Duplicating Objects
When designing with Adobe XD, you will very often need to duplicate a specific object and make changes to it, rather than creating a new one all the time. This allows you to keep the copied object’s style and properties.
There are a few ways you can duplicate a selected object:
• Choose Edit > Duplicate, or use the shortcut CMD + D (Mac) & CTRL + D (Win). The new object will be positioned right on top of the original object in the layers panel.
• hold the ALT key and click&drag the selected object to duplicate it. Also in this case, the new object will be positioned right on top of the original object in the layers panel.
• Simply copy and paste the selected object like you would do with Word or Excel: CMD + C (Mac) & CTRL + C (Win) to copy, CMD + V (Mac) & CTRL + V (Win) to paste.
You should use this method if you want to have control on where the new object will be positioned in the layers panel.
If for example you want to duplicate an object included in one layer group, and you want it to belong to another group, just copy it first, select the desired layer group destination from the layers panel, and then paste it.
Doing this will save you a lot of moving layers around the panel.
This is also the right method to use if you want to copy an object to a different artboard.
If you just copy and paste object without choosing its new position in the layers panel, the copied object will be positioned right on top of the layers panel, above all other layers.
Duplicating Styles
You can also copy the style of an object and easily apply it to another object.
It’s a great timesaver: all you have to do is copy the object with the style you want to duplicate, then right click on another object and select “Paste appearance“.
An even easier method would be to use the keyboard shortcuts. CMD + C (Mac) & CTRL + C (Win) to copy the style, and then CMD + OPTION + V (Mac) & CTRL + ALT + V (Win) to paste the appearance.
The first object’s style will be instantly applied to the second object.