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The main source of inspiration for this idea was to match the keyboard shortcuts themselves to different keyboard layouts. Right now, users who don’t use US keyboards have to memorize the location of the keys, rather than to use the actual character location to be able to use the shortcuts. Those involving this region are primarily the case:




ABNT2 layout (Brazil).


And here’s an example of confusing shortcuts:


image


Although this problem could be solved by just rebinding the shortcuts to the actual character and not the location on the keyboard, I’ve noticed there are some other issues concerning key bindings.


On this forum post, a member of the community asked for help on backing one layer level with a different shortcut from what Figma has right now. This makes the user adapt their workflow to the tool, and not the other way around — and that hinders efficiency. It would be nice if the tool itself provided some sort of customization on this regard.


Although being a workaround, Mac users can customize keyboard shortcuts by application, but it is a bit limited. It’s also not a possibility for Windows users.


I think this could be a game-changer, as i’ve seen people who refused to migrate from other tools to Figma because they couldn’t customize shortcuts. It would also give the user more control over the tool and their workflow.


What do you guys think about it?

Even in the desk app, those shortcuts doesn’t work (only bring forward works):


I think alot of these MacOS Keyboard Shortcut don’t work because they’re not in Figma’s topbar menu, eg “Select Parent” isn’t there with the other select functions in the menu so it doesn’t work in the MacOS shortcut tool 😜


It’s possible to go into the terminal and use hidutil and remap the keyboard keys, but that’s a pretty annoying process. https://www.grzegorowski.com/how-to-remap-single-mac-keyboard-key


David, the shortcuts modifier in MacOS distinguishes between modifier keys and the rest of the keyboard. You typically can’t use a combination of only modifier keys as a shortcut ( Control, Command, Option and Shift). You need to combine a modifier key with another key like ‘Control+1’ or ‘Command+u’. Also be aware that MacOS and Figma is already using a lot of the available shortcuts, so try to test what you want to use first, to make sure that combination does not already perform an action in Figma or MacOS. Good luck 🙂 p.s. I’m not sure what you mean by navigator version, but if you mean Figma in browser, no, I believe the shortcuts won’t work there.


Hi Harald, I’m not using only modifier keys in my combinations (I have “^” and “$” that are not modifiers). And I use these shorcuts in XD and Sketch, it works well. So may be it’s already taken by Figma but nothing happen when I use these shortcuts. Anyway, again these shortcut issues are very annoying.


PS: Yes I was talking about the browser version sorry 😛


Ok, I don’t know which keyboard you’re on, but for me MacOS will equate ‘^’ with the keyboard key Control. In your image, you have one shortcut that goes ‘^-⌘-^’, I believe MacOS interprets this as ‘Control-Command-Control’. There are also some combinations that Figma won’t accept like for example simply ‘F1’, which is why I started writing in this thread. My advice is to try out and experiment, you don’t need to have them identical to the typical Adobe layout. Even Adobe programs are inconsistent with the hotkey layout between themselves. Personally I prefer Control+3 to 6 for these 4 commands.


oh ok. Thanks for this explanation. I didn’t realise “^” was interpreted as Control :’( :’(. I’m using french keyboard.



+1, please add german and other language keyboard layouts.


I’ve been using BetterTouchTool to solve my keyboard shortcuts problem on the Mac.



You can even fake text replacement (Mac’s text replacement doesn’t work inside Figma).





  1. Describe the problem your experiencing and how your idea helps solve this

    The ability to add custom keyboard shortcuts would make this tool SO much more customizable




  2. Add as much context as possible (screenshots, Figma files, mockups, etc.)

    Different designers have different ways of working. Why not give users the option to tailor their keyboard shortcuts to their workflow? (e.g. If I’m constantly center aligning objects, why not give me the ability to make that command more ergonomic for me?)




  3. Ask questions to bring the community into the conversation

    (e.g. Does anyone else experience this? Is anyone using a plugin or workaround to help solve this?, etc.

    Would this be useful to others?




EDIT: Got it!

Great workaround, saves me shitloads of time.


Solution to my problem:

I didn’t see the “send shortcut” input field when setting up the trigger to my new BTT shortcut. So I just need to figure out how to press some of the strange US keyboard keys.

For example the vertical line | which ist ⌥ + 7 on my german keyboard, so I have to send ⌘ + ⌥ + 7 and then the left Side Panel will be shown or hidden.


ORIGINAL POST:

I also have BTT but how did you manage to override those default shortcuts in figma?

I’m in the shortcuts meu in BTT and add figma as the app I want to assign shortcuts to, the I choose new shortcut for example ⌘ + I as this doesn’t work on my Macbook Pro Keyboard. So I will add ⌘ + I and then I have to add an action that is bound to said trigger. But how? BTT just shows standard BTT actions…


Glad it works out for you. You can basically use whatever shortcuts you want under Config. Then under Assigned Action, choose Trigger Menubar Menu-Item. This allows you to just type in exact menu item you want to trigger.



+1, creating custom shortcuts is not an acceptable workaround


May try cmd + ö and cmd + ä for “Bring forward” and “Send backward” on german keyboard 😁


Unfortunately it doesn’t work on Windows.


Now the Windows workaround with PowerToys does not work anymore. PowerToys does work for other apps, though. Any answers from the Figma team would be very welcome.


Can you please recommend a 3rd party app that does that? I couldn’t find any


Why Figma doesn’t support hotkeys customization? It’s really strange. How I can press “Alt+H” shortcut in ~0.3 sec, if my fingers at ASDF+space position? Maybe, Figma-developers make some video?)


Even though on mac some things can be customised using mac system keyboard commands, things like cursor chat are currently not accessible as they are no menu items and thus can not be called via a mac settings keyboard shortcut.


PLEASE figma, finally work on the keyboard issue, this is really not acceptable for a company this large with so many users world wide.


I too would like to request that F1-F12 be customizable as Figma shortcuts. In order to make the F keys work as a shortcut right now, I have to make the key combination “Command + F* key”. Like why?? I just want to press a single key for my shortcut, not multiple. It’s not like my F keys are even being used for anything else.


This is a huge problem for me because I have nerve damage in my hands from keyboard use which means I often miss the key I was trying to hit, or hit the wrong shortcut by mistake.


This becomes a big problem when there are shortcuts that move the viewport to a different location from where I was working without a way to get back. If I could un-bind these “non-undoable” viewport movement hotkeys I wouldn’t have to worry about Figma suddenly teleporting my view to a different file or page or area in my viewport.


I encounter this issue multiple times a day.


@figma @anon21722796 @support Any news on this topic? I’ve been having issues with this for the past year and I can either ask windows to read my keyboard as american and write without acentuations my language has or copy properties and run the last plugin by clicking the right button and selecting the option. Like a savage.


That sounds really bad, I wish they would provide more accessibility features since they’re really lacking in that area.


Also just this week: Figma Releases: ⬌ FigJam usability updates


Jam now uses the same broken shortcuts? Come on…


Still hoping for an official comment here @anon21722796 how do we fix this? What’s your plan?


This friction I have to endure EVERY SINGLE DAY is driving me mad, and I don’t have the impression that you guys take the issue seriously.


What are you doing to fix this core issue plaguing the product for a very hefty chunk of your user base?


I am seriously tired of being left in the dark by @anon21722796 Just tell us what you’re doing to address this or that you’re not going to fix it, just say something.


For me, copy & paste properties doesn’t work as well (on german keyboard). Option + Shift + C / Option + Shift + V


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