Learn how to manage your documents — from saving your work to using document versions in your Workspace.
Opening Workspace documents in the Mac app
In the Mac app You can find and open documents in your Workspace from the Workspace window. Double-click on any document to open it in the Mac app.
The Workspace window
The Workspace window will pop up every time you open the Mac app — you can also bring up the Workspace window to open a Workspace document by choosing File > Open from Workspace (or pressing ⌘O).
If you want to open a document you already saved locally to your Mac, click Open from Your Mac at the bottom left of the Workspace window.
You can set the default location to open documents via the Open & Save To preference in Settings (⌘,).
You can choose to browse documents in your Workspace either in a list or a grid view. To switch between these two views, use the buttons next to the search bar.
You can select multiple documents at the same time using the ⌘ key, making it easier for you to open, move and delete them in bulk.
If you’re part of a team or have created projects 
, you’ll see these in the sidebar. Clicking on a Workspace or project name will show only the documents that belong to it.
In the Workspace window, you’ll find the project a document belongs to under its thumbnail. You can also see the different levels of access to that document with the following icons:
: Anyone with the document’s link can access
: Only certain Guests can access
: Only you can access
You can also toggle between Workspaces using the switcher in the top-left side of the window, check our templates or create new projects from the Workspace window.
Opening and editing documents from the web app
You can open any document in the Mac app directly from your browser by clicking on the Edit in Sketch button of an open document’s Nav Bar. If you are viewing a specific Artboard, we’ll open it in the Mac app. Depending on your browser, you may have to confirm this action before your document opens in the Mac app.
Open and edit documents in the Mac app from the web app (July 2022).
You can also open documents in the Mac app from the All Documents view 
in your Workspace. To do this, hover over any document’s thumbnail, click … and choose Edit.
Creating a new document
To create a new document, you can either double-click on the New Document thumbnail in the Workspace window and choose File > New, or press ⌘N.
Saving documents
Choose File > Save (⌘S) to open the save dialog, give your document a name, and (optionally) set it as a Library or template.
In the save dialog, you also choose to save to a specific project or collection. Click the + next to the project list to create a new Project, or use New Collection to create a new collection within a project.
When you’re done, click Save.
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 whether you want to close and cancel the save. If you select Close and Cancel, the update will not upload to your Workspace.
You can also save a document to your Workspace by clicking on the Collaborate button in the toolbar 
, choosing a Workspace and a project (if you’ve created one) to save to, then clicking Save.
You can drag one or more local documents onto the Workspace window to save them to your Workspace. When you do this, you’ll be able to choose a Workspace and project to save it to.
If you prefer to always save documents locally by default, you can use the Open & Save To preference in Settings (⌘,) to bring up the local save dialog with ⌘S instead.
From the regular save dialog, choose Save to Your Mac to save your document locally. You can also bring up the local save dialog via File > Save to Your Mac.
You can set Sketch to save documents locally by default using the Open & Save To preference in Settings (⌘,).
Working with real-time collaboration documents
To collaborate on a new document, you’ll need to save it to your Workspace. Once you’ve saved it to your Workspace, we’ll save your changes automatically while you work. Every time you close or save a document, we’ll create a version — a snapshot of your work at that moment. You can access and browse versions in the web app’s sidebar.
Working on a Workspace document locally
When you’re working on a document with other people, you can download the Workspace document to your computer, make your changes locally and manually upload them to your Workspace to create a new update of the document. Click and hit Update Document. Before uploading your document, we’ll ask you to confirm this action, as it might overwrite edits from other collaborators.
If someone is working on the same document as you in your Workspace, you won’t be able to push changes until they’re gone.
Saving real-time collaboration documents offline
If you’re working offline, we’ll store any changes you save locally. When you are back online, we’ll sync the latest update of the document that’s available in your Workspace with all your new changes.
Note: If someone deletes an object that you’ve edited while you were offline, we won’t be able to apply changes to that object.
Searching for documents
You can search for a document in your Workspace using the search bar in the top-right side of the Workspace window in the Mac app or the search bar in the web app. You can search a document by its name or the author of the latest update of the document and choose whether you want to search within a specific project or all the documents in your Workspace.
Using versions
When you save changes you’ve made to a Workspace document, it’ll appear as a new version under the Version tab in the right sidebar of the in the web app. You can click on any version in the sidebar 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 
(if they’ve changed) when viewing an Artboard.
Viewing Versions in the web app (July 2022).
Deleting versions
Open your document and hover over the version you want to delete in the Version tab of the sidebar, click on 
and choose Delete. You will need to confirm that you want to delete that update by clicking Delete Version in the confirmation window that appears.
Note: If there is only one version in the document’s history, you won’t be able to delete it.
How to delete a version of a document in the web app (July 2022).
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 note of what’s changed to your design or list the latest components you’ve added to a Library.
Open a document and select the Version tab in the sidebar. Hover over any version in the right sidebar, then click on and choose Add Description.
How to add descriptions to versions in the web app (July 2022).
You’ll also have the option to add a description whenever you star a version. Simply type in a quick summary in the text box within the modal.
To edit or delete a version description, follow the same steps. Hover over the version in question, click on and choose Edit Description. Here, you can edit the description or erase it. Click Save Description to save your edits. To delete an existing description, delete all the text and click Delete Description.
Note: if you unstar a version, we’ll 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.
Head to File > Save with Description ⌃⌘S in any open document. Enter a description in the dialog that appears and, if you want to, add a star. When you’re done, click Save.
