#App Updates
Stamp attribution
Old news for our readers ;-) Hover over stamps to see who left them.
Snap to shape size
Easily size shapes to the same dimensions using new guidelines to match height and width.
Last but not least, we added size guidelines and snapping to make it easier to create and resize shapes, sections and images to the same size! No more guessing or eyeballing sizes, just look out for those purple guidelines! pic.twitter.com/0doTD2mf9c
— Peter Damrongpiriyapong (@peterdpong) August 2, 2022
Connector tool stays selected
Stay in the diagram flow, with Connector tool (X) now persisting by default; hit Esc or V to return to the Move tool.
Next up, we made the connector tool persistent! No more creating one connector at a time, place all your shapes on the board, then connect and adjust with connectors all in one go! When you’re done, just hit Esc or V. pic.twitter.com/3jb2uB1Bca
— Peter Damrongpiriyapong (@peterdpong) August 2, 2022
Quick create improvements
Create shapes and stickies faster with new auto-create prompts at the top, bottom, left, and right.
I’m thrilled today to show off what I’ve been working on @figma — making diagramming more fluid in FigJam
— Peter Damrongpiriyapong (@peterdpong) August 2, 2022
First up are improvements to Quick Create! We now try to avoid overlapping with existing objects and made sure Quick Create indicators are always shown for fast diagramming! pic.twitter.com/OUARJDrtlZ
Perfectly centered connectors
Another personal favorite! 📐 Connectors will automatically straighten when objects look center aligned — no more wonky lines!
Desktop bell notification in the desktop menu bar with activity feed
Stay in the loop on notifications when you’re in the desktop app, with a new notification bell that lives in your menu bar. Install or update the beta app to the latest version.
File Search improvements
Search preview now includes recent searches and a list view shows file owners.
After recently joining the @Figma product team in June, I’m super excited to share a few fun improvements to the search experience 🔎 that we’re launching today as part of Little Big Updates! pic.twitter.com/HjOy6ezMPt
— Manosai Eerabathini (@manosaie) August 2, 2022
Text alignment shortcuts
Text alignment shortcuts (⌘-⌥-L for left, ⌘-⌥-T for center, ⌘-⌥-R for right) also work when you apply them inside the text box.
Removed interstitial in comments
Navigate to links in comments without the interruption of an interstitial.
Retain text formatting
Retain formatting, including bullets and text styles, when pasting between text nodes.
Quick align as a group
No more group/align/ungroup — quickly align objects as a temporary group by holding Shift while pressing alignment buttons. (Option/Alt also seems to work.)
One of my favorite little big updates to drop in @figma this week is the ability to align objects as if they were a group.
— miggity miggity mac (@miggi) August 4, 2022
Hold the option (alt) key when hovering over the alignment icons to align selected objects together within their frame.
More here: https://t.co/8ZWii0Kcl2 pic.twitter.com/GbSnU5u2UB
Improved emoji support
Not mentioned in the blog post, but a very timely and important update!
We know it’s been too long — emojis have been updated in @figma (~1000 added)! While we were at it, we also improved the rendering, quality, and ease of future updates. Emoji on 🙌 pic.twitter.com/ayoAl5DwGS
— Qi Linzhi (@LinzhiQ) August 4, 2022
Select top-level frame
Get more efficient in your selection — if a top-level frame is selected, Figma will now select any subsequent top-level frames registered.
Annotate with a Pencil tool
Annotation is a lot smoother with Pencil strokes no longer getting clipped or disturbing Auto Layout in frames. See also Marcin Wichary’s short thread on how they got to this solution.
Sometimes I feel happier about the little fixes than the giant new features. Using the pencil tool in clipped or AutoLayout frames pretty much always did the Wrong Thing. Thanks to @mwichary for talking through all the little edge cases with me. pic.twitter.com/XKhuxXpjrX
— Michael Feldstein (@msfeldstein) August 2, 2022
Little Big Updates: More improvements for design and collaboration
Figma shipped a batch of lovely small improvements. See demo videos in their blog post, or read a full list with a few behind-the-scene links below.
Redistribute gradient steps evenly
One of my personal favorites 🙌 Organize the gradient panel faster by double-clicking on gradient stops to evenly distribute them.
This past maker week @figma I had some extra hours and worked on adding the ability to equally distribute gradient stops with a simple double click.
— trevor aquino 😶🌫️😰 (@TrevorAquino) August 2, 2022
However this wasn't my own idea. One of my favorite parts of Figma is being able to interact with the community of users.
1/2 pic.twitter.com/Pik8GXWyjy
Updates to workspaces
A few navigational improvements (e.g. the addition of breadcrumbs and a new page layout) were released on all plans along with updates to workspaces available only on the Enterprise plan.
Figma and FigJam in Japanese
In May, Dylan Field announced that Figma incorporated in Japan, set up an office in Tokyo, and started working on localizing Figma into Japanese. Last week, they launched a fully localized product interface, website, and in-region support for Japanese users.
New ways to search and browse the Figma Community
The fresh look of the Figma Community with improved search and a new browsing experience makes it easier to discover and differentiate between categories like product (Figma or FigJam), use cases (like design systems), and resources (widgets or plugins).
Improvements to Figma and FigJam
Nice shipment of improvements to the FigJam iPad app, branches review in Figma, and email notifications. You can also import the contents of a Miro board into FigJam now!