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Saving and managing documents

Once you’ve created a document, here’s how to save, organize, and manage it over time.

Saving new documents

To your Workspace

To save a new document to your Workspace, choose File > Save (S) to open the Workspace window. Give your document a name and click Save. You can also save it to a specific folder — click the + next to the folder list to create a new one.

Once you’ve saved your document, Sketch will automatically save progress in the background as you work — no need to manually save again.

How to save a document to your Workspace in the Mac app

You can also use S to add a star or a version description to a Workspace document.

If you close a document while it’s saving to your Workspace, we’ll ask you whether you want to wait for the save to complete or cancel it. If you select Close and Cancel, the update will not upload to your Workspace.

Other ways to save to your Workspace

You can also save a document to your Workspace by clicking the Collaborate button in the toolbar misc.presence.plus, choosing a Workspace and a folder (if you’ve created one), then clicking Save.

Or drag one or more local documents onto the Workspace window — you’ll be able to choose a Workspace and folder to save them to.

Saving documents locally

To save locally, click Save to Your Mac in the bottom left corner of the Workspace window, or select File > Save to Your Mac in the menu bar.

You can set Sketch to save documents locally by default using the Open & Save To preference in Settings.

If you’re using a Mac-only license, you’ll see the native macOS saving dialog instead of the Workspace window when you save.

My Drafts

In My Drafts, you can store documents and Libraries that aren’t ready to share with the rest of your Workspace yet. By default, only you can access what you save here.

If you leave a Workspace, are removed from one, or delete your account, your drafts become accessible to Workspace admins.

In the Mac app, you’ll see My Drafts in the sidebar of the Workspace window. You can also access it from the sidebar in the web app.

An image showing where to find the My Drafts folder in the web app

Where to find the My Drafts folder in the web app

You can save a new draft document to My Drafts just as you would save any other document to a Workspace. In the Mac app, select File > Save or press S. In the menu that appears, select Workspace, choose the Workspace in which you want to save your document, and select My Drafts from the dropdown menu.

Alternatively, drag and drop documents from your desktop into My Drafts in the Workspace window of the Mac app.

An image showing how to save a document to the My Drafts folder from the Mac app

How to save a document to the My Drafts folder from the Mac app

Sharing and moving drafts

To share a document in My Drafts, you can invite people in that document’s individual share settings, or move it to another location in your shared Workspace. People you invite will see your document in their Shared with Me tab.

In the web app, you can move documents from My Drafts by hovering over the document’s thumbnail, clicking the dots.3.horizontal icon and choosing Move. From there, you can move the document to a folder in the same Drafts, a shared folder in the same Workspace, or the My Drafts folder of any other Workspaces where you are also an Editor.

If you move a document out of My Drafts, everyone in your Workspace will be able to view it and Editors will be able to open it in the Mac app.

How to share a draft document with others by moving it to a shared folder

You can delete a draft in the same way that you delete any other document. When you delete a draft it will remain in your Workspace’s Trash for 90 days, but only you will be able to see it there.

Managing documents

Renaming documents

Choose File > Rename, enter the document’s new name in the Title Bar, then press Enter to save.

You can also rename documents from the Workspace window. Right-click or -click over a document’s thumbnail and select Rename.

An image showing how to rename a Workspace document in the Mac app

How to rename a Workspace document in the Mac app

  • From your Workspace or folder view: hover over your document’s thumbnail, choose dots.3.horizontal, then Rename.
  • From the document or Artboard view: click the pencil next to the document name in the right-hand sidebar, then type in a new name.

How to rename a document in the web app

Searching for documents

Use the search bar in the top-right of the Workspace window to find documents by name or by the author of the latest update. Your search stays in place when you switch between sidebar views, such as Recents, All Documents, or Shared with Me.

An image showing how to search by author of the latest update of a document in the Workspace window

How to search by author of the latest update of a document in the Workspace window

Use the search bar to find documents by name or author, and choose whether to search within a specific folder or across all documents in your Workspace.

Search results are filtered based on the view you’re currently browsing in. For example, if you’re viewing a specific folder, searching here will only give you results from that folder.

Pinning documents

You can pin important documents to the top of the list in the web app and Workspace window in the Mac app. Pinned items are personal to you, so you can use them in whatever way suits your workflow best.

Open the Workspace window, right-click on a document thumbnail and select Pin Document. To unpin it, follow the same steps and select Unpin Document.

Hover over a document’s thumbnail, click dots.3.horizontal and select Pin Document. To unpin it, follow the same steps and select Unpin Document.

Creating preview thumbnails

You can set any frame within a document as a preview thumbnail. The thumbnail will appear in the web app, Mac app, iOS app, and in Finder. To use a specific frame as the preview thumbnail for a document, Control-click on its name on the Canvas or in the Layer List and select Set As Thumbnail from the contextual menu. Selecting the option again will remove it from the frame.

If you don’t select a frame for a thumbnail, Sketch will automatically use the first frame of the first page in your document — provided its dimensions are at least 250×250px.

Duplicating documents

Occasionally you may want to duplicate a Workspace document to work on it separately. You can duplicate documents from the Mac app or from your web browser. Duplicate documents are always based on the original document’s most recent version.

