Shared symbol library

A shared symbol library keeps symbols in the workspace instead of in one project. A symbol you put there can be dropped onto a page of any project of that workspace, and when you change it, every project using it changes with it.

It sits next to the symbols a project owns: open Symbols in the right sidebar and switch the tab at the top from Project to the name of your workspace — in a personal project the tab is called My library.

Create a symbol in the library

1. Open Symbols and switch to the library tab.
2. Click + at the bottom of the page (or Create symbol on the empty tab). The symbol appears with its name ready for editing.
3. Give it a name, pick a color and the wireframes it shows — the same editing as for a project symbol.

Symbols already living in a project stay there: moving one into the library is not possible yet, so create the shared ones in the library tab.

Use it in a project

Drag the symbol from the library tab onto a page, exactly as you would a project symbol. The project keeps a link to the library symbol rather than a copy of it. Its color comes along: if your project palette has no such color yet, it is added to the palette.

The content of the block — the text you write on the page — stays in the project it was written in. The name, the color and the look of the symbol are shared.

Edit it once, everywhere

Rename a library symbol, recolor it or change its wireframes from any project, and every project of the workspace that uses it follows. You do not have to open the project it was created in.

Unlink it in one project

If one project needs its own version, open Symbols and stay on the Project tab: a symbol that came from the library is listed there together with the project's own ones. Click it and choose Unlink from library in its toolbar. The symbol becomes an ordinary symbol of that project, with the name, color and wireframes it has at that moment, and further changes in the library no longer reach it.

Remove a symbol from the library

Select the symbol in the library tab and click the bin — Remove from library. It is removed, together with the blocks built from it, from every project of the workspace that uses it, so Octopus asks you to confirm first. Projects that are open at that moment update themselves; the rest are cleaned up the next time someone with editing rights opens them.

To stop using it in one project only, delete it there, on the Project tab: the library symbol stays for everyone else. Mind that deleting a symbol always deletes the blocks made from it — unlink it first if the pages should keep them.

Plans

The shared symbol library is part of the Team plan. On Free and Pro the tab is there, but clicking it opens the upgrade window instead of the library. A Team plan gives you a library in your personal workspace as well, not only in the team one. Symbols inside a single project are available on Pro too — see What are Symbols, and how to use them?, and our plans at Pricing.