13 best Figma tips and tricks for designers in 2022

Using a base unit of 8px is often recommended for multiple reasons and must be used consistently for every sizing and spacing task. You can make this more straightforward for yourself and your entire team by simply setting the "nudge amount" in Figma from 10px to 8px. This way, every time you will move or resize an object, it will be in increments of 8.

To use the nudge, hold down the Shift + arrow key, and to adjust the nudge amount, navigate to Menu > Preferences > Nudge amount > 8.

I had no idea about the Bar Graph arc tool until I read about that tool on the FIGMA blog and tried. It makes a minimalist Bar Graph arc and saves time to create arcs like how we did in the old days.

You can use the base components more efficiently by creating and managing components with multiple variants. Each variant will hold its individual nested base component overwritten to create a novel state. This makes bulk updates pretty easy and also ensures 100% consistency.

Use "true/false" or "on/off" labels to switch between two distinct properties. This little trick will make switching variants quicker and closely match how different components work in the code.

For instance : Type=Single-line, State=Default, Optional=Yes

After selecting multiple objects in the table, click the grid icon in the corner to organize your design. This equalizes all distances between objects, allowing you to drag and rearrange objects and adjust their spacing.

Aligning various objects and adjusting the spacing just right can seem pretty tedious and time-consuming. However, fortunately, Figma's "Smart selection" & "tidy" features enable you to do just that in bulk. 

With Figma, similar objects can be auto-arranged into a neat list or grid, bulk spaced, and reordered.

• To bulk edit spacing, select similar objects > select list/grid icon > drag spacing right, left, up, or down.
• And to swap the object placement, select similar objects > select the dot inside a single object > drag and drop it into a new location.

It's essential to keep your file organized with a defined naming structure and hierarchy for all your layers. This task is made much quicker with Figma's "Rename Layers" model, enabling you to rename layers in bulk. You can rename each layer to be the same, have a number suffix, add a prefix to distinct names, or rename only part of the layer's name.

To access the Rename Layers model, navigate to Right-click layers > choose "Rename."

Let's face it, having to look for a specific design or master component can sometimes be pretty time-consuming and may also lead to miscommunications and duplicacy.

Therefore, organize your file pages to make navigating and maintaining them quick and easy. Make sure each page has a well-defined name for various design and documentation purposes.

It's no mystery that using keyboard shortcuts is much quicker than using the mouse. Practically every action can simply be initiated with a keyboard shortcut to make working in Figma seem much faster and efficient.  

Besides, is there anything worse than seeing a designer struggle with their mouse while they can simply use the shortcut key?

Therefore, challenge yourself to learn a new shortcut every day!

To view keyboard shortcuts: Hit"?" in the bottom right corner of your browser.

To keep your design pixel perfect with the help of a scale tool, simply select all the objects that you want to scale, then hold K on your keyboard and drag.

Earlier I was so reluctant to scale the whole artwork because something always broke, especially the text field, and I'd have to re-adjust the artwork. But now, with the help of the Scale tool, those headaches are no more. All your artwork scales perfectly and maintains the propositions, and you no need to re-work on the artwork.

CMD (CTRL) + / has many practical quick applications that can save you a lot of time in your workflow. If you are not using it, it is strongly recommended that you check what is available on the menu. Unlock all items and change the font.

• Drag the selection box and then hold down the spacebar to increase the size of the cursor selection. If you're drawing a shape, you can also reserve space to move the object as you draw. If that's not enough, press the spacebar, and Figma will automatically move the object into an auto frame or layout. You can also substitute it for nesting. The space bar is very handy!!
• Hold down the spacebar and move the object out of the frame to make it stay inside the container. You can also disable movie clip content in the object container so that it can be seen even when it is outside the container.