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Why does the Dev Mode inspect panel look and function different depending on on a user’s access type (view / Dev Mode only vs edit access)?


What my devs see in Dev Mode (without edit access):

image


What I see in Dev Mode (with edit access):

image


As you can see, these look different for some reason. The most troubling for me is that the code syntax added to variables don’t show when the user doesn’t have edit access (which is all of our devs, they don’t need edit access) and so they get no benefit from that code syntax.


As far as I can tell, everywhere that Dev Mode is documented in help.figma.com shows the panel as if the user has edit access and doesn’t show or touch on how it differs if the user does not have edit access. Is this intentional? If so, why and why is it not documented?

Hi there,


Thanks for the feedback about Dev Mode. I shared the feedback with our internal team for future enhancements.


A Designer Advocate added an explanation the Free Viewer Experience in Figma, so please let me share this for now:



Free Viewer Experience in Figma



I really appreciate your feedback again.


Thanks,

Toku

Thanks for the response, Toku.


Unfortunately, the “Free Viewer Experience” does not apply in my situation as my devs have Dev Mode seats.


But just to confirm: it’s currently intended behavior that the Dev Mode experience is different depending on whether or not you have edit access to a file? And by extension: a Dev Mode only seat will always have the inferior experience (that omits code syntax, which is explicitly targeted for people with Dev Mode to see) because that seat will never have edit access?

Update if anyone comes across this issue themselves:


I’ve been in touch with Figma support and was informed that Dev Mode changes appearance and functionality based on the new “Viewers can copy, share, and export from this file” option in the share settings. If it is turned off viewers get the basic Dev Mode view (not seeing code syntax, etc.), while if it is turned on they will see the full Dev Mode. I requested for them to add documentation and explanation in Figma about it. I also requested it be decoupled from that feature but no idea if that will happen.

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