I would like to suggest very usefull idea taken from Photoshop, but maybe not so easy to implement.

At first, every page should start with three layers: guides, grid and background (the page). The background layer should be used only for fill (color, gradient and maybe picture) and no objects should be put there. Every new layer(s) should be inserted between guides and grid layers.

This idea can serve mainly for three purposes:

1. Grouping objects

  • Temporary grouping by selecting the desired layers like in the newest version of Photoshop;
  • Grouping by activating an icon (located next to 'enabled', 'selected'... icons) as in previous older versions of Photoshop;
  • Merging (flattening) selected layers into one. Any object are still editable and can be copied/moved (if needed) to a new or existing layer anytime by Copy/Paste or Cut/Paste.

2. Selecting hidden (invisible) objects

  • It would be much easier to find and select object(s) that is behind other object and moved to front or back simply by dragging the layer to desired location.

3. Cloning objects

  • Duplicated layer(s) should be treated as cloning layer(s) i.e. when an action is taken to an object inside the "original" layer, the change should be reflected to the object into the cloned layer(s).