Version 15.3.0.0828 | Shell Build 12.2.0.0

Templates and components

Templates and component fixes may be released separately from new versions of Google Web Designer:

Release notes

A new version of Google Web Designer is available! 11 issues have been fixed in this release. Read below for additional details.

Updating Google Web Designer

Google Web Designer automatically updates upon launch if you have an internet connection. You can also download the latest version.

Compatibility changes:

Custom components that follow the Custom Elements v0 specification are no longer be supported. Learn how to upgrade your components.

Fixes & improvements in version 15.2.1.0306

Fixed issue where responsive video templates opened at an incorrect size.
Fixed issue where the template gallery video preview was missing the template title.
[Text effects] Fixed issue where the first line of text was horizontally offset for some effects and settings.
[Text effects] Fixed issue where position was offset for text with effects in a published animated GIF.
[Text effects] Fixed issue where some text effects positioned over an image failed to show on Safari.
[Text effects] Responsive preview panel now matches stage view.
[Text effects] Fixed issue where some letters were cropped when using the Gradient effect.
[Text effects] Fixed issue where properties for the previously applied effect were applied to the new effect.
[Text effects] Fixed issue where change in opacity was not applied.
[Text effects] Fixed issue where letters were cropped when using the Flip or Spin effects on text positioned over other elements.
[Text effects] Fixed issue where line breaks caused positioning issues.

New features in version 15.2.0.0112

Video templates

27 new templates for video ads are now available. Find them under the new Video tab in the Template Gallery.

Image ad shareable preview

You can now share previews of image ads. Generate the preview URL from the Preview button.

Responsive override panel

Responsive documents now list the overrides for the currently selected size or size range in the Responsive panel.

Fixes & improvements in version 15.2.0.0112

When publishing an image ad fails, the generic failure error message has been replaced by a specific error message.
Fixed issue where special characters (such as ') in the file path caused importing an image to fail.
The default scaling option when converting documents is now set to "Stretch to fill".
Fixed issue where a video document converted from a banner was the wrong size.
Fixed issue where the Top and Left properties in the Properties panel could not be set when Anchoring was on.
Fixed issue where the help link for the "Multi-size layout" option in an animated GIF didn't load the help content.
Fixed issue where the URL field was empty in Easy Mode.
Fixed issue where resizing a timeline layer triggered automatic horizontal scrolling of the timeline.

Notable changes in version 15.0.4.1108

"Get shareable link" now generates a QR code that you can scan for the preview link.

Fixes & improvements in version 15.0.4.1108

Fixed issue where ads sometimes failed to load in Chrome. Please re-publish ads to get the fix.

Fixes & improvements in version 15.0.3.1010

Fixed issue where stage zoom was reset after resizing the viewport.
Fixed flickering when moving an image on the stage that used a scaling option other than "Stretch to fill".
Fixed issue where the visibility of an element or mask on the stage didn't reflect edits to the first keyframe.
Fixed issue exporting some dynamic HTML5 documents as images.
Fixed issue where elements were not hidden before the visibility range start time in exported videos, animated GIFs, and image ads.
Fixed issue with visibility range not working due to an extra keyframe being inadvertently created.

Notable changes in version 15.0.2.1005

"Get shareable link" now generates a QR code that you can scan for the preview link.

Fixes & improvements in version 15.0.2.1005

Fixed issue with publishing video ads, image ads, and animated GIFs.

Fixes & improvements in version 15.0.1.0922

Fixed issue where events for elements inside groups didn't work.

New features in version 15.0.0.0913

Accessibility - Keyboard navigation

More comprehensive keyboard navigation functionality lets you access Google Web Designer's interface using keypresses.

Use the Tab key (and Shift+Tab) and the arrow keys to move between different parts of the interface.
Toggle or activate buttons and other interface elements with the space bar and the Enter key.

Animated GIF

You can now build animated GIFs in Google Web Designer, using the video creation workflow.
"Animated GIF" is available as an ad type when creating a new blank file.
You can also export video documents as animated GIFs when publishing.
Preview your GIF files immediately after export.
Take advantage of multi-size layouts and variants to produce GIFs of different sizes and with different content, all from the same document.

