Sketch Tips To Maximize Your Productivity—Part 1: Getting Started In Sketch

Welcome to Part 1 of our new series of tips to help you use Sketch more productively. In this installment, we’re going to look at some shortcuts to working wit…

Patrick Multani
Patrick Multani
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Nov 21, 2016
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Welcome to Part 1 of our new series of tips to help you use Sketch more productively. In this installment, we’re going to look at some shortcuts to working with objects, layers, and artboards quickly and efficiently. (Don’t forget to check out Part 2 and Part 3!)

Resize shapes using keyboard shortcuts
1. Resize shapes using keyboard shortcuts

With an object selected, hold down the command key and use the arrow keys to resize.

Duplicate an element
2. Duplicate an element

To duplicate an element, you can hold down the alt key and then click and drag to create a copy. Alternatively, with the element selected, you can press command + d and the copy will be placed on top of the original.

Smart selection
3. Smart selection

To select only elements that are fully enclosed by the selection area, hold down the alt key, then click and drag.

Grouping elements
4. Grouping elements

With multiple elements selected, press command + g to group them. To ungroup, select a group and then press command + shift + g.

Direct selection within groups
5. Direct selection within groups

To select individual elements within a group, hold down command and then click the element or elements that you want.

Set zoom to 100%
6. Set zoom to 100%

To set the view to 100% from the keyboard, press command + 0 (that’s a zero).

Show all artboards
7. Show all artboards

To set the view to show all artboards, press command + 1.

Show selected element
8. Show selected element

To set the view to focus on the selected element, press command + 2.

Bring shapes to the front or back immediately
9. Bring shapes to the front or back immediately

By pressing down alt, the “Forward” and “Backward” buttons in the menu bar become “To Front” and “To Back”. Click these to bring a shape straight to the front or back of a set of layers.

Rename a layer
10. Rename a layer

Rename a layer by hitting command + r on the keyboard while it’s selected. For example, to rename a layer named “Rectangle”, you could press command + r and type “btn-Next”.

More Sketch Tips

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Gain confidence using product data to design better, justify design decisions, and win stakeholders. 6-week course for experienced UX designers.