Work in a team library
New in v1.3.0. Use a team library when several people in your shop or studio work on the same designs. Everyone in the team opens the same copy of a design, can edit and restore it, and version history keeps its earlier states, so a mistaken change can be undone by going back to an earlier version.
Team libraries belong to the seat-based plans, Business and Max. The team itself, its seats, and its member list are managed in your account on the Boldbobbin website; the editor is where you work in the library.
Joining a team
When someone invites you, a row appears across the top of the window on every screen, as soon as you are signed in:
Maria (maria@studio.com) invited you to Studio Bobbin.
The inviter's name and email address are shown, so you can tell who sent it. If their account no longer exists, the row says only "You're invited to join Studio Bobbin."
- Accept joins the team. Your plan, your credits, and the team's library update straight away, without a restart.
- Decline asks once to confirm: someone there would have to invite you again.
A few things that are worth knowing rather than discovering:
- The invitation list is empty until your email address is confirmed. Confirm it first, then accept.
- If the team's plan has ended, the invitation offers only Decline and says why.
- An invitation that was withdrawn, expired, or answered elsewhere leaves the screen with "The invitation to Studio Bobbin is no longer open."
- You only see invitations sent to the address you are signed in with. If you expected one and it isn't there, check which account you signed in with.
If you accept an invitation in your browser instead, just switch back to the app: it picks up your new plan and credits when you return to its window, without a restart.
Where the library appears
On the designs page
With at least one team library in view, the designs page grows tabs: Personal first, then one per team. The page is titled Designs while the tabs are showing and stays My designs when there are none.
Personal lists only your own designs. A team's designs never appear there, and your personal designs never appear in a team's tab.
Each team tab has:
- Search, which matches a design's name or its creator.
- Sort by: Last saved, Date created, or Name.
- New design in team, which starts a design that belongs to the team from its first save.
A library shows up once its team has a teammate, a pending invitation, or any design in it. A solo Business subscriber who never invites anyone is never asked where to save.
On the home screen
A picker beside Cloud Designs switches between Personal and each team, showing that library's designs with their previews, newest save first. It shares its choice with the designs page's tabs, so switching in one place switches in the other.
In the editor
While a team design is open, the header carries an In team chip, plus Save version… and History.
Saving to a team
A new design
With at least one team available, New design asks first: Where should it be saved? Personal ("Only you can see it") or a team ("Everyone in team can open and edit it"). One click starts it, and the first save goes there. The question defaults to the library you were looking at.
With no team, there is no question.
The first-save prompt also carries a Save to choice, so you can still change your mind at the point of naming it.
Moving an existing design in
Move to a team on a personal design hands it to the team's library.
A design that has moved into a team library stays there. It cannot be moved back to Personal. The confirmation says so, and moving it also removes any share links it had.
If the design is open when you move it, it becomes a team design straight away, and your further edits save to the team library.
After that
A team design keeps saving your changes as you work, on the desktop app and in the browser, exactly as a personal cloud design does. Any member who can save it can also rename it; the new name is saved like any other edit.
Versions
To be able to get back to a design as it was at an important moment (sent to a client, approved, sewn out), save a named version. Every member can open, edit, and restore; version history is what makes that safe.
- Save version… (the header, File → Save as new version… on desktop, or the command palette) saves a named version. The name is optional, and it is there so the team can find it later: "Sent to the client".
- History (or File → Version history…) lists the versions with who saved each one and when, with the current one marked.
- Restore brings a version back as a new version. Nothing is deleted, so a restore is itself undoable by restoring something else.
Opening an older version puts you in a read-only view with a banner naming its date and who saved it, plus Restore this version and Back to the current version. With unsaved edits in hand, Boldbobbin asks you to save first before it opens or restores a version.
You send "Autumn crest" to a client, and a teammate recolors it while the client is still deciding.
- Before sending, click Save version… and name it "Sent to the client".
- When the client says they preferred the original, open History, find "Sent to the client", and click Restore.
- It becomes the current version. The teammate's recolor stays in the history in case the client changes their mind again.
On desktop, Save as new version… and Version history… in the File menu are always clickable. On a personal design they tell you that "Versions are kept for designs saved in a team library."
When two people save the same design
If someone else saved the design since you opened it, your save is not silently dropped and it does not silently win. Boldbobbin asks:
This design was saved since you opened it. Last saved by Maria 10 minutes ago.
Three answers:
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Save as a separate copy | Your work becomes a new design in the team. The current version stays exactly as it is. |
| Overwrite | Your work becomes the current version. Theirs stays in the history and can be restored. |
| Cancel (or Escape) | Nothing is saved. Your edits stay open. |
The same question appears when it was you who saved from another window or device, worded for that case.
Working offline is covered too. If you edit a design on a plane and a teammate saves it meanwhile, you get the same question once you are back online and your edits go out, even if you restarted the app in between.
If you choose Cancel, Boldbobbin stops saving that design in the background, so the question doesn't keep popping up while you think. The next time you press Save, it asks again.
Deleting
A team design is deleted by the person who created it or a team admin; the bin only appears where you are allowed to use it. The confirmation is explicit about what it means:
Delete "Autumn crest" for everyone in Studio Bobbin? Its history is deleted too. This can't be undone.
- Deleting needs a connection. It is never queued for later.
- If your role changed since the page loaded, Boldbobbin says only the author or an admin can delete it, and lists again.
- If it had already been deleted, it says so rather than reporting an error.
A design deleted while you have it open is not thrown away. Boldbobbin tells you once and leaves your work on screen: save it to keep it as a new design.
When a team's plan ends
The library becomes read-only and says so:
Studio Bobbin's plan has ended, so its library is read-only. You can still open its designs and look through their history.
Nothing is saved, moved in, duplicated, or restored there, and it is not offered as a place to save a new design. Deleting is the one exception: the author or an admin can still clear designs out. A team whose payment is merely being retried keeps working normally, the same way its plan does.
Why a panel says a design is read-only
As of v1.3.0 every panel tells you which reason applies rather than just refusing:
- a shared design, opened from someone's share link, or
- an older version of a team design, which you can restore or step out of.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| "You're offline" | Your work is kept. Try again once you are back online. |
| "You no longer have access" | You may have been removed from the team. |
| "This design is no longer in the team library" | Someone deleted it. |
| "This team's plan can't hold any more designs" | The plan's design limit is reached. |
| "This design is too large for the team library" | Reduce the design, or keep this one personal. |
| "The team library is busy" | Your work is kept. Try again in a moment. |
| "Sign in again to use the team library" | Your session expired. |
Not in this release
- Folders inside a library.
- A hint that a teammate has a design open.
- Version history for personal designs: versions are a team-library feature.
- A link straight to a team design. Open one from the designs page or the home screen.
See also
- Save to the cloud for personal cloud designs and autosave
- Plans and what they include
- Signing in