Audio editing

Volume envelopes let you change the volume of audio clips in your video projects.

Control the volume of your audio at any point during playback by adding and moving envelope nodes.
Select from a variety of fade types when changing volume.

Content sharing across documents

Copying and pasting is now supported between more document types.

Copy content across video, image, and non-AMPHTML documents.
Content that's not supported in the destination document will be modified or omitted.

Document type conversion

You can convert most HTML documents to a video or image ad.

Most types of HTML ads (excluding AMPHTML ads) and HTML documents with pages have the option to convert to a video or an image ad in the File menu.
Choose how to scale content if you want your video or image ad to be a different size.

Element selection from panels

Elements listed in the Events or Dynamic panels can now be selected directly from the panel.

Right-click the target, receiver, or bound element in the panel to see the option to select the element.
Hidden or locked elements will be shown or unlocked when selected.

Layer visibility

Control when an element is visible during the animation timeline.

Set visibility ranges in the timeline for elements that are only briefly needed.
Outside of its visibility range, an element behaves as though it's hidden and locked.
Double-click a layer to select all animation in that layer and easily shift its visibility range.

Multi-size layouts for video

Use the responsive workflow to create videos of different sizes from the same document.

Enable a multi-size layout when creating a new video file, or in the Responsive panel for existing video documents.
Select from a set of common video dimensions, or add custom sizes.
Each size is published as a separate file.

Publish individual sizes of a responsive document

Responsive documents can now be published as non-responsive single sizes.

The "Export sizes individually" checkbox can be found in the Publish dialog when publishing locally.
A separate export will be generated for each selected size.

Responsive: Fluid layout and flexbox

New options for fluid layout and flexbox are now available.

Automatically arrange elements into flexible rows or columns by using flexbox (the CSS Flexible Box Module).
Anchor elements to maintain their alignment either horizontally or vertically.
Set minimum and maximum widths and heights for elements.

Text effects

Add animated effects to your text with the new Text Effects panel.

Choose from a number of effects, such as scrolling or a typewriter effect.
Customize each effect's timing and appearance.

Text spacing

Additional fields in the Text panel and the Text tool options bar let you configure text spacing.

Adjust the line height of text from the 120% default.
Set the spacing between letters.

Track height adjustment

Resize audio and video tracks in the timeline.

Expand tracks to better see audio waveforms and video thumbnails.
Minimize tracks to better focus on other parts of the timeline.

Upload videos and images to the Ads Creative Studio Asset library

If you have an Ads Creative Studio account, you can add video and images to the Asset library directly from Google Web Designer.

The new upload option can be found in the Publish menu for video and image ads.
Select the destination folder in the Asset library or create a new one.

Video enhancements

A number of improvements have been made to the video ad workflow.

Configure the H.264 profile, video bitrate, and audio bitrate of video exports.
Use the new Razor tool to split audio and video clips in the timeline.
The playhead no longer moves when clicking audio and video tracks.
An indicator line shows the time of the current cursor position in the timeline.
The source of an image mask can now differ between variants.
When dragging an asset from the Library into a track, the new clip snaps along the timeline.
Snapping to clip edges now takes priority over snapping to other targets in the timeline.
Importing audio and video assets will create a clip in the selected track at the playhead position.
The default transition duration is now set to 1 second.
Scaling options for video clips now include "None".

Other notable changes in version 15.0.0.0913

A button to mask the stage area has been added next to the zoom controls.

Fixes & improvements in version 15.0.0.0913

Accessibility

Fixed issue with focus indicator when tabbing to the controls.
Fixed tabbing issue in the New File dialog.
Fixed issue with being unable to tab to the Open recent file list.
Fixed issue where up and down arrow keys didn't work in the Components panel.

Color

Fixed issue where pressing the Enter key on the "Extract colors from image" button in the Color panel added the colors twice.
Fixed issue selecting color shade for color markers for linear and radial gradients.
Fixed issue where the Eyedropper tool didn't work on a MacBook's external monitor.
Fixed issue where the color picker didn't close when using keyboard shortcuts to select a tool.

