# Invisible controls still invisible **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Created:** [February 17, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/invisible-controls-still-invisible/2649 "2011-02-17T15:13:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AlThePal](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/althepal/32/3603_2.png) [@AlThePal](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/AlThePal)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/invisible-controls-still-invisible/2649/1 "2011-02-17T15:13:06Z")
The new View / Spotlights / Invisible option shows invisible controls within the root container, but not invisible controls within other child containers. ---
**Author:** ![AlThePal](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/althepal/32/3603_2.png) [@AlThePal](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/AlThePal)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/invisible-controls-still-invisible/2649/2 "2011-02-18T15:48:31Z")
It turns out that you cannot left or right click on an invisible item. You can select it by dragging across it, but if you then try to right click on it the selection disappears. The only way you can affect it is to select it using the Project Browser. This seems to be a backward step. ---
**Author:** ![Carl.Gould](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/carl.gould/32/7262_2.png) [@Carl.Gould](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Carl.Gould)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 3:12am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/invisible-controls-still-invisible/2649/3 "2011-03-04T03:12:21Z")
The ability to select it by dragging across it is an oversight. The rationale here was that we had many complaints over the years that dealing with a layered design where there were layers of invisible overlays was frustrating. We thought it would be better if the invisible components didn’t interact with the mouse, so that when you clicked, you got what you saw. Now, the highlight system should highlight things in all containers, to be sure (even invisible components, I think). Invisible components should not be selected via a marquee drag. Invisible components that were selected via the project browser should respond to a right-click. Sound reasonable? ---
**Author:** ![AlThePal](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/althepal/32/3603_2.png) [@AlThePal](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/AlThePal)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/invisible-controls-still-invisible/2649/4 "2011-03-04T13:52:29Z")
That sounds OK. Of course, dealing with a layered design would be made easier by the package natively supporting layers, like the Gimp or Photoshop. You could then put whole collections of controls on a layer and make the layer visible or invisible as required. I know you can achieve this with containers but it is a very manual process during development. ---
**Author:** ![Carl.Gould](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/carl.gould/32/7262_2.png) [@Carl.Gould](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Carl.Gould)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/invisible-controls-still-invisible/2649/5 "2011-03-04T20:26:31Z")
Yeah, that would be a nice feature. Until then, we’re going with my plan. ---
**Author:** ![Robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e95f7d/32.png) [@Robert](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Robert)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 4:35am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/invisible-controls-still-invisible/2649/6 "2011-03-05T04:35:56Z")
7.3? ---
**Author:** ![Carl.Gould](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/carl.gould/32/7262_2.png) [@Carl.Gould](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Carl.Gould)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/invisible-controls-still-invisible/2649/7 "2011-03-05T17:03:02Z")
No, we’ll make the changes outlined above in 7.2. If you were talking about layering for 7.3, well… we don’t have active plans for that. I think the combination of Containers, grouping (part of 2d drawing) and layering might be a bit much.