A tour of the Axure RP environment and a quick overview of the tools and features available to you.

Axure RP is a design and documentation tool used by user experience designers, information architects, business analysts and product managers to create annotated wireframes, interactive prototypes, and functional specifications for applications and websites.

Axure RP’s interface is similar to many other desktop applications. It includes menus and toolbars at the top to perform common tasks like opening and saving files, and formatting your design.

In the center of it all is a wireframe pane that provides a drag and drop environment to design your wireframe. The wireframe pane is surrounded by various tool panes which can be detached and closed. You can hide and show these panes using the View menu at the top.

Axure RP is available for both Mac and PC. The two versions provide the same functionality and RP files can be shared across the two platforms. Most of the differences are related to UI conventions like using the Cmd key instead of Ctrl for shortcuts on the Mac.

The training articles apply to both versions. Any differences will be pointed out in the articles.

( 1 ) Main Menu & Toolbar: Perform common actions like opening and saving files, and formatting widgets in a wireframe. Change the selection mode (Select Intersected Mode and Select Contained mode) or switch to connector mode.

( 2 ) Wireframe Pane: Design your pages in this drag and drop environment with options like snap to grid and guides.

( 3 ) Sitemap Pane: Add, remove, rename, and organize the pages in your design.

( 4 ) Widgets Pane: Drag and drop commonly used widgets such as buttons, images, text panels and shapes to design your page. Create and load custom widget libraries.

( 5 ) Masters Pane: Add, remove, rename and organize masters to reuse throughout your design.

( 6 ) Pages Properties Pane: Add and organize page level notes, interactions and format pages in your design.

( 7 ) Widget Properties Pane: Edit widget annotations, widget interactions and formatting.

          Annotations: Add and customize widget notes and descriptions.

          Interactions: Define widget interactions like basic links, pop ups,

          and dynamically showing and hiding widgets.

          Formatting: Edit widget styles and properties like location and size,

          font styles, text alignment and padding, and widget styles.

( 8 ) Dynamic Panel Manager Pane: Hide and show dynamic panels in the wireframe pane. Add, remove, and manage dynamic panel states.

Now that you know your way around the Axure RP interface, let's learn how to use it.

Have questions? Drop us a line at support@axure.com, tweet us at @axurerp, or write on our Facebook wall.

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