April 2018 Update of Adobe XD

With every release of Adobe XD we strive to optimize performance so that you can get your work done more quickly. Our April release is no exception. We’ve made it easier for you to find and identify design elements using the Assets panel. We’ve improved the Photoshop and Sketch import workflow, matching your new XD document as closely to the original file as possible. And based on your feedback, we’ve added password protection for shared prototypes to better control access to your ideas and designs.

Want to see these updates in action? Check out Adobe Live from April 3 – 5 to see top UX designers using the latest features in Adobe XD.

Password-protected prototypes

You probably know that XD allows you to create interactive prototypes and generate shareable web links to get feedback and iterate on your designs. Users working in strict environments have asked us to protect access to their published links. We now offer the option of creating a unique password when generating the shareable web link.

You can add password protection to your prototypes when you publish, and require reviewers to enter a password to view the shared prototype.

Password protection on Design Specs is coming soon in a future release.

If you would like to add a password to an existing prototype link, we recommend you delete the public prototype from your Creative Cloud Assets directory, and then create a new password protected prototype. For more details, please see the documentation here.

Find and highlight assets

Until now there was no easy way to identify what color, character style, or symbol a selection on the artboard mapped to in the assets panel. With this new feature, you can right-click a layer on an artboard and choose to reveal it in the Assets panel.

Inversely you can also right-click and select “Highlight on Canvas” in your Assets panel to see all the objects across artboards that use a specific color, character style, or symbol.

Filtered search in the Assets Panel

Quickly filter assets by color, character styles, or symbols. This allows you to sort out assets and focus specifically on what you need in your design process.

Use search to find specific hex values that map to colors swatches or character styles. You can also search for font families, font weights and symbols by their layer names.

Improved Photoshop integration

In March, we made it possible to bring your Photoshop designs to XD from the File menu. Now it’s even easier – just right-click your Photoshop file and choose open with XD, or drag & drop it on the XD icon (Mac-only).

We’ve also improved the way XD handles the positioning of artboards and text layers when opening PSD files.

Learn more about what is currently supported here and let us know on UserVoice what improvements you’d like to see for this feature.

Sketch workflow enhancements

This release brings a number of conversion fidelity improvements and new ways of bringing Sketch files into XD.

Sketch files opened in XD now have improved fidelity. Images with color adjustments such as hue, saturation, brightness and contrast are transferred with the effects applied. Character styles are preserved and saved in the assets panel, while document color swatches are preserved in the color picker. We’ve also improved the transfer fidelity for fills, shadows and text positioning.

You can also bring Sketch files into XD by either right-clicking the file and choosing to open it in XD, or by dragging and dropping the Sketch file over the XD icon (Mac only).

We’re continuing to improve this feature. Let us know your feedback on UserVoice and learn more about what’s currently supported here.

To get the latest update of Adobe XD, download the April release here or from your Creative Cloud desktop app. If you don’t see the latest release of XD available in your Creative Cloud desktop app, check out this helpful guide.

Enjoy these enhancements and keep creating and sharing your incredible experiences with Adobe XD!

Reading this in the future? Check out all of the major updates to Adobe XD in 2018.

Resources

Free UI Kits published exclusively for Adobe XD.

UX Community

Let’s keep the conversation going! You can follow our handle @AdobeXD for updates or reach the team on Twitter using the #AdobeXD. You can also chat with us on Facebook, where we share videos and updates as well as answer questions during live sessions.

For UX insights sent straight to your inbox, sign up for Adobe’s experience design newsletter! While sharing your prototypes on Behance, don’t forget to tag them with #MadeWithAdobeXD and select Adobe XD under “Tools Used” for the opportunity to be featured in the Adobe XD Newsletter.