Improved Exporting and Sharing

Hi y'all! Just wanted to let you know that we released a pretty useful update (Build 1.0.113) that includes:

• Added Ability to Generate Prototype to Local Folder for Sharing on Internal Servers, Public Folders, etc.
• Improved Share and Export Experience
• Added Export of Screens with any Referenced Image Assets (Including Optional Zipping)
• Share/Export from Project & Design Tabs Right-Click
• Hit Enter on Image and Icon Control to Pick Image/Icon
• And of course lots of bug fixes. :)

So here's a bit more explaining these updates.

Generate Prototypes to Local Folder

Now in addition to the simple one-click sharing on our servers, you can choose instead to generate the prototype to a local folder and then share it on your own servers (which is useful for those designs that need to stay behind firewalls). With this capability, you can also opt to share your prototype in some cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive. And of course it gives you total control over the prototype, so you can overwrite, remove, etc. at will. Learn more about the different sharing options here.

Improved Share and Export

We give you more control now on Exports--you can pick screens, states, folders.

When you select one or more screens, you can optionally choose to export only selected states within those screens. We also added optional zipping, so if you want export a bunch of PNG and zip in one step, you can do that.

Coming Friday: Quick Snapshot!

Although it didn't make it into this update, we'll be delivering a new special update on Friday that builds on this enhanced export capability--Quick Snapshot.

This is one of those no-brainer things that just didn't make the initial cut, much to my own personal dismay. But it'll be there tomorrow! In any screen or storyboard, you can click the little camera icon in the global tool bar to take a snapshot. For storyboards, it will create a PNG of the whole storyboard in the same folder that the storyboard is in (or Desktop if not saved yet). For screens, it is the same, except that it will take a shot of the current state and the current animation segment (if you have more than one)--in short, whatever you are currently looking at will be exported to PNG.

You can also use CMD+R on Mac and CTRL+R on Win to execute this same capability. Note that we will never overwrite prior shots, so you can go crazy shooting with it if you want and not worry about that.

Export of Screens with any Referenced Assets

This is one of those things you don't know you need until you need you know it. If you have ever tried to just send someone a screen you are working on, and they get it, and it is missing images, you need this feature.

If you're going to work on a project regularly together, probably GitHub, TFS, Dropbox, or whatever is a better choice. But if you need to just send someone a screen for temporary/one-off purposes, this is very helpful. Select the screen(s) and then click Export Selected. Then you pick the Indigo File & Assets option. If you don't opt into the free ZIP, it will just put the selected in a folder, but it's more useful, IMO, to use ZIP. Then it's easier to ship that off to someone. What we put in there are:

• the .screen files you picked
• any images used by those screens (these are kept in the /assets folder of your project)
• the project file

This way, when someone gets your stuff and opens it, they won't be missing your images.

Bonus: This could also be a way to fork the project if you wanted to, e.g., create a new alternative starting with a few select screens from the current project. In that case, not zipping is probably better.

Learn more about export options here.

Share/Export from Project & Design Tabs Right-Click

Now it is easier to just share or export the current screen--just right-click the tab and pick Share or Export. In OS X, you can also pick this from the application menu (that's been there since launch).

Hit Enter on Image and Icon Control to Pick Image/Icon

Now you don't have to switch from keyboard to mouse when you add an image or icon using the quick add options (Alt+Click/Drag). After picking to add one, just hit enter, and you can launch the appropriate picker.

That's it for this one! To get this update, you should be notified when you open Indigo Studio the next time (if you don't already have it or if you haven't turned off automatic checking). If you don't see it, go to Help and About and check for updates there.

Enjoy! And of course, if you have more suggestions, feel free to vote for and suggest them!