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Edit on mobile and use keyboard shortcuts

Motif Studio adapts its editor to touch screens and provides page-aware keyboard commands for faster work on a computer.

Use the mobile panel​

Use an up-to-date browser for the phone editor described below, which photo books and calendars share. Older browsers keep the previous editor layout.

Sheets slide open and closed; your device's reduced-motion setting turns this animation off.

  • While the sheet is collapsed, tap a chip along its top to open that section directly. All Pages offers Assistant, Photos and Themes; opening a page swaps Themes for Layouts, Colours and Patterns, the tools for that page — swipe the chip row sideways to reach one that is out of view. Themes stays in All Pages because a theme restyles the whole project, not one page. Options is not a chip — it lives in the rail above the pages. Colours opens the colour picker just above the chips, and Patterns opens a sheet of background patterns for the page. A page shows only the tools it can use: a page with no photos or text yet has nothing to arrange, so Layouts stays out of the row until you add some.
  • Drag the handle at the top of an open sheet to resize it, or drag it down to close it and bring the chips back. Every section closes this way, and Close or Done on the sheet does the same. Choosing another product, or another occasion for a card, closes the sheet by itself so you can see the change.
  • An open sheet sits over the bottom of the page rather than shrinking it, and so do the photo tools under a selected photo. Drag the page up to bring the part underneath into view; a swipe to the side still turns a page that is not zoomed in, and the page settles back when the sheet closes. All Pages scrolls on past its last page in the same way.
  • Close an image or text toolbar before tapping the page to reveal its page controls.
  • A calendar month is two surfaces, the photo page and the date grid below it. Tap the one you want to change: it takes an accent ring, and Options, Colours and Layouts then act on it. The date grid has no layouts, so Layouts leaves the chips while the grid is selected. Stepping to another page clears the ring.
  • Tapping a date's text in the grid opens the Edit Text screen for that date, the same screen a text box opens. Done saves the note; Cancel leaves the date as it was.
  • A folded card's inside is two surfaces, its two panels. Tap the one you want to change: it takes an accent ring, and Options, Colours and Layouts then act on it. Stepping to another page clears the ring.
  • Tapping a photo selects it and opens the page's photo tools under the page — Border, Arrange, Info and Remove — where you can still move or resize it. Tap it again to open the photo on its own, filling the screen at the shape its layout gives it, with a grid over it to help you frame the picture against a neutral ground; there the tools are Crop, Rotate, Filter, Info and Remove. Done returns to the page.

Turn your phone sideways to see your project larger. The editor switches to viewing and shows Viewing at the top: a photo book or memo book turns by spreads, a wall calendar month opens flat with its photo beside its dates, and the editing controls step aside so the pages fill the screen. Nothing can be changed while viewing, and tapping a page says so; press Viewing to see why again. Preview, Share and Add to cart still work. Turn your phone upright to keep editing on the page you were looking at. If you are typing when you turn the phone, viewing starts once you finish.

Use touch gestures​

  • Tap editable text in portrait orientation to open Edit Text.
  • Press and hold a placed photo or normal text box to begin moving it, then drag to an eligible destination.
  • In the Photos tray, touch a photo and slide it up onto a page. No press and hold is needed: the photo follows your finger, the spot that will take it highlights, and lifting your finger there places it. Swipe sideways to scroll the tray instead. You can also press and hold a photo until it lifts, then drag it in any direction.
  • Swipe left or right in a shared project viewer to change spreads.
  • Swipe left or right in the single-page editor to move through the project, or use the round arrows beside the page name to step — including straight between the Front Cover and the Back Cover.
  • Spread two fingers on the page, or use Zoom in and Zoom out at the ends of the row with the round arrows, to enlarge the page; the controls stay the same size. While it is enlarged, a drag moves around the page instead of turning it, and the arrows turn pages at the same zoom. Pinch in or choose Zoom out to see the whole page again; All Pages always shows pages at their usual size. On a photo opened on its own, a pinch still zooms the photo. In All Pages, spreading two fingers on a page opens it. On an iPhone or iPad, page zoom needs iOS 18 or later; on an earlier version, spreading two fingers enlarges the whole screen instead.
  • Drag near the top or bottom while moving content to scroll through the project.

Inside the full-screen text editor, touch gestures select and edit text rather than moving the page item.

Work in Edit Text​

Edit Text fills the screen and treats the whole editing area as the text box, on the page's own background. Alignment and position move the words within that area, and a fill or border shows across it. Two tabs sit along the bottom:

  • Content brings up the keyboard for writing.
  • Style puts the text tools in a row you can scroll. A page text box or a cover title gets Font, Size, Color, Fill, Border, Align, Line and Spacing; a caption or a calendar date's note gets the same row without Fill and Border, which neither carries. Tap one and its controls open in a panel just above the row: Font shows the typeface with a Weight pill and an italic toggle, and tapping the typeface lists every family; Size, Line and Spacing are sliders that apply when you let go; Align is a row of buttons for left, centre and right, then top, centre and bottom. Color opens the same colour picker the rest of the app uses. Choosing Style puts the keyboard away and keeps it away — tapping the page will not bring it back — so the panel has the room. Tap Content when you want to type again.

Undo and Redo step back through the project's history; they dim while this box has unsaved changes, so finish with Done or Cancel first. Options offers Generate Text, and then the choices that suit the text you tapped: Apply to All Pages and Delete Text Box for a page text box, Apply to All Captions and Delete Caption for a caption, and no delete for a cover title the product requires. A calendar date instead offers Apply to All Date Notes for its note and Apply to All Holiday Text for its holiday; either one saves the date first, so the others take the style the screen shows.

Done keeps your changes; Cancel discards them and returns to the page.

Find keyboard commands​

Open the account menu and choose Keyboard Commands. The window lists only commands available on your current page and changes the modifier labels to match your device.

Everyday shortcuts​

  • Cmd/Ctrl + Z: Undo
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z: Redo
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + U: Upload photos
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + G: Choose from Google Photos
  • Cmd/Ctrl + P: Open Products
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + S: Share
  • Enter: Send the current chat message while the chat input is focused
  • Shift + Enter or Option/Alt + Enter: Add a new line to the current chat message
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Enter: Send the current chat message
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + V: Start or stop voice dictation

Grid and snap shortcuts​

While editing a project, these keys turn the alignment aids in Grid and Snap Options on or off. Each option in that menu also shows its key:

  • G: Grid Lines
  • Shift + G: Grid Cells
  • S: Snap to Grid
  • O: Snap to Object

Grid Lines and Grid Cells are two views of one grid, so whichever key you press switches the other view off. See Line boxes up with the grid.

Photo and layout shortcuts​

With an editable photo or page selected:

  • C: Crop
  • R: Rotation controls
  • F: Filter controls
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + I: Replace the selected image
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + I: Add an image to the current page
  • Option/Alt + [ or ]: Rotate the selected image by 15°
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + L: Next layout
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + Shift + L: Previous layout

Available commands depend on the selected item, project type, and current state. Use the in-app Keyboard Commands window as the authoritative list for the page you are on.