You’re all set to start creating your own custom widget libraries. Let us know if you'd like to share them with other Axure RP customers.

To load a custom widget library, choose “Load Library” from the dropdown menu in the Widgets pane toolbar and browse to the .rplib file. After loading the library, it will appear in the Widgets pane and you can drag and drop them onto the wireframe as normal.

To automatically load the library each time you start Axure RP, save the .rplib file in the ~/My Documents/My Axure RP Libraries folder on your PC, or ~/Documents/Axure/Libraries on your Mac. Axure RP will also attempt to load libraries saved elsewhere if they have been previously loaded.

To unload a library, choose “Unload library” from the dropdown menu in the Widgets pane toolbar and it will remove the library from the Widgets pane.

You can edit custom widget properties like the widget icon and widget description by right-clicking on the widget in the Widgets Library pane and choosing “Widget Properties” in the context menu.

This launches the Widget Properties dialog. By default, the icon that appears in the Widget pane is a thumbnail of the actual widget. To import a custom icon, click on the Import Icon button and choose the image file.

You can also add a tooltip with additional information such as a description, instructions, or attribution. The tooltip is shown in the Widgets pane when you click on the Information icon next to widget.

The Preserve Corners feature allows you resize an image without stretching the corners of the image. This is useful for creating widgets that are images like dialogs and image buttons.

To preserve the corners of an image, right-click on the image and choose Edit Image -> Preserve Corners from the context menu.

This shows two arrows above and two arrows to the left of the image. When you drag the arrows, guides will appear to help you set the size of the corners to preserve.

The Custom Widget Libraries feature allows you to create your own libraries of icons, design patterns, branded elements and more and load them directly into the Widgets pane.

The libraries are created as standalone .rplib files (separate from .rp files) that you can easily share with teammates or other Axure users. You can download

libraries that we've created and libraries shared by Axure RP customers on the Widget Libraries page, including the Yahoo! Design Stencil Kit, social media      

widgets, Windows and OSX elements, commonly used design patterns, Android and iPhone UI objects, icons, and more.

Create your own custom widget library for icons, design patterns, branded elements, and more. In this article, learn how to create and load custom widget libraries that you can also share with others.

To create your own custom widget library, choose “Create library” from the dropdown menu in the Widgets pane toolbar and name the .rplib file.

This creates the .rplib file and will launch a second instance of Axure RP. Since this is a library file, the Sitemap pane is replaced by the Widget Library pane. You can add, delete, and organize the widgets in this pane.

You can create your custom widgets using the existing widgets (including widgets in other custom widget libraries) and images the same way you design pages.

Annotations and interactions added to widgets within custom widgets are preserved when the custom widgets are added to the wireframe pages.

For example, if you create a switch button using a dynamic panel that toggles between an On and Off state using interactions, the button will have those interactions when you add the custom widget to a page.

TIP: To make a custom widget that is grouped when added to a page, group the widgets in the custom widget in the .rplib file (Ctrl+A to Select All and Ctrl+G to Group or Cmd+A and Cmd+G on Mac).

To view the new custom widgets in the Widgets pane, save the library file (File -> Save, or Ctrl+S / Cmd+S) and choose “Refresh library” from the dropdown menu in the Widgets pane toolbar.

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

© 2002-2011 Axure Software Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.