Release Notes

October 28, 2021

Updated Slack Integration for Notebooks

The updated Slack integration for Abstract Notebooks automatically shares notifications for notebook reviews to one or more of your Slack channels of choice, and unfurls Notebook links pasted into Slack.

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July 15, 2021

Cut and Copy Images and Frames

Notebooks users can easily cut and copy images and frames in a Notebook using common keyboard shortcuts Cmd/Ctrl+X and Cmd/Ctrl+C.
Images and frames copied and pasted into the same Notebook will retain all annotations and comments. Those pasted to differing Notebooks will simply paste the image or frame.
Copy and pasted Figma frames will continue retain the link to Figma.

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June 30, 2021

Link Content Back to Figma

Get back to your original Figma file right from your notebook. Users can now link a Figma frame to a file, and Abstract will link all frames from that file across the organization.

Learn more here.

June 23, 2021

Paste images into Notebooks

Paste Images

Users can now paste images from their clipboards into their notebooks - no more saving content to your desktop!

Branches Pro administration

Updated billing plans to include Branches Pro plan. New Branches organizations can now self-administer and select this plan, which allows unlimited Contributor seats to be added.

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June 15, 2021

Project and template updates

Improved Notebook Template Selection

We've improved the experience to select a template when you create a notebook.

Project naming conventions

Changed project naming conventions to remove restriction on project name uniqueness.

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June 8, 2021

Interactive images

* Elevated static images to behave in the same way as imported artboards - users can now double-click to see the detail view and add comments and annotations to new images.

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May 18, 2021

Notebooks Open Preview

Figma and Sketch plugin updates

Only show projects with notebooks that you can make updates to.
(Sketch only) Adds support for dark mode.

Jira integration

A new Jira integration connects design and development work together in a Notebook.
See the status, priority, ticket name, and last updated date of Jira ticket links inside Notebooks.

New onboarding experience

New users will now see a pre-made Notebook in a private project, walking them through the key features and capabilities of Notebooks.

Comment edit indicators

If a comment it edited and updated, users will see the text (edited) inline with their comment.

Moving Notebooks between projects

When needed, users can now change which project their Notebooks lives in to better organize their work.

Activity timeline

The series of Notebook updates, reviews, and comments are available by clicking the activity icon in the upper right corner of the Notebook. Activities include the user making the change as well as the time it occurred and repeated events are consolidated into a single activity.
For example, if you left 5 comments in a notebook, 1 comment activity will be logged to note that you've left 5 comments. Activities will be rolled up for Notebook content updates, frame additions and updates, and when adding reviewers.

April 26, 2021

Weekly Insights email

This week, we began sending a weekly email which gives an overview of Notebook activity in each organization. The email includes:

Notebooks that require attention (because of outstanding reviews, inactivity, or a notable change in status)
Most active notebooks in the last week
General activity counts in the last week (Notebooks opened/closed, and Reviews opened/closed)

April 9, 2021

Annotated comments

Create focused comments and collaborate using annotations on imported Figma/Sketch frames

Click [A] for a quick shortcut to create either a single-point or rectangular annotation.
On/off toggle to temporarily hide annotations from view.
Click an annotation box to scroll its associated comment into view.
Edit an annotation after you’ve submitted your comment by editing the comment.

March 26, 2021

Comments in reviews

We've added the ability to post comments in review threads, making each review more interactive and iterative

Any Contributor can comment in a review thread without having been requested for a review.
Requested reviewers are able to comment and optionally submit their review as Approved or Changes Requested.

March 12, 2021

Sketch plugin for Notebooks now available

We’ve released a new Sketch Plugin which integrates directly with Notebooks.

Add and arrange designs directly from Sketch into beautiful presentations that display your work and the context behind it.
Access all your Notebooks from within Sketch, and publish any artboards or components you’ve worked on in one click.
Update all your work in Notebooks in a single click, without leaving Sketch or having to rearrange or recreate presentations of your work for review.

October 23, 2024

98.4.2

This version contains various updates to ensure better app performance and stability

Download

July 26, 2021

We have shipped a new major version of our Branches desktop app (v98) with a number of performance and usability improvements including:

Performance Improvements:

Stability and performance of Branches Sketch plugin while opening and saving Sketch documents
Branches Sketch plugin (Reduced in size by about 1MB)

Usability Improvements:

When a file is uploaded to Sketch Workspace, closed, then reopened, Branches users have to upload the file to Sketch Workspace as a new file instead of being able to update the already existing instance. This workflow is not ideal so we have updated our Sketch plugin to reallocate with the appropriate Sketch file.
Correct timing dependent commit condition that resulted in the loss of recent commits.
Remove the Open Quick Commit button from Branches app as it opens an old commit, Quick Commit happens over in the Sketch plugin.

