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Sketch tip: hold CMD to click-through a group

over 5 years ago from , Designer

Maybe this is common knowledge, but I recently stumbled on the fact that holding CMD let's you click-through a group when selecting. Previously I found myself double-clicking, a lot, or selecting the "Click-through when selecting" option in the inspector.

Now I'm finding myself holding CMD when selecting about 100x an hour, so I figured I should share, haha.

What about you guys? Find any tiny, should-be-obvious-but-maybe-I-missed kinda tips?

30 comments

  • David AlandíDavid Alandí, over 5 years ago

    God bless you.

    22 points
  • Nathan HueningNathan Huening, over 5 years ago

    My favorite: when you draw a new object, like a rectangle, it will of course have whatever default fill and stroke you've set. But sometimes you need quick access to toggling either one. Easy:

    Type 'F' for fill or 'B' for border (I guess, instead of stroke) and you'll quick-toggle them on/off. No need to hit ⌘, just the letter.

    14 points
    • florian fangohrflorian fangohr, over 5 years ago

      To go further down this rabbit hole: if you want to quickly change the border color, you can actually turn off (F)ill, then (ctrl+c) bring up the color picker to get the border color, and kick (F)Ill back in.

      Happiness is less keystrokes ;)

      3 points
  • Mindy NamMindy Nam, over 5 years ago

    This tip is also useful for when you're trying to look at spacing by pressing option and one of the object is hidden in a group.

    4 points
  • Toby KellerToby Keller, over 5 years ago

    Don't have any for Sketch that haven't been mentioned here, but I do wish my favorite Illustrator tip worked in Sketch:

    If you select two or more objects in AI and go to align them, you can click any one of them (without holding Shift or Cmd or anything else) to set that as the "key" object, and all other objects will align to that.

    One of the things I really miss when working in Sketch.

    2 points
  • Kyle RoseKyle Rose, over 5 years ago (edited over 5 years ago )

    Setting styles as default is a big one.

    • Alt + Tabbing through inspector panels

    • performing math functions in the inspector

    • tabbing through vector points in edit mode

    • quick changing opacity of layers with the number buttons (0-9)

    • CTRL + C to open color picker (which works on windows outside of Sketch itself)

    Here are some more from Meng To:

    http://blog.mengto.com/hidden-features-sketch-part-2/

    2 points
  • Marcos VidalMarcos Vidal, over 5 years ago

    I found this by mistake, but I use it a lot since then:

    When having one ore more elements selected, click "ctrl + tab" to go to the "distribute/align bar", navigate through items using tabs and hit "space bar" to apply.

    1 point
  • florian fangohrflorian fangohr, over 5 years ago

    ⌘ + option + C ⌘ + option + V

    "Copy and Paste Style" isn't exclusive to Sketch but it's still wicked.

    1 point
  • Kody DahlKody Dahl, over 5 years ago

    Oh well dang. My trackpad might actually last the lifetime of my computer now!

    1 point
  • c kizerc kizer, over 5 years ago

    I literally have my hand on command all day :-) Been using this since sketch v1

    1 point
  • Chuck EricksonChuck Erickson, over 5 years ago

    Nice to see this old FreeHand option alive in Sketch. Very useful.

    0 points
  • Account deleted over 5 years ago

    Holding CMD when a object is selected (like a rectangle), gives you quick access to be able to rotate that object. I just learned this the other day.

    0 points
  • Nick Sloggett, over 5 years ago

    Not common knowledge. Thank you fine sir... thank you.

    0 points
  • Johan EkhagerJohan Ekhager, over 5 years ago (edited over 5 years ago )

    Love this. Thanks.

    One more thing. As I have several artboards on one page I often use:

    1. Press cmd + 1 to zoom out and see every artboards for a page.
    2. Mark an object on the artboard you want to work with.
    3. Press cmd + 2 to zoom in and move to selected artboard.
    4. Press cmd + 0 to zoom to actual size (100%). Then do your things.
    0 points
  • Benjamin ChristineBenjamin Christine, over 5 years ago

    Amazing! Def didnt know that!

    0 points
  • Maciej KarpetaMaciej Karpeta, over 5 years ago (edited over 5 years ago )

    Another one I use quite often: holding ⌘ + Shift allows you to select elements in different groups.

    Still haven't figured out how to select the whole group that is nested using keyboard shortcut.

    0 points
  • Lasse EriksenLasse Eriksen, over 5 years ago

    I love you

    0 points
  • Michael LeeMichael Lee, over 5 years ago

    Thank you!

    0 points
  • Todd SielingTodd Sieling, over 5 years ago

    Oh yes, this is one of THE BEST things to know about Sketch. It's saved me so much time.

    0 points
  • Jason WilliamsJason Williams, over 5 years ago

    Also works in InDesign :)

    0 points
    • Clark WimberlyClark Wimberly, over 5 years ago (edited over 5 years ago )

      Haha as I shared it, I thought "holding CMD is so basic I'm sure that other apps do this, but oh well"

      0 points
  • Piero BorgoPiero Borgo, over 5 years ago

    Didn't know that. You saved me dude ;)

    0 points
  • Loren Morris, over 5 years ago

    Dig. Thanks for the tip Clark.

    0 points
  • Thomas PritchardThomas Pritchard, over 5 years ago

    I didn't know this, so thanks!

    0 points