A shortcut to open the "Local variables" window

Excellent idea! I also find it very annoying that if you want to publish updates the window automatically closes and you need to reopen it again afterwards…

Excellent idea, Lucas! I think it would be a shortcut that would help us a lot when prototyping. It’s true what you say about leaving the variables window open causing many bugs in the prototype. I really hope they can make an improvement on this

This is a great idea. I’m trying to debug something right now, and I keep having to switch between panels.

Its a must have!!

+1

Even in Design Mode it is cumbersome to access the Variables Panel. You need to first click off the canvas, just to show the ‘hidden panel’ with the local styles, then click on Local Variables, then click on the Variables window, then navigate to whatever var you are looking for, then re-select the frame you had selected to apply a var in the first place. And then, the Variables window auto-closes because you forgot that if you don’t reposition it a bit, it will not stay open, so then you need to go thru the cycle again.

So the wishlist is:
1. direct access to Variables Panel from the main figma ui
2. make it stay open

The workarounds are to have a big enough monitor or using quick action (perhaps keep that `Toggle variables` in your clipboard manager 🙄). I wish at least it would be available in the menubar menu, so I could bind something using OS tools or it would’ve been available through the API available for plugins, but no dice.

Not a bad idea at all. We’re currently doing some updates here. Do you have a preference for what the hotkey is?

Shift+Option+Command+V would be nice 😁

​@jjcm not sure about what the key is, maybe something with option+ L or V involved.

Since you’re here, and you folks are working on some updates for it, i have a few more suggestions:

1. Since “Local Variables” is slowly taking over “Local Styles” (based on what i see), can we expose the variables (or a summary) in the side panel directly, and then open the window to see more if needed?
2. Can Figma introduce a way to mark a Design file as a “Design System” in which variables could have a dedicated panel next to “Design” and “Prototype”
3. If a file is marked as “Design System”, maybe we can have a button to access local variables from bottom bar (next to plugins for example), that will make it omni-present. This way, even i have items selected, i don’t have to unselect everything to access local variables, i can directly open it from the bottom bar. (this might be a good idea for all design files).
4. If i’m in the Local Variables panel and select a specific page/variable, the panel doesn’t retain my selection when i close and reopen it. Instead it takes me back to the first page every time.
5. Finally, consider a shortcut button for “Publish” directly from Local Variables, since designers usually want to change a variable in the system and want to see it reflect on other files.

Thanks!

Agreed, this is currently one of my biggest pain points. Overall the local variables panel is quite a pain to deal with, I’m always having to move it in the way, move out of the way, reopen it etc.

It’s a very powerful feature though and I’m using it more and more. Would love to see the UX improved here. 

This is so needed! 

There used to be a menu-bar command ‘Toggle Variables’ that I had assigned a shortcut to but it seems to have vanished with the latest updates. Please bring it back or introduce your own shortcut.

It would also be worth thinking about arranging the variables panel differently, as it is now, as a floating window it becomes hard to manage once you have more than a dozen variables and/or 2+ modes.

As much as I like the browser-app approach of Figma, the fact that you cannot make use of a secondary screen for UI elements is a seriously crippling limitation.