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Collaboration and comments

Everyone who has a document open in the editor works on the same live document. Editing a layer does not reserve it for you: collaborators can edit it at the same time, and nobody is asked before a change is overwritten. Read this before you co-edit a screen, work on an unstable connection, or collect feedback as comments. Also called: multiplayer, co-editing, review comments.

With View the editor opens in Read only mode: you see collaborators and comment, but change nothing (Who can do what).

Presence​

Where: the avatars in the editor header. Click them for the list of people in the document.

  • A collaborator's pointer, labelled with their name, and the outlines of their selection show in their color while they are on the page you are viewing.
  • Only people in the editor appear, including people with View. Someone who has the document open in preview does not.
  • Hide multiplayer cursors (Ctrl + /), in the menu of the last button in the header (tooltip Even more options), hides collaborators' selection outlines as well as their pointers. It is stored in your browser.

When two people change the same thing​

Conflicts resolve per property of a layer: the change that reaches the server last is the one that is saved, without a warning.

  • Different properties of one layer do not conflict: a new fill from one person and a resize from another are both kept.
  • A text layer's text and its character formatting are one property. If a collaborator changes either while you are editing that layer, you leave text editing and their content replaces yours. Other changes to the layer, such as a move or a new opacity, do not interrupt you.
  • Editing a vector's points is stricter: any change a collaborator makes to that layer ends your editing.
  • You also leave text or point editing when someone deletes, hides or locks the layer you are editing or a frame that contains it, or moves either to another parent.

Undo in a shared document​

Undo history is personal. It holds only your own changes and lives in the tab, so a reload empties it.

  • Undo writes your previous value back. If a collaborator has changed the same property since, undo overwrites their value. Redo restores what the property held at the moment you pressed undo.
  • If a collaborator has deleted a layer in the meantime, undoing your earlier change to one of its properties shows nothing. The rest of that undo step still applies.

Saving and connection loss​

There is no Save. Every change is sent as you make it.

  • After about ten seconds without a connection, a connection icon appears in the header, with a message that the editor is trying to reconnect; its tooltip says that changes are not being saved. Once reconnecting has failed, clicking the icon tries again.
  • You can keep editing while disconnected. The changes stay in the tab and are sent when the connection returns; if the connection icon was showing, a message confirms that all changes have been saved.
warning

After a disconnection the editor may be unable to catch up with what it missed. It then shows Could not resume the existing editing session. with a Reload button, and the changes you made while disconnected are lost. Unsent changes are also lost when you close or reload the tab yourself; the browser's leave-page warning appears first.

A change of your access between View and an editing level is picked up within about ten seconds while the document is open. The editor tells you that write access was granted or revoked, and you Reload to continue (Choosing a level).

Comments​

Where: left toolbar → Comment (Shift + C) places a pin; the speech-bubble button in the header (tooltip Comments) opens the Comments panel.

  • Pins show only while the Comments panel is open. Picking the Comment tool opens the panel; closing the panel hides the pins.
  • A pin belongs to the artboard, or other top-level frame, you click, and to the page when you click empty canvas. It never attaches to a nested layer: it moves and rotates with its artboard, but does not follow a layer that moves inside the artboard.
  • The panel lists the threads of every page, newest first, under page-name headings. Opening a thread switches to its page and centers the pin.
  • Detached marks a thread when its artboard has been deleted, or when the layer that was under the pin as it was placed has been deleted. The pin turns orange. A pin whose artboard is deleted stays where it was on the page.
  • The first comment of a thread cannot be deleted on its own; delete the thread instead. Deleting someone else's comment or thread takes Edit & Share (Who can do what).
  • Comments are stored outside the document: they are not part of undo and are not copied when a document, page or artboard is duplicated.
  • Nobody is notified of new comments or replies, and there are no mentions.
In preview

Pins appear for the artboard being shown, and a new pin always belongs to that artboard. The Comments sidebar lists the threads of that artboard's page; opening a thread on another artboard switches the preview to it. People with View can comment (The preview header).