Organize workbook layouts with containers

Add a container to your workbook pages to organize elements on the canvas and visually group elements together. With containers, you can more easily manage layouts and style elements as a group.

Prerequisites

• You must be the owner or have Can edit or Can explore permissions on the workbook.

Add a container to a workbook

You can add an empty container or add a container around existing elements:

• Add an empty container
• Add a container around existing elements

Add an empty container

1. Select Add element…, then in the Containers section, select a container and drag it onto the workbook canvas.
2. Select Add element…, then drag elements into the container.

Add a container around existing elements

To add a container around existing elements, drag or ctrl/cmd+click to select multiple elements, then click Create container () or press ctrl/cmd+g.

The container is created on the canvas and selected by default.

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When you nest containers or tabbed containers, you can only nest four levels deep. If you attempt to place a container inside another layout element that is already nested within three surrounding container or tabbed container elements, Sigma shows a "Cannot nest more than 4 levels of layouts" error.

Move a container

To change the location of a container and its elements, select the edge of the container to select the container, then drag the container to the new location.

Resize a container

By default, a container has a grid width of 12, which you can resize as needed. Drag the edges of a container to resize it.

• You cannot resize a container smaller than the elements inside of it.
• When you resize a container horizontally, the width of the grid spaces inside the container change and the elements inside the container are resized horizontally to fit.
• When you resize a container vertically, the number of vertical grid spaces inside the container changes but elements do not resize automatically.

Change the grid column density of a container (Beta)

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This documentation describes a public beta feature and is under construction. This documentation should not be considered part of our published documentation until this notice, and the corresponding Beta flag on the feature in the Sigma service, are removed. As with any beta feature, the feature discussed below is subject to quick, iterative changes. The latest experience in the Sigma service might differ from the contents of this document.

Beta features are subject to the Beta features disclaimer.

A container has its own grid, similar to the grid on the canvas. By default, a container's grid has 12 horizontal grid spaces, or 12 "columns", which expand and contract to fit the container size. You can change this density in the Properties tab of the editor panel using the Column density setting. Higher density gives you a finer grain of control over element positions in large containers.

• A container with Low column density has 6 grid columns.
• A container with Medium column density has 12 grid columns. This is the default density.
• A container with High column density has 24 grid columns. When dragged to the full width of the canvas, the grid within a container with high column density aligns with the full canvas grid.

Style a container

Select Element properties to style your container:

Remove or delete a container

To remove a container around elements, select the enclosing container, then select More > Remove container. The container is removed and any elements inside the container are placed on the canvas. Elements keep the same formatting.

You can also delete a container and all elements inside the container. To do so, select the enclosing container, then select More > Delete container. The container and all elements inside are deleted.