Easy mode

Fixed issue where web fonts weren't initially displayed in templates.
Fixed issue where the Escape key converted an open Easy mode file to Standard mode.
Fixed issue where the Size dropdown didn't have a scrollbar.

Responsive

Fixed issue with the stage displaying the wrong size when unchecking supported sizes.
Fixed issue where Top and Left properties were both set as overrides when only one was edited on the stage.
Fixed issue with setting translate values to 0 in media rules.
A warning now displays when an element is copied, deleted, or reordered in a media rule.
The CSS Effects panel now refreshes when switching back to the base document.
Fixed issue where the media rule indicator was displayed in a non-responsive document after switching between panels and files.

Swap image

The Swap image dialog can now be resized in all directions.
Fixed issue where the wrong image was highlighted upon selection in the Swap image dialog.
The Swap image dialog now supports longer file names.

Timeline & animation

Fixed issue where the animated properties dialog was not updated during editing.
Fixed issue where the "Paste keyframes" option wasn't correctly enabled after deleting a layer and adding a mask.
Fixed issues with keyframes and playback when combining motion paths and other animation.
Improved usability of the layer lock and hide buttons by showing them when active or upon hover.

Video

The timeline playhead is now fully disabled during playback.
Fixed issue where dragging multiple keyframes or clips did not extend the timeline.
Fixed issue where the playhead was not in the correct position for a new document when switching away from a video document.
Fixed error when copying and pasting a keyframe into an audio track.
Updated the maximum font size from 350px to 1000px.
Fixed issue where video documents failed to publish due to a clip's out point being set past the clip source duration.
Fixed issue where elements were sometimes temporarily hidden after making certain changes.
Fixed issue where exporting the default variant at a lower resolution took as long as the full resolution if a different variant was currently on stage.
When the list of variant bindings is filtered, the element selection dropdown now only shows elements that match the filter.
Added an option to clear variant override values by right-clicking them in the Variants tab.
Fixed issue where a video asset was cached even though it was deleted from the Library, when undoing the deletion of a video track that previously contained a clip with that asset.

Other issues

The Swipeable Gallery now redraws correctly on stage when the viewport changes.
Fixed issue with placeholder text and empty dropdown entry in the Keyboard shortcuts dialog after filtering.
Fixed issue with the use count changing to 0 in the Library after refreshing to load external edits.
Fixed issue where zoom was reset after refreshing to load external edits.
Fixed issue with groups disappearing after refreshing the document to load external edits.
The image processing drawing tool is now centered at the tip of the marker cursor.
Fixed issue where arrow keys didn't move the cursor while editing an asset filename in the Library.
The Chinese translation of the "New" badge in the New File dialog is now displayed correctly.
The page indicator appears in group editing mode after switching files.
Documents now indicate that they have unsaved changes after adding or editing an element ID.
The scaling options dropdown in the Properties panel is now fully visible even when the Google Web Designer application window is small.
Fixed issue with lost focus when making edits in the Properties panel using the keyboard.
When publishing to Studio, the Size dropdown now appears above the Creative name field.
Fixed issue where the stage scrolled offscreen after entering group editing mode twice consecutively
SVG files are now imported at their natural size.
Fixed issue where applying a filter to a second shape would hide the first shape.
Fixed issue where adding a video to a non-ad HTML document would cause all elements to render as blank on the stage.
Components are now listed in alphabetical order in the Template Gallery filters.
Fixed issue with the stage preview when there was a combination of a line break, text fitting, and height animation.
Fixed issue with the wrong style being added when pasting elements with text fitting and nested elements.