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April 6, 2021

97.2

Enhancements

Contributors can now leave multi-line commit messages!

Fixes

Some odd interactions between the Sketch editing file and the .abstractBackup file that may have prevented committing work on a branch have been resolved.
Resolved an uncommon bug that caused Sketch to crash when committing.
Abstract and the Gallery Sketch plugin are more compatible now.
When using Safari, on hover in preview and Collections layers, the overlay controls no longer remain visible after hovering.
Projects once again correctly sort by with the “recently updated” option.
Organizations owners are now able to leave the organization when other org admins exist via the Personal Settings menu.
The notifications window should now close as expected after clicking on a notification.

March 2, 2021

97.1

This release of the Abstract Versions desktop app contains a few bug fixes and improvements.

Enhancements

Updated the name of our Sketch plugin to Abstract Versions, to make way for our upcoming Notebooks plugin.
Added support for XD version 36 and beyond.

Fixes

Resolved issues causing some artboards and changes to be lost after committing.
Re-enabled the keyboard shortcut cmd + enter for submitting the quick commit form.
Updated broken Help Center links in the XD plugin.
Fixed an issue causing an alert dialog to appear when saving a tracked file in Sketch.
Resolved an issue where the Sketch commit bar did not show the project name for certain libraries after opening from Sketch.

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January 26, 2021

New Features

We've added Apple Silicon architecture support for Abstract CLI and Sketch plugin
We improved how you move around the app with a unified global navigation and theme

Enhancements

Contributors are now able to open a file untracked while the same file has already been opened tracked

Fixes

Fixed a bug where the commit window would appear on the wrong screen when using an external display

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November 24, 2020

96.2

Enhancements

Abstract now supports XD 35.

Fixes

Abstract will now share a more helpful error message if an action fails because it requires a local Sketch installation.
Fixed an issue where Inspect would show an incorrect background fill color on a symbol instance after an override was removed from the master symbol.

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November 4, 2020

96.1.1

🌊 We’ve added Big Sur support! This includes a new application icon as well as speed enhancements to the Quick Commit window via a new, native Sketch plugin.
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Bug Fixes

Added support for Adobe XD v34
Fixed a bug where components from Abstract libraries couldn’t be used in the insert window
We no longer force cleanup untracked libraries that are still being used
Fixed a bug where Sketch Cloud links were breaking after committing and re-opening the same file
Fixed a rare issue where Sketch would crash after upgrading a file’s version
When using Big Sur the Quick Commit window will now return focus to Sketch
Resolve diverged branch button will now always displays as it should without restart
Project context menus now match throughout the app
Fixed a bug where an update from master would remove artboards without the conflict resolution flow

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September 22, 2020

96.0.1

Experience better app stability with the bug fixes and behind the scenes improvements we're shipping this release.

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Enhancements

Enabled Abstract support for Sketch v69.
Enabled Abstract support for XD v33
Added support for adding, editing, and removing Sketch color variables in the commit history, and linking color variables through libraries.
Added support for ignored assistants in Sketch.
We made some tweaks to improve performance when generating assets.
Adding new colleagues to Abstract? They’ll now see an onboarding tutorial.

Bug Fixes

Resolved a handful of sync issues that would occur when attempting to pull project data.
Fixed a bug where progress toasts remained visible on uncommitted changes errors until the app was refreshed.
Fixed a bug that would prevent the commit footer from appearing despite having changes to commit.
Fixed a bug where users were able to add removed layers to a collection.
Fixed a bug that would prevent fullscreen collection presentation to cover the entire window.
Fixed a rare race condition that would cause comments to instead display an error.

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September 22, 2020

96.1.2

Fixes

Fixed a bug that would occasionally ask users to update a file’s Sketch version to the same version when Updating from Master; the app will now suggest updating your Sketch version.
Fixed a bug where linked library symbols wouldn’t appear in the Insert menu.
Fixed broken links that point to our Help Center.

August 31, 2020

We’ve made some big performance improvements to commit speed. And, over the next few weeks, we’ll continue rolling out updates to opening, renaming, deleting, and merging files. With Reporting, we’re also surfacing data that gives Admins the ability to see the status of work across the team.

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Features

Reporting: Enterprise admins can now see team activity on projects, branches, and commits, both at the organization and contributor levels (viewable on the web only).

Enhancements

We’ve been rolling out changes over the last few weeks to make opening files, interacting with files, and creating commits much faster.
Abstract now fully supports Adobe XD v32.

Fixes

Fixed an error when updating Adobe XD files based on an invalid version number.
Prevents an error that occur on projects where files had been opened untracked.
Fixed “Project could not be unsynced” error.

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August 11, 2020

95.0.1

Bug Fixes

Fixed sync error on High Sierra.
Opening a file untracked will no longer fail to sync master branch.

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