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Commenting in documents

Last updated on 22 Apr 2024
6 min read

Bring ideas and feedback together with comments, notifications and threads to get feedback from colleagues, stakeholders or anyone you share your designs with.

Commenting on Workspace documents

When you’re viewing a document in the web or Mac apps, you can add a comment anywhere on the Canvas or individual Artboard. To do so:

  1. Open the Comments panel by clicking Comments or pressing C, then click Add New Comment — or press N
  2. Place the comment pin by clicking anywhere on the Canvas. If you’re viewing an individual Artboard in the web app, you can only add the comment within it
  3. Type your comment. You can add emoji Add emoji, mention users Add Mention and use basic Markdown too
  4. Click Send or hit to post your comment

Once you’ve added a comment, click anywhere else to minimize the comment thread — leaving behind only the comment pin. To open it again, click on the comment pin.

In the web app, you’ll find all comments in the Comments Comments panel, so you can easily navigate through them later on. Click on any comment to jump right to it on the Canvas.

You can also view and add comments in a shared prototype

How to add comments in the Mac app

Markdown support in comments

We currently support the following basic Markdown markup within comments:

*italic*
_italic_
**bold**
`code`
    code blocks (start every line with 4 spaces)
> quote
1. orderded lists
- unordered lists

Viewing and editing comments

Comment pins are color coded:

  • Orange: The thread contains unread comments left by someone else
  • Blue: A comment you’ve just added
  • Black: A comment you’ve read
  • Green with checkmark: A resolved comment

Each comment contains its own Three dots contextual menu. From there, you can Edit or Delete your own comments, or copy a link to the comment to share via email or chat. You’ll also see options for adding emoji Add emoji or mentioning users Add Mention when commenting or replying.

In the web app, the Three dots contextual menu also allows you to follow a comment by clicking on Follow. Following a comment means you will receive notifications on any activity in the Updates page.

You can find all your comments in the web apps’s Comments panel Comments. Once you add a comment, it’ll appear for every user that has access to the document and permission to view comments.

Note: Only you can edit your comments, although Admins can delete them.

Resolving comments

Click the checkmark at the top of any open comment to resolve it. You can also hover over any comment in the web app’s sidebar and resolve it from there.

Resolving a comment will change its pin into a green check mark and automatically hide it on the Canvas after you’ve closed it. You can’t reply to resolved comments unless you reopen them first.

To view resolved comments, open either the View menu or View dropdown > Comments > Include Resolved. Alternatively, press N to show or hide resolved comments.

You can reopen a comment at any time by opening it and clicking on its checkmark again.

How to resolve comments in the Mac app

Click the checkmark at the top of any open comment to resolve it. You can also hover over any comment in the web app’s sidebar and resolve it from there.

Resolving a comment will change its pin into a green check mark and automatically hide it on the Canvas after you’ve closed it. You can’t reply to resolved comments unless you reopen them first.

To view resolved comments, use the menu at the top of the Comments panel to filter between showing Open, Resolved and All comments.

You can reopen a comment at any time by opening it and clicking on its checkmark again.

How to resolve comments in the web app

Showing or hiding comments

To hide all comment pins, open View > Comments and disable the Show Comments option. Alternatively, press ^N to toggle between hiding or showing all pins.

To hide all comment pins, click Three dots and choose Hide Comments from the menu, or press N. You can still preview them in the Comments panel and bring comments back using the same shortcut.

How to hide comment pins in the web app

Who can comment?

When you share a document, we’ll enable commenting by default. If you want to disable commenting for Viewers or Guests on your document, uncheck the Can comment option via Share > View.

Anyone who can access document using a public link can view the document but will need to sign in to their Sketch account to comment. You can’t remove the ability to comment for Editors.

Comment threads

Threads make it easy to organize discussions and keep track of different conversations. You can start threads after any comment by adding replies in the comment popover.

On the Canvas, click on the comment pin you want to reply to, then start typing in the Write a reply field. Press Enter to post your response.

Below the original comment, you’ll see the number of replies a comment has. To see all the replies, click on the original comment.

How to find comment threads in the web app

Managing comment notifications

You can choose to get notifications for new comments on a specific thread, a single Artboard (or a selection of them) or for the whole document. By default, we’ll enable notifications for any document you comment on, but you can change this at any time.

An image showing some of the options for following a document in the web app.

How to follow a document or a comment thread in the web app

  1. To receive notifications for a whole document, go to the Document Details panel Information and click the Notification Following button. Select the Follow Entire Document option. To stop receiving notifications, choose Unfollow Document.
  2. To receive notifications on a single comment thread, open the comment popover. Click Three dots and select Notification Follow in the contextual menu. To stop receiving notifications, click on it again.

If you want to receive notifications for a specific Artboard, open that Artboard and click on the Notification icon under the Comments panel. You can choose to follow all the Artboards in a document or just the current one using the menu.

An image showing how to follow and Artboard in a document in the web app

How to follow comments for a single Artboard in the web app

Viewing comment notifications

You can access all your notifications via the Updates page. The Updates page shows all the replies and mentions for the documents you follow. To read a document in context or reply, click on any comment or mention — we’ll take you right to the related Artboard or document.

To mark a comment as read, click on the tick that appears to the right of the notification when you hover over it — or click Mark All as Read from the top of the page.

An image showing how to mark a notification as read

How to mark a notification as read