Known issues

Safari only: <canvas> elements with drawings prevent the animation of clip path masks.
Chrome and Opera: Clip path masks render incorrectly when the host element contains a 3D-transformed child element.
References to custom Google Web Designer elements (gwd-image, gwd-video, gwd-audio, gwd-iframe, gwd-page, and gwd-pagedeck) may not work as expected. Learn how you can update your references.
Timeline animation events, such as pause or loop, do not work when you directly open the source .html file in your browser. This is expected behavior, as timeline animation CSS is generated when previewing or publishing the document. Solution: use the Preview button, or publish the document locally and view the published file in your browser.
Image files without a file extension with a period in the file name don't import into the Library. Workaround: add the file extension (such as .png) to the file name.
A black screen on launch may be caused by outdated video drivers. Try updating your video drivers. If that doesn't help, disable GPU rendering by quitting Google Web Designer and following the instructions for your operating system before relaunching:
- Windows: Add a DWORD32 value named disable-gpu-rendering to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Web Designer\Settings in the registry. Set this value to 1.
- Mac: Add a Boolean row to ~/Library/Preferences/com.google.WebDesigner.plist with the name disable-gpu-rendering and a value of YES, or run defaults write com.google.WebDesigner.plist disable-gpu-rendering -bool true in Terminal.
- Linux: Add a line to ~/.local/share/google-web-designer/preferences/settings.conf with the name disable-gpu-rendering and a value of true. (If the [Settings] section doesn't exist, you'll need to create it first.)
For a video to autoplay when an ad is re-expanded on Mac Safari, the first video source should be .mp4.
Gradient background fill on an image only renders when scaling is set to stretch.
A maximum of 4 panels can be grouped/tabbed together.
White screen on launch if behind a web proxy. Please follow these instructions to change your proxy settings.
Mac Chrome and Opera: Play button doesn't work in Google Web Designer preview when Autoplay preview is on. Workaround: remove localhost from the URL to use file:///
Linux only: file drag and drop from the file system to Google Web Designer is not working. Workaround: use File > Import assets or Add asset from the Library.
Downloading iCalendar .ics files is not supported on Safari desktop browser.
It is not possible to have more than one Map component or Street View component, or a Map and a Street View component in the same creative.
Linux only: if the browser (Chrome or Firefox) is launched by Google Web Designer for preview, Google Web Designer cannot be closed unless the browser is closed first.
Linux only: Google Web Designer sometimes loses focus and is unable to take keyboard input when switching between apps. Workaround: resize the Google Web Designer window to bring focus back to the app.
Linux only: if the renderer crashes and a white screen appears, set the disable-gpu-rendering to true in Google Web Designer settings. Add a row to ~/.local/share/google-web-designer/preferences/settings.conf with the name disable-gpu-rendering and a value of true. (If the [Settings] section doesn't exist, you'll need to create it first.)
Video ads: On Mac, making edits quickly, such as duplicating clips, can cause the stage to stop showing videos and for playback to not work, or for the UI to freeze. Workaround: relaunch Google Web Designer.
Video ads: A small gap appears between videos during slide or wipe transitions at certain stage zoom levels. The gap will not be visible in the exported video. Workaround: adjust the stage zoom.
Video ads: If copying a clip to another document is undone, the clip’s asset is not automatically removed from the Library. Workaround: manually delete the asset from the Library.
Video ads: If a video or audio asset file is manually overwritten with a different file in a project’s assets directory, the old asset continues to appear on the stage and in the exported video if any resolution other than full is used. Workaround: delete the asset and re-add it using the Library.
Video ads: Asset import errors may appear when opening a Google Web Designer project which was created on a different operating system (e.g., opening a file on Windows that was originally created on a Mac). Workaround: use File > Save As zip... to export and share a project.
Video ads: When zoomed out in the timeline, very short clips (e.g., 1 frame long at higher document frame rates) can stop showing and appear as empty space, even when selected. The clips are not deleted. Workaround: zoom in to see the clips.
Video ads: Certain malformed assets (e.g., videos created using some video ripper software) do not play or export properly in Google Web Designer.
Video ads: Certain colored text can have a slight drop shadow in the exported video (compression artifact).
Backdrop elements animated along a curved motion path, or nested within another element with a curved motion path animation, may not show filter effects during animation playback on the stage. The filters will behave as expected in the exported video and while scrubbing the playhead.

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