Skip to main content
leopechansky
leopechansky
January 26, 2021

Customizable shortcuts

  • January 26, 2021
  • 203 replies
  • 51010 views

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:

image

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?

    203 replies

    Show previous replies
    Anders2
    Anders2
    January 28, 2022

    This is a bad response. You can do better.

    If we could remap the hotkeys it would be entirely possible to map all the shortcuts you’d use frequently to a left hand position, entirely negating the implied condescension in your post.

      Gleb
      Gleb
      Power Member
      January 28, 2022
      1. I don’t work for Figma
      2. The initial post didn’t ask for customizable shortcuts, but after further conversation it turned out to be the only solution (just what you are proposing) so the conversation was moved here
      Ruben1
      Ruben1
      New Member
      January 31, 2022

      Same in Spanish ISO keyboard on WIndows, most of the shortcuts won’t work.

      Anders2
      Anders2
      January 31, 2022
      1. What does you working for Figma have to do with it being a bad response?
      2. Sure seems like he’s suggesting that customizable shortcuts would be a useful addition.
      rahendz
      rahendz
      February 7, 2022

      Hey there, I just wanna give a little feedback here. When designing, I often use some symbols from the keyboard shortcuts. But some, it’s a shortcut. So could you just disable it or maybe change the shortcut combination for this decrease letter space (opt+,) which refer to ≤, this increase letter space (opt+.) which refer to ≥, this decrease line height (opt+shift+,) which refer to ¯ and this increase line height (opt+shift+.) which refer to ˘

        Florent1
        Florent1
        March 14, 2022

        In the world of dedicated pro app. Being able to customise the shortcuts is a must.

        That is the standard.

        Gludion
        Gludion
        March 18, 2022

        FYI on my french AZERTY keyboard I found that Bring to Front is key “^”
        and Send to Back is “)”
        They work in combination with Ctrl for adjusting z-index.

        Useca
        Useca
        March 23, 2022

        On a german keyboard (mac) these seem to work:

        Send to back: ü
        Send backward: cmd + ü

        But, does anyone know to bring elements forward? 😃

        Robert16
        Robert16
        New Participant
        March 31, 2022

        Yes, I’m also struggling with a German keyboard layout (MacOS). Please Figma, find a way to translate and / or customise shortcuts for non-US keyboard users. It is big usability issue, and a company that is literally creating products for UX people should really get this right. Adjusting shortcuts in apple system preferences is too cumbersome and also messes up other existing shortcuts easily. However, what works for me at the moment is to switch my keyboard settings to US, while using a German qwertz keyboard. This obviously messes up any text writing tasks (unless you switch back again), and you have to guess / learn the keys- but you can actually access all (or most of, haven’t tested everything) important shortcuts this way.

          Burrowbridge_Ty
          Burrowbridge_Ty
          April 5, 2022

          @BorojiDesignInc nailed it. If we can get this functionality it would speed up my workflow tremendously and increase the delightfulness of using the product.

          Show more replies
          Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement