Release Notes
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.
We have built a major new product: Notebooks, with built in data and insights on the work, and integrations into other design and development tools. This release is a public preview, and we are rolling out to waitlisted users over the next several weeks.
Notebooks is a new designer-specific platform where cross-functional teams can gather requirements, review designs, and continuously measure what works, all in one thoughtfully-built space.
What’s included in today’s release:
- A beautiful, rich text editor to capture context around any design effort. Fully supports Markdown syntax, emojis, and GIFs.
- A new Figma plugin, which integrates directly with Notebooks.
- ~Add and arrange designs directly from Figma into beautiful presentations that display your work and the context behind it. Any design elements can be added: individual components, frames, or entire pages.
- ~Access all your Notebooks from within Figma, and publish any frames or components you’ve worked on in one click.
- ~Update all your work in Notebooks in a single click, without leaving Figma or having to rearrange or recreate presentations of your work for review.
- Drag and drop image support for most image file formats and GIFs
- Rich comment threads for both text and images help you capture feedback on specific elements within a Notebook.
- Invite important stakeholders to review your work, and get structured feedback in the form of approvals and change requests.
- ~Create unlimited review requests per Notebook, which is helpful for designs that need multiple rounds of review, or different feedback from different audiences.
- ~Close a review once you’ve gotten all the feedback needed to get back to work.
- ~Use the built-in notification system to automate the review process so that you don’t have to remind reviewers for their feedback.
- Set a range of statuses for a Notebook, which helps your collaborators know where you are in the design process across a project.
- A new, bi-directional GitHub integration connects design and development work together in a Notebook.
- ~See the status and other relevant information about GitHub Issues and Pull Requests in a related Notebook.
- ~Notebook links unfurl to show the Notebook name and project over in GitHub.
- Insights surfaces actions taking place across Notebooks; helping you keep track of the work your teams are doing. It includes:
- ~An attention block that tells you which Notebooks might need a review decision, a nudge, or are being reworked.
- ~Top-level counts that display Notebooks and reviews being opened and closed over the past 7 days.
- ~An overview of the spread of activity across busy Notebooks and contributors, helping you understand what’s working well and where there might be blocks.
- ~A deeper look at the range of contributions your team is making, from creating and updating content to feedback and reviews
- Organize your Notebooks into unlimited projects, which represent major work streams or products in your organization.
- New users will see a brief onboarding experience when viewing Notebooks for the first time, to learn about how Notebooks work for design teams and their peers in engineering and product management.
This version contains various updates to ensure better app performance and stability
Unblocking your workflow by addressing recent issues related to syncing. Now, back to work. 💻
Fixes
- Fixed a networking issue that resulted in Projects staying “out of sync” until the app restarted.
- Fixed a few errors preventing syncing due to failed asset generation.
- Fixed a couple of spots where more network requests were being made than strictly necessary.
Collections got a lot of love this release. Check out our blog to learn how to use Collections to tell the story of your work.
New Features
- Collections are now consolidated under the Collections tab in the main Project menu. We gave the Collection overview a design refresh while we were at it.
Enhancements
- Sync menu now bundles syncing actions by project.
- We now let you know if syncing fails due to uncommitted changes.
- When you go to a project’s Master, you’ll now land in the Overview tab by default, rather than Files.
- When resolving conflicting designs, the Branch author’s avatar is now displayed, letting you know who to reach out to.
- You can now manage user roles and permissions in the People tab.
- When viewing a layer detail from a Collection, we now display the Collection name under the “Details” section.
- Pressing the CMD+O keyboard shortcut in a layer detail will now open the file in Sketch, focused on the current layer.
- We added Swift and Objective-C color options to Inspect.
- We’re (always) working on performance improvements.
Fixes
- Fixed a rare Sketch crash.
- Fixed an issue when copying a link to a layer in a Collection.
- Fixed an issue where memory was leaked with every input field rendered.
- Fixed an issue that allowed you to edit already-merged files from Sketch’s “Recent files” menu.
- Fixed a sync issue where a project could attempt to upload and download at the same time, resulting in a lockup.
- Fixed an issue where a minimized Abstract window would not become visible when clicking on a notification.
- Fixed an issue where role permissions would disappear from view.
- Fixed an issue where the “Discarding changes” message would not dismiss if the command failed.
- Fixed an issue where the “Create Organization” dialog didn’t close on success.
- Fixed an issue where author names and avatars would not appear for comments made by guests on public share links.
- Fixed a problem that could cause syncing to fail due to asset generation.
- Fixed an issue where the progress of a project’s download was not correctly reported.
- Fixed incorrect messaging that said you were on the “beta” release when you weren’t.
This update returns the "Collections" tab to an individual Branch's view.
Fixes
- We restored the "Collections" tab in the branch menu
Public sharing is the star of 79.0. This month on the blog, we’re sharing how content designers and UX writers can partner with designers in Abstract to take customer experiences from good to great.
New Features
- Members and Guests can now share artboards and Collections with stakeholders, whether they have an Abstract account or not. Learn more about public sharing →
Enhancements
- Admins now have the ability to delete comments. ✂️
- We made headings more consistent.
- You no longer need to manually resolve conflicting Library symbols when updating a Branch.
Fixes
- Fixed several issues with Branch updating that caused files that weren’t edited to be marked as Changed.
- Fixed an issue that sometimes caused Branches to fail loading, incorrectly showing that no files had been Changed.
Enhancements
- Performance improvements for Collections, and Branch update flow.
- The sign-in screen got a facelift.
- You can now toggle measurement units between px, pt, and dp using Inspect Options.
- You can now toggle color formats between Hex, Hex (ARGB) and RGB using Inspect Options.
- You can now double-click to select a file in the libraries picker.
