text shortcomings: character styles, lists
After 2-3 weeks of testing Sketch with my web mockup workflow, looks like I won't be able to use Sketch, at least until it has character styles. Specifically, I need strong and hyperlink character styles.
Only way I see to do this now in Sketch isn't doing it at all: make sure text matches body text formatting but is NOT using the body text style, select the word or phrase, apply bold or link color. Nowhere near as handy as features available in Illustrator or even a word processor.
More text issues: with lists, can't see a way to have a negative first-line indent ("outdent"), again like Illustrator or word processor. Also can't change bullet character to, for example, a bigger disk, square, triangle, etc.
I could live with the second issues, but can't see myself putting up with no character styles.
How do others do it? Am I missing something? Or do you just not add character- level formatting to your mockups?
Posted Jul 18, 2015, 1:02 PM UTC
I might be misunderstanding, but you can definitely create new text styles in whatever color or weight you want. While you're selecting a piece of text with the formatting you want to save, click on the text styles menu in the inspector panel and then hit "Create New Text Style" near the bottom.
Not sure about your other questions as Ive never tried to do something like that. My guess, however, is that you'll have to do it manually with separate text boxes and symbols.
Yep, but those are paragraph styles, not character styles. Character styles are for things like bold text, or hyperlinks. IOW, character styles can be used for words within a paragraph that itself has a paragraph style.
In Sketch, if you style a block of text with a particular text style, then select a word and bold it, you've redefined that text style to bold. So all text wit that style would of course be bold.
Frustrating, and unfortunately, a show - stopper for me.
Yeah, that's true. You can always detach text from the style and then go wild, though. Regardless, I agree that the way that Sketch deals with styles and symbols is a little wonky sometimes.
I too have felt this frustration. However, upon reflecting about Sketch ive come to believe that the developers have sought out to create an interface that urges the designer to think more simply and carefully about the choices their making. Typography is such an art form and mixing too many styles within a style quickly becomes overbearing, loses the potential for interaction and decreases visual aesthetic.
Instead, try looking for solutions that lead to a clearer call to action. A selection of body copy with a clearly defined cta separate from the body copy will yield a higher chance of interaction than if the link was buried inside the body copy.