Edit multiple elements at once

Updated at September 14th, 2023

Edit multiple elements quickly by selecting them and applying changes in one go. Users can modify chart type, value formats and other attributes at once instead of making changes from each element's context menu. 

This feature and other features like copy/paste and preset templates in the chart gallery reduce the number of repetitive edits in a project.

How to edit multiple elements

Select the elements you want to edit, then choose the attribute you want to edit from the context menu. You can use the context menu of any selected element. 

In the example below, we change the chart type of Specialty and Q7 to a standard chart. 

1. Select the elements you want to edit

2. Choose the menu item you want to edit. You can do this from the context menu of any selected element.

3. Once the dialog pops up, you can select the changes you want to make. 

Multi-element editor panel

Once you choose an item from the context menu, the consolidated editor panel will pop up in most cases. For some items-- like format, an individual dialog will show but you can still edit format from the editor panel too.

When you select multiple elements to edit, the editor panel is color-coded to show whether the attributes between elements agree or conflict. 

Color-coded legend:

  • Grey = Dialog is not eligible for multi-element editing
  • Blue = Agreeing attributes 
  • Orange = Conflicting attributes  
  • Green = There are unsaved changes

The properties menu cannot be used in multi-element editing mode. There are attributes within the properties like “key” that are unique to each individual element and cannot be shared between elements. 

Another menu that is not available in multi-editing mode is the chart gallery, you can only apply preset chart gallery templates to one element at a time.  

If the menu within the editor panel is blue, the elements you selected are agreeing for that attribute. For example, the selected elements in the screenshot below have the same round by, filter, etc. If you click the triangle you can edit any of these dialogs. 

When you make changes to any of the dialogs they will turn green. This indicates that there are unsaved changes and Protobi will not apply the edits to the elements until you press “ok” in the editor panel.

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