Articles on: The Pro editor

Import your Sketch file

As a Sketch user, it’s possible to directly convert your Sketch artboards into fully editable scenes in Maglr Pro. This allows you to design the pages of your Maglr publication in Sketch first, before importing to Maglr to convert them into an interactive publication.

Selecting a file to import



First, add a new Pro page or scene to your project and open it in the editor. Under the Options dropdown-menu in the top right you will see an option called Import from Sketch file. Here you’re able to select a Sketch file to import.

Image: import a Sketch file via the options menu in the Maglr Pro editor

After selecting a Sketch file, you will see an overview of its pages & the artboards inside of those pages. Select an artboard to import all of its elements, including all images, directly into your current scene in the Maglr Pro editor. There’s no need to manually upload or convert any images to use with Maglr, as we will automatically upload and optimise your images that are present in the Sketch artboard. And because we only upload the assets of the selected artboard itself, the size of your Sketch file itself does not matter!

Image: selecting an artboard to import into your current scene in Maglr

Editing your imported elements



Every element inside the Sketch file will be imported as a separate element in Maglr Pro, where the already set up layer names & group structure will be kept as well. This means that every element and/or group can now be edited separately, allowing you to easily apply interactivity to your imported elements, such as animations, effects & actions.

Image: layer panel comparison in Sketch & Maglr

Adjusting your Sketch file after importing



After you’ve imported your Sketch file into Maglr, you might still want to make some changes to it. Because Maglr ‘connects’ to the Sketch file that’s placed locally on your device, it isn’t necessary to manually upload your Sketch file again. However, we do not know exactly which elements were imported, so we cannot ‘update’ the scene in Maglr with your elements in Sketch.

Warning: reperforming the import will NOT overwrite the already imported elements in Maglr, but simply add them to the scene as new elements, essentially placing them twice. A best practice would be to delete all items in your Maglr scene before importing your Sketch assets again.

Importing a mobile version



Our current focus for the Sketch import lies with desktop, so it's not possible to import your Sketch artboard to use with a mobile version of your scene in Maglr. A mobile import would create an entirely different scene, with new elements that aren't connected to the desktop version. This would mean that all elements are rendered twice on a single page, increasing the loading speed. You would also need to maintain and apply changes to two separate versions of your scene in Maglr.

Warning: in terms of productivity and efficiency (page speed/SEO), we highly advise against using Sketch for the mobile version of your publication.

Things to note when importing your Sketch file



While the Sketch import saves a lot of time when it comes to designing your pages, there are several things to keep an eye on while designing your Sketch file. Some of the functionalities in Sketch are not supported by Maglr, causing them not to work (correctly) after importing them.

For a full list of restrictions and things to keep an eye on while designing your Sketch files, click here.

Updated on: 08/02/2023