Switching between Workspaces
To switch between Workspaces you’re a member (Editor or Viewer) or Guest of:
In the Mac app Use the drop-down menu in the top-left of the Workspace window and choose a Workspace or toggle between Workspaces using ⌘1 (or the number that corresponds to your Workspace). You’ll only see documents and projects that belong to that Workspace.
In the web app Select your Workspace from the drop-down menu in the top-left to view all the documents shared in your Workspace.
Viewing Workspace documents in the web app
There are a few different ways to view documents in the web app.
From the Mac app With a Workspace document open, click on the Collaborate button in the toolbar, or head to File > Workspace, and choose View in Browser. This will open the document in a new browser window.
How to opening a Workspace document in the browser from the Mac app (July 2022).
If someone has shared a document with you via your Workspace email address, choose the Workspace they shared it from using the drop-down menu in the top-left of the web app. You will see the shared document in the panel to the right.
If you’ve been sent a link to a Workspace document, clicking on that link will open it up in a new browser window. When you open a document in the web app, you’ll see it in the Canvas view where you can view its Pages, Symbols, Styles, Color Variables and prototypes. You can click any of these to view them in more detail.
Exploring Workspace documents in the web app
You can choose to browse documents in your Workspace either in a list or a grid view. To switch between these two views, use the buttons in the top-right corner of the web app’s menu bar.
Toggling between grid and list view in the web app (July 2022).
When you’re viewing a document or an individual Artboard, you can use the drop down menus in the navigation breadcrumbs in the top-left to jump between the different Pages and Artboards in the document.
Navigating around a document in the Canvas view (July 2022).
When you’re viewing an individual Artboard, you can click on it to zoom in and view it full size — or use the zoom controls in the top-right. You can also press:
- 0 to zoom to 100%
- 1 to fit the Artboard on your screen
- + to zoom in (or = on non-US keyboards)
- - to zoom out
From there, you can scroll around to see all of its contents.
Making a local copy of a Workspace document
In the Mac app 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.
Tip: 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.
In the web app From your Workspace or project view, hover over your document’s thumbnail, choose … and then Download Document. From the document or Artboard view, click on … in the top nav bar and choose Download Document.
Moving documents from My Drafts to a shared Workspace
In the web app You can move documents from My Drafts to a shared Workspace by hovering over the document’s thumbnail, clicking the more options icon that appears and choosing Move to Project. From there, select the project you want to move your document to and click Move to confirm.
Note: You cannot undo the process of moving a document from My Drafts to a shared Workspace.
Adding a preview thumbnail to documents
You can set any Artboard 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 Artboard as the preview thumbnail for a document, Control-click on its name on the Canvas or in the Layer List and enable Set As Thumbnail from the context menu. Selecting the option again will remove it from the Artboard.
When no Artboard is set as the thumbnail, Sketch will use the first Artboard of the first page in your document. This Artboard should be at least 250x250, otherwise it won’t show.
Downloading documents from the web app
You can download any document in your Workspace by clicking Download Document at the bottom of the sidebar in the document view, or by hovering over a document’s thumbnail, clicking and selecting Download document.
Note: Clicking Download Document will download the update you’re currently viewing, even if that’s an older update.
Renaming documents
In the Mac app Choose File > Rename, enter its new name in the title bar, then press enter on your keyboard to save.
You can also double-click on any document thumbnail in the Workspace window (or Control-click on the thumbnail and choose Rename) to rename it.
In the web app
- From your Workspace or project view: hover over your document’s thumbnail, choose , then Rename.
- From the document or Artboard view: click on the document title in the right-hand sidebar and type in a new name.
Duplicating workspace documents
Occasionally you might want to create a duplicate of a Workspace document so that you can separate it from the original document and all its versions. For example:
- Someone has shared a public document with you from another Workspace that you want to copy to your own to work with.
- You want to duplicate a document that already exists elsewhere in your Workspace so that you can the develop the documents in different directions.
In both of these cases, you can use the Duplicate to My Drafts option, you’ll find this:
- In the Mac app’s Workspace window, you’ll find this option by right/Control-clicking on a document’s thumbnail.
- In the web app on a document’s context menu when you view the grid of document thumbnails in a Workspace.
- When you’re viewing a specific document in the web app, you’ll find the option under the menu in the Nav Bar.
If you duplicate a public document and you are a member of multiple Workspaces, you can choose which Workspace’s My Drafts folder to store the duplicate in. In this case, you’ll see a dialog to choose which Workspace you want to use duplicate the document to. The duplicate file is named as a Copy of the original.
Deleting documents
When you delete a document in your Workspace you’ll send it to the Trash 
. We’ll automatically delete any documents that have been in the Trash for 90 days, but up until that point you can easily restore them
In the Mac app 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.
In the web app From your Workspace or project view, hover over your document’s thumbnail, click … and choose Delete Document. You can also drag and drop a document’s thumbnail to the Trash item in the sidebar . If you’re viewing a single Artboard or in the document’s overview, you can click on ** in the top nav bar and choose **Delete Document.
Restoring documents
To restore a file in the Trash , click on the document’s preview and choose Restore. You can also hover over the document’s preview in the Trash, click and select Restore document.
Permanently deleting documents
If you want to permanently delete a document, hover over its thumbnail in the Trash, click and select Delete Permanently. When you delete a document permanently, it will also remove all its activity and history for your whole team.
To empty the Trash, hover over the Trash icon in the sidebar, click and select Empty Trash. Be careful — anyone in your Workspace can empty the Trash and this is a permanent action, so please be sure before you do so!
Note: At this time, you can only access and empty the Trash from your web browser. We’ll be bringing this functionality to the Mac app in a future update.
