The live preview in the side panel is the proof of your work: the selected item, fully rendered, exactly as it will export and print. It follows the active collection, so the same space previews a card, board, token, die face, or other game component.
What's in the panel
The panel has three tabs: Card Details, Shufflo AI and Notes. The preview lives on Card Details (the tab takes the component's name, such as Board Details). At the top right of that tab sit three buttons: the flip button for other faces (below), Edit all fields, which swaps the preview for a form of every field on the selected card, and Show version history (see Notes & Version History).
Below that, top to bottom:
1. The rendered item
The selected row or gallery item, drawn through whichever layout its conditions selected. It re-renders the moment you commit an edit in Data: change a title, press Enter, and watch it update.
The render is also a map of your data. Hover an element and the column it shows lights up in the sheet; select a cell and the element that shows it gets an amber outline. Click an element to edit it for this card. The panel that opens leads with the column name and "on this card", such as Name on this card: type a new value for a Text or Number column, pick this card's option for a Select column, or use Replace, Adjust or Add image for a picture. Below it, Column for all cards shows which column the element is connected to. Change that and the change applies to every card that uses this layout. From the keyboard, Tab to an element and press Enter or Space. The panel that opens is described in Connecting Properties.
When there is nothing to render, the panel says why: Click a cell to preview its card. when no card is selected, No layouts yet with a Design a layout button when the collection has no layout at all, and No front design yet (or No back design yet) with a Design the front (Design the back) button when the face you are looking at has nothing designed, such as a project whose only layout is a back. Design a layout opens Design on the template gallery, so you can start from a template; Design the front opens your designs, or the templates when the collection has none. The phone's full-screen previewer still reads No matching layout for a card no design claims.
2. The filmstrip
When the collection holds more than one item, a filmstrip of thumbnails runs under the render, in grid order, following the current collection, search and filters. Click a thumbnail to inspect it and scan for a visual outlier before proofing. In Gallery view the tiles do the same job.
3. The connection note (when applicable)
A one-line summary of how much of the item's data the layout shows, such as:
⚠ 1 required column not connected
Click it to expand the full sentence (1 required column is not connected to RPG Split: powers), a See how link that opens Design and plays a short walkthrough of connecting a column, and a Connect in editor → link that opens the layout. The same line reports a layout that shows no card data yet, or columns the layout references that no longer exist. Optional columns left off the card don't bring it up. It only checks the front. See Connecting Properties.
4. The resolution line (once there's more than one layout to choose from)
This card uses layout RPG Split, because Type equals "living".
Plus a Why this layout? link.
Component faces
When the active component has more than one face with a design, a flip button appears at the top of the Card Details tab. Cards, boards, mats, tokens and meeples use Front and Back; screens use Outside and Inside; dice use numbered faces; booklets use numbered pages. On a two-faced component the button's tooltip reads Show back or Show front. With more faces, the button shows the face you are on and each click turns to the next one.
The preview turns the item over. Each face resolves through its own condition list, and the explanation line changes to match:
This card uses Default Back, the catch-all card back: no other card back's condition matched.
On the back, the link reads Why this card back?. Click the flip button again to return to the front.
Why this layout?
When the wrong design shows up, click Why this layout?:
The dialog is titled Why these layouts? when the item has a back, and breaks down each face separately. For each face you see the layout In use and why (Matched because: with each clause ticked), then WHY NOT THE OTHERS: every other layout with its reason and an Edit link. Reasons read like Needs Type to be "space", but this card's Type is living. or No condition: applies only as the default.
If another layout also matches, its line reads Also matches, but RPG Split ranks higher. A layout can therefore match a card in editor counts without being the layout that finally renders it. To use that design instead, click Use this beside it: ShuffleKit moves it above the winner in the priority list. That changes the order for every card, so check the others afterwards. If no layout matches, create or repair an unconditional default. A project with no usable back layout can legitimately show a plain dark back.
Full detail in Conditions.
Preview inside the layout editor
The side panel previews one item at a time while you edit data. Preview mode in the Design tab does the reverse: one layout, stepping through many items:
The bar at the bottom of the canvas gives you ‹ CARD 1 OF 16 › with the card's name under it, a Hide unused toggle (it reads Printed view while on) and Exit. Click the number and type another to jump straight to that card.
It walks the cards that actually print with this layout: the same cards the side panel would show on it, after the full priority list is applied. A card claimed by a higher-priority layout isn't in the count, and neither are boards or other components. The count is how many different cards this design prints on. A layout that doesn't win any card yet walks the cards its own condition matches, so you can still design it; when nothing matches at all, the bar says so.
Use the side panel while writing component data. Use Preview mode while designing the face.
Making the preview bigger
Open Panel and untick Show panel to collapse the side panel when you're doing data entry, and tick it again when you want to see results. On a laptop that toggle is the difference between five visible columns and eight. You can also drag the divider between the sheet and the panel to resize it.
The same Panel menu lists the panel's sections (Card Details, Shufflo AI, Notes). Untick the ones you never use to drop their tabs; the last one left can't be turned off.
Getting a real proof
The panel render is accurate, but before a print run take the extra step:
- File → Card Images (PNG / JPEG / SVG)... and export a few cards at full resolution. See Import & Export.
- Or File → PDF Print Sheet..., print one page and measure a card against a ruler. See Print and Play at Home for the print settings.
Text that reads fine at panel size can be too small in hand, and that only becomes obvious at 1:1.