- We improved empty states for Organizations, Projects, and Sections.
- You can now create new Organizations from the desktop app.
- We refined emoji reactions. 💅
- We standardized cursor styles throughout the app.
- Release notes: We polished the look of release notes and made them available from the Help menu.
- Inspect: You can now hold CMD when hovering to ignore groups when mousing over redlines.
Fixes
- Committing is no longer delayed when the Abstract desktop app is on a secondary desktop or hidden.
- Copy Link… for comments and layers works again.
- Fixed an error that occurred when attempting to open multiple files at the same time.
- We fixed the need to hide some characters behind the limit countdown when you type a really long Commit title.
- The Branch name was sometimes missing in the confirmation modal for restoring a Commit. Now, it’s always displayed.
- Sections ordering now takes into account numbers and latin characters.
- Libraries in the “Manage Libraries” dialog are now sorted correctly.
- We polished Dark Mode in a few more places.
- Fixed a rare scenario where the Commit window would never load changes.
- Fixed an issue where previews would not generate on the advanced Commit form when the same file is opened from two Branches at once.
Fixes
- We fixed the sorting of projects so that it’s no longer reversed
- Window vibrancy now behaves correctly with a dark menu bar in High Sierra
- Fixed up a couple of spots where dark mode didn’t look it’s best
New features all around: Assets, Dark Mode, and Emoji Reactions 🙌. We teamed up with our female-identifying teammates to redesign our app icon in honor of Women’s History Month. And we’re continuing the celebration by sharing Employee Spotlights all month, so be sure to keep your eyes on our blog.
New Features
- Assets
- Dark Mode
- Emoji reactions
Enhancements
- We focused on file loading performance in this build and put several improvements in place.
- We combined the Project “About” and “Description” fields into a single “Description” field to reduce clutter.
- You’re now automatically logged into the desktop app when you click the “Open in MacOS” button.
- When you view changed files on a Branch, you’ll now see any artboards that were deleted from the Branch.
- When you click Reviews from the left side bar in Abstract, you’ll now see the review requests assigned to you as the default view.
- When you search for a Project, your search term will now be highlighted in the results.
- Present: The cursor now hides itself when idle and presenting a Collection. (No more folks thinking it’s part of your design!)
- Inspect: Now, you can only access locked layers through the layer tree, and you can click through them by default.
- Inspect: We improved panning performance.
- You’ll no longer see a new “Untitled Document” open alongside your own Sketch file when opening files from Abstract.
- Collections: Collections on a branch will now be visible from the branch overview tab so it’s easier to find and share your work!
Fixes
- We improved proxy support (again!), adding support for Windows proxies.
- Projects made private on the Business plan can now be made visible to the team again on the Starter plan and are no longer forever stuck private.
- We removed the option to review a Branch that has already been merged.
- We fixed an issue where comments might not load correctly immediately after your computer’s power has been suspended.
- The sorting of Organizations in the dropdown switcher now takes capitalization into account.
- Non-Contributors can no longer create a Branch by double-clicking files on Master. This was a sneaky workaround for a while.
- It’s no longer possible to create a Commit with a single space character as the title—you’ll need to write something from now on.
- We fixed an issue that could cause blank Projects to appear in the syncing activity menu.
- Double-clicking fast on “Create Branch” or “New Project” will no longer create duplicates.
- We fixed an issue that happened when you scrolled back a long way in the activity feed.
- If saving from Sketch to Abstract fails for some reason, we’ll now let you know.
- If you make changes in Sketch but don’t save them and then reopen the file from Abstract, your changes will no longer be lost.
- Changed layers are now highlighted correctly again in the Inspect ta
Enhancements
- When you go to a Branch in Abstract, Branch owners will now land in the Overview tab.
Fixes
- We restored support for macOS Sierra and El Capitan.
- Some were seeing unedited artboards marked as “changed” upon save in Sketch 53. We fixed this issue.
- The application was crashing for some, causing data to never finish loading. We’ve fixed this.
- “Calculating changes…” should now complete when updating Branches that new files were added to.
- Inspect: The original symbol name is now preserved when displaying overrides.
- We restored some missing icons in upgrade and export file dialogs to their former glory.
Improvements to Collections, Inspect, Review Requests, and loads of fixes. We’re also celebrating Black History Month with our first Black History Month-themed App Icon, created in partnership with our African American teammates. Be sure to check out our blog for Employee Spotlights all month.
Enhancements
- Performance improvements to speed up your workflow.
- You’ll see a new filter to help you find your favorite’d Projects, quick.
- We refreshed the Project card design.
- “Reviews” in the left sidebar now show outstanding Review Requests.
- We’re using new iconography for files and Libraries.
- We reduced the file size of the Abstract binary.
- Admins can now delete and archive Branches owned by others.
- We cleared up the in-app messaging when sync is delayed due to server load.
- If you view an archived or merged Branch, it now shows up temporarily in the left sidebar.
- We improved proxy support.
Fixes
- You shouldn’t have any more trouble in Abstract when you try to load a Sketch 53 file with only Sketch 52 installed.
- We improved our error messaging when you try to import non-supported files.
- Archived Projects are no longer displayed in the Library picker.
- Collections: You can now scroll while dragging when reordering artboards in Collections.
- Inspect: We fixed some rounding errors. Maths. 😅
- Inspect: You shouldn’t see duplicate fully transparent color swatches any longer.
- Some were experiencing data loading failures because the home directory couldn’t be found. We’ve fixed the issue.
- Syncing was failing for some very large Commits due to a memory leak. We patched it right up.
- The timestamp in your Branch header now correctly shows when the Branch was created, not last updated.
Enhancements
- We added support for the upcoming Sketch 53
Fixes
- Fixed an issue that could result in focusing the incorrect Sketch window when opening from Abstract