I have been playing around with creating variables but realized I would rather have groups in separate collections, but cannot move them.
I would like to be able to duplicate an entire collection so I don’t have to manually re-create values and can remove what I don’t need from that collection OR simply be able to move groups into other collections.
Moving does not seem to exist. If I copy and paste a variable to another collection I have to reassign the variable from the new collection to any of the inputs where the original copied variable is being applied.
I agree with @Matthew_Ryan about “launched”. We clearly need at least one new request thread.
For my own part, I’m looking for a way to move one or more variable collections from one library to another such that the assignments remain intact.
This would essentially mirror the functionality of moving (cutting/pasting) components from one library to another.
As a user, this seems like an obvious need. I wished for it within 24 hours of the beta release of variables. Almost immediately after creating a variable set in a specific design document, I realized that I’d want the affected components and their new variables to be moved into a global library where they could be used by all designs in our design system.
This can be done for the components, but the variables would always have to be recreated and then reassigned. I’ve lost days trying to do this. It’s not just a matter of manually recreating the variables, but also the debugging involved in trying to figure out where all those variables were used.
Until this is a real feature, my only recourse is to create ALL variable sets in a single, global styles library that is available to all designs.
Its so frustrating to see Figma team launching half cooked feature and announcing it as done!
This feature is so buggy i would be ashamed to release it. where was the QA team on this feature?
I agree with @Matthew_Ryan about “launched”. We clearly need at least one new request thread.
For my own part, I’m looking for a way to move one or more variable collections from one library to another such that the assignments remain intact.
This would essentially mirror the functionality of moving (cutting/pasting) components from one library to another.
As a user, this seems like an obvious need. I wished for it within 24 hours of the beta release of variables. Almost immediately after creating a variable set in a specific design document, I realized that I’d want the affected components and their new variables to be moved into a global library where they could be used by all designs in our design system.
This can be done for the components, but the variables would always have to be recreated and then reassigned. I’ve lost days trying to do this. It’s not just a matter of manually recreating the variables, but also the debugging involved in trying to figure out where all those variables were used.
Until this is a real feature, my only recourse is to create ALL variable sets in a single, global styles library that is available to all designs.
My thoughts exactly. Right now I’m reassigning the variables for the needs of my other files and files from other colleagues, but it seems a too manual approach in my view.
This is not “launched”, not the way anyone actually needs it.
I have been playing around with creating variables but realized I would rather have groups in separate collections, but cannot move them.
I would like to be able to duplicate an entire collection so I don’t have to manually re-create values and can remove what I don’t need from that collection OR simply be able to move groups into other collections.
That would definitely make organizing variables much easier! Being able to duplicate or move groups between collections would save a lot of time.
+1 this is not yet fixed so please remove the [launched] tag.
False flag. This is NOT LAUNCHED!
Still can’t move variables at all!
Requesting this feature too. Feeling the pain! Hope it comes soon.
still awaiting a resolution. I appreciate your dev team’s continued efforts; I’m sure their eyes must be tired from keeping such a close watch on this for so long.
Not really lunched: Currently, variable groups cannot be moved without losing all variable links. Based on the thread title, I expected the ability to move variable groups to other collections while retaining their corresponding variable links. This feature would be very useful, as the optimal collection structure sometimes only becomes apparent during the development process. Consequently, making adjustments is currently limited, or it becomes very time-consuming to reassign all variable links when the collection structure is changed.
+1 We need this feature.
Ran into this issue today, and pretty surprised there’s this much support for so long without resolution - the variables manager is woefully underdeveloped for how critical it is to core workflows.
I have a set of color variables that I need to expand heavily - these need to be grouped/categorized differently, so I need to move that set over to a new collection, and keep the links already created in some hundreds of files. This is simply impossible at the moment.
to be clear: copy is not sufficient at all, move is required
We also need to be able to move (not copy) variables between collections while retaining the links. Surprised to see this isn’t a feature, even inside of a single file.
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