Open the document you want to duplicate and select File > Duplicate in the menu bar or press S. This will create a copy you can edit further or save right away in your Workspace or locally on your Mac.

When you duplicate from the Workspace window, the copy will be automatically saved in the My Drafts folder. Open the Workspace window, right-click the document’s thumbnail, and select Duplicate to my Drafts.

An image showing how to duplicate a document to the My Drafts folder from the Mac app

How to duplicate a document to the My Drafts folder from the Mac app

In the document list, hover over a document thumbnail and click on dots.3.horizontal, then select Duplicate. Choose if you want to duplicate the document to the same folder or to your Drafts folder.

If you’re browsing a document’s contents, click on dots.3.horizontal in the toolbar and select the Duplicate option.

Getting a local copy

Depending on your Auto Save settings, you can either choose File > Duplicate (Auto Save enabled) or File > Save As (Auto Save disabled) to save a new copy of your current document. In the save sheet, you can choose to save it locally (on your Mac) or to a Workspace.

If you have Auto Save enabled, you’ll only see Duplicate in the File menu, but you can hold down to show Save As instead.

You can download any document in your Workspace by hovering over a document’s thumbnail, clicking dots.3.horizontal and selecting Download document. Alternatively, open a document, click on dots.3.horizontal in the toolbar and select Download document from the menu options.

An image showing how to download documents from a document’s thumbnail

How to download documents from a document’s thumbnail

Downloading from an open document will get you the version you’re currently viewing — even if that’s an older version.

Versions

Creating and viewing document versions

To manually save a new version, open a document in the Mac app and select File > Create Version — or press S. Add an (optional) description, choose whether you want to star it, and click Save.

How to save a new version in the Mac app

You can view all versions under the Versions panel clock.rewind in the web app. Click on any version to view it. When you’re viewing an older version, you can click the See Latest Version button in the top-right to go straight to the latest update.

You can also see versions of specific Artboards artboard (if they’ve changed) when viewing an Artboard.

An image showing how to view versions in the web app

Viewing versions in the web app

Adding descriptions to versions

You can add a description to any version in the web app to highlight key milestones or important changes in your document’s history. For example, you could make a note of what’s changed to your design or list the latest components you’ve added to a Library.

Head to File > Create Version or press S in any open document. Enter an optional description in the dialog that appears and, if you want to, add a star. When you’re done, click Save.

How to create a version with a description

Open a document and select the Versions panel clock.rewind. Hover over any version, then click on dots.3.horizontal and choose Add Description.

You can also add a description whenever you star a version. Simply type in a quick summary in the text box.

To edit or delete a version description, select a version, open the Document Details circle.information.button panel, and click the Edit icon next to the description, where you can amend or delete the description entirely.

When you unstar a version, Sketch will still show any description you added to it. But don’t worry — if you want to remove it, you can do it manually using the process above.

Deleting versions

Open your document and hover over the version you want to delete in the Versions panel clock.rewind, click on dots.3.horizontal and choose Delete. You will need to confirm that you want to delete that version by clicking Delete Version in the confirmation window that appears.

If there is only one version in the document’s history, you won’t be able to delete it.

Frequently asked questions

  • Why doesn’t pressing ⌘S update what I see on the web?

    Once you’ve saved a document to your Workspace for the first time, Sketch saves your changes regularly in the background while you work — so there’s no need to keep pressing S.

    However, if you want to publish a new version that’s visible in the web app’s Versions panel, create a version by choosing File > Create Version or pressing S.

    If you still don’t see your latest changes, quitting Sketch will also sync any unsynced edits.

Deleting documents

When you delete a document in your Workspace, it’ll land in the Trashtrash.empty. Sketch will permanently delete any documents that have been in the Trash for 90 days, but up until that point you can easily restore them.

Control-click on a document’s thumbnail in the Workspace window and choose Delete Document, or click once on the thumbnail to select it and press the backspace key on your keyboard.

There are three ways you can delete a document:

  • From your Workspace or folder view, hover over your document’s thumbnail, click the dots.3.horizontal icon, choose Delete and confirm your decision in the dialog that appears.
  • You can also drag and drop a document’s thumbnail to the Trash trash.empty in the sidebar.
  • If you’re viewing a single Artboard or in the document’s overview, click the dots.3.horizontal on the right of the Nav Bar and choose Delete.

How to send documents to the Trash

Restoring documents

To restore a file in the Trash trash.empty, click on the document’s preview and click Restore. You can also hover over the document’s preview in the Trash, click the dots.3.horizontal icon and select Restore.

How to restore a document from the Trash

Permanently deleting documents

To permanently delete a document from the web app, find it in the Trash, hover over its thumbnail and click the dots.3.horizontal icon and select Delete Permanently. When you delete a document permanently, it will also remove all its activity and history for your whole team.

You need to be a Workspace Admin or Owner to permanently delete documents.

You can do the same in the Mac app by right-clicking on a Trashed document and selecting Delete Permanently.

An image showing how to permanently delete a document in the web app

How to permanently delete a document in the web app

Emptying the Trash

You need to be a Workspace Admin or Owner to empty the Trash. You can’t undo this action, so make sure you don’t delete anything you may need later on.

Right-click on the Trash in the Workspace window and select Empty Trash.

Hover over the Trash icon trash.empty in the sidebar, click dots.3.horizontal and select Empty.