How to use Sketch's revert feature — it's actually really awesome!

Over the last year, I have moved my entire workflow over to Sketch. The app is very versatile and removes the need for a number of apps that I was previously using simultaneously every day. If you design interfaces or vector graphics for screens, it will change your life.

I’m going to show you how to use one of my favorite features of the app. Tucked into the File menu is the Revert To option. In other apps, this would be totally uninteresting. The way you expect it to work is that you select it and then your document falls back to the previously saved version. But in Sketch, if you choose “Browse All Versions” you are dropped into a view very similar to Time Machine.

The first thing that I thought when I saw this was “Oh! That’s nice, I can pick which version.” This is true, however you are also able to edit any previous version and your new version side by side. Once you have finished making changes or choosing a version you click done. This feature is very powerful and allows you to work without worrying. In the included video, you can see how it works.

Every time I use it it feels like magic. I know longer worry about how the changes I am making might affect other parts of my layouts because I know that I can easily pop open revert and find what I previously had and pull over only those elements.

Learn more about Sketch here.

If you already know how great Sketch is, Sketch App Resources is a cool resource for finding UI Kits and assets.

To learn about the app I use for the design example in the demo, it is called Dead Man’s Snitch. We make it and it’s pretty awesome.

Photo of Victor Sirotek

Victor is both a manager of expectations and a designer of experiences for Collective Idea. He’s enjoyed leading projects, designing apps, and creating thoughtful experiences since 2002.

Comments

  1. albert
    July 24, 2017 at 9:52 AM

    saved my day,

  2. G
    November 24, 2017 at 14:25 PM

    I love you for posting this. I was messing around with the react-sketchapp library and accidentally had the wrong file open… it blew away one of the main pages and I thought I had lost a solid day’s worth of work. Time Machine didn’t even have a backup… but this worked like a charm.

  3. Lisa
    February 02, 2018 at 12:47 PM

    The same thing with the react-sketchapp. Thank you very much <3

  4. Aaron
    February 14, 2018 at 10:21 AM

    You literally saved my day with this. Thank you so much!

  5. craig
    April 06, 2018 at 11:49 AM

    marry me. you saved my LIFE

  6. Renée
    July 17, 2019 at 18:56 PM

    me too. Phew!