Sometimes we overlook the simplest of things that could make life easier. When it comes to web design tools, Sketch shortcuts are no exception. That’s why I’m sharing 3 things you should be doing in Sketch right now to speed up your workflow.
1. Use unstyled text
As you’ll see in the video, pasting text in Sketch from somewhere else has a simple workaround. The intuitive way is Copy > Web Sketch > Select all > Paste. However, this isn’t the best use of your effort—undo all that, hit Select all and Option + Shift.
Then, open your preferences and go to Layer. Once you’re there, check Strip Text When Pasting. Now you can copy any text, paste it into your Sketch design, and it will match the style.
Learn next: How to design an 8-point soft grid
2. Zoom in on a selected point
Chances are, you understand how annoying it is to zoom, scroll, zoom, scroll when you need to see an element up close. This is tedious and a bit frustrating—but there’s a quick fix.
Open your preferences and select Canvas. Then, check Zoom In On Selection. After enabling this feature, your selection will be the focal point of your zoom.
Learn next: Manipulate Artboards for responsive design
3. Set a default style
A guy draws a rectangle in Sketch and turns off the border 95% of the time.
No, this isn’t the start of a terrible joke—it’s something I did all the time. I always knew setting default styles was an option, but I never remembered how to do it. Hopefully you’re smarter than me. But just in case…
Go ahead and style your shape to a preferred default style. In my case, that’s removing the border. Once you’ve done this, go to Edit and select Set Style As Default (as of MM/YY, that workflow looks like Layer > Style > Set as Default Style). That’s it!
Learn next: Global color replacement in Sketch
If you’re on the hunt for other simple (and free) ways to turbocharge your workflow, check out Craft. It’s a suite of plugins for Sketch that we made to save you tons of time. Think placing images and text, duplicating things with ease, and sharing asset libraries. Okay, okay—so that recommendation is technically a fourth tip!
Looking for more Sketch tutorials?
How to override colors in Sketch
Creating infinitely scalable connection arrows in Sketch
What are you designing with Sketch? Tell us on Twitter: @InVisionApp.
by Andy Orsow
Designer and product marketer at InVision, resident GIF-ologist and video maker.
