My 5 most used Figma “tricks”

Figma is packed with features, but most days I just use the same handful of small tricks that make everything faster, cleaner, and easier to adjust. No, they’re not really groundbreaking, just practical to me.

Put everything into an auto layout before you start cleaning up
When things start floating around and you lose track, the easiest fix is to select everything and throw it into an auto layout. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You’ll clean things up much faster than adjusting one element at a time.

Use Shift + G to toggle grid view
When I’m working on layout and alignment, I use the grid a lot. But I also turn it on and off constantly to get a clearer overview. Shift + G (Windows and Mac) lets you toggle the grid and remove visual noise. One of the simplest but most used shortcuts in the entire tool.

Create components earlier than you think
I used to wait a long time before turning things into components, but now I do it early. It doesn’t need to be perfectly structured. You’ll save yourself a lot of work if you just do it right away when you notice something repeating.

Copy layout properties between elements
When I’ve set up padding, alignment, or spacing in an auto layout and want to reuse it elsewhere, I use Ctrl + Alt + C to copy layout properties, and Ctrl + Alt + V to paste. It speeds things up and keeps everything consistent.

Use “Swap instance” with the arrow keys
When working with components, you don’t need to open the dropdown menu to switch instances. Just select the component and use the arrow keys. Super fast when iterating through lots of variants.