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Yash_Mani
September 25, 2023

Ability to use the right-click to move around the canvas

  • September 25, 2023
  • 18 replies
  • 4877 views

I find it really frustrating to have to either hold the space button or toggle between the hand tool to move around on my board. Can you please include an option to let us hold the right mouse button to hover and move around on the board?

18 replies

jukie
New Member
September 28, 2023

this is like how miro works with a mouse right?

ksn
Figmate
Community Support
September 28, 2023

@Yash_Mani If you weren’t already aware, you can also hit the ‘H’ key to immediately swap to the hand tool for quick maneuvering on the canvas.

I’m going to leave this topic open, so that others that would like this can vote on it.

Just curious – why would you prefer having right-click move around the canvas instead of having an options menu?

Pawel_Montwill
September 29, 2023

Thank you for letting me know about the hand switch!

It is much easier to use a right-click to move around instead of switching. Right-click could be activating the hand function temporarily.

ksn
Figmate
Community Support
September 29, 2023

Gotcha! Ty for the feedback 😁

October 13, 2023

Just to add to this - From using Miro regularly in the past, I find this functionality coupled with the ability to zoom in and out with the scroll on a mouse, makes it a breeze to move around boards quickly. Something I would love to see as an option here.

Micha_Mailander
November 20, 2023

@ksn Miro solved it quite nicely without an “either-or” decision.
Right-clicking and holding moves the canvas
Rick-clicking and instant releasing opens the options menu

I also prefer this behavior because the right mouse button needs much less activation force than the middle mouse button.

JY_LEE
January 17, 2024

I very much agree with these features. Right clicking to move the screen and using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out would be very intuitive. I recently used the “draw.io” service with this feature, and I’m very happy with it.

March 14, 2024

You could implement both the options pop-up menu and the hand tool (move around) functionality on right click:

Activate the hand tool by detecting a right-click (without releasing) → user drags the mouse to move the canvas accordingly. No options menu.

If a right-click is detected followed by a release, without any change in mouse position (i.e., no dragging occurs) → the options menu will be displayed.

June 6, 2024

Just wanted to +1 this here - I’m just coming over from Miro and I prefer the way it’s done over there. Makes things much easier and I have the feeling that this is standard behaviour in other apps, feels natural to me.

July 11, 2024

Just so everyone knows, Figma has been updated to allow right click to pan and scroll wheel zoom