the UX of working with hidden dynamic content at design time compared to having to navigate so much between the left and right panel groups just to inspect or modify a site element.


  • Robert Holtz
  • Mar 17 2020
  • Reviewed