I have also faced the same issue!

yes plz add this feature

Legend! A++

Now if this can only be implemented by Figma as a setting.

Or could this be done with a plugin + hotkey combo to run this script?

I second this! I reached a point where some of my components are nested to the point where I cant read what it is, and not having a horizontal scrollbar makes it hard to see it. The expander for the whole left panel only goes so far, and I apparently reached the point where i have too many layers and drilling down with the expander to its max horizontal width still wont show my component names. Sharing screenshot.

It would already help to not limit the resizing of the left panel to 500px. It’s such a small change that would lead to less frustration.

Unfortuanetly not, as Figma Plugins have no way to change Figma’s UI. And my solution is already super hacky. We need to make more people aware of this problem so Figma prioritzes this problem even higher.

I’ve updated my script. You can find the new version in my original post (userscript is updated too!). The new version fixes some visual bugs, also removed horizontal scrolling activation, due to more investigation is needed.

Ow I really need horizontal scrolling, now more than ever. In the applications we design we have a lot of nested components and a lot of tables like designs. So that means a lot of nested layers to open to find and see that I have the right layer selected and to see how the layers are structured. In some cases, I can’t expend the layer panel any wider and can see all the layers. So you know… I can’t really see what is going on… That is not relaxed. Drives me nuts.

Hierarchies get deep and dragging to increase the width of the sidebar is inconvenient.

Please fix it as soon as possible.

2.5 year later…

For the love of God, a horizontal scroll in the left panel. The panel only opens up to a point and does not show anything else, not even the lock or view icons.

is there any progress with this? it’s a major pain with an easy fix

please ?

@miggi could you consider making this poll a little bit seen amongst your timeline to be voted by others having the same issue ?

Pls support a horizontal scroll in the layers panel.🙏

I couldn’t believe this feature was not there. I thought I was doing something wrong. It seems so obvious. To see that this topic has been open since 2021 is crazy. Please Figma ppl, solve this issue as it makes it impossible to work with complex components.

May I upvote this request by all my fingers and some borrowed ones?

It is really frustrating not seeing the layers when you design complex applications. Horizontal scrollbar would solve this for everyone …

SERIOUSLY! This is a productivity killer for me (us). I’ve been posting about this for well over a year. This seems more like a bug-fix than a feature request since many of us are unable to view/navigate a deep hierarchy of nested components in a fluid (responsive) layout. This isn’t a “nice to have”, more of a “must fix ASAP”…!

Unless I am totally oblivious to some complicated aspect, it seems like a “low hanging fruit” fix to allow for horizontal scrolling in that panel - but I don’t know what I don’t know. This needs to be resolved.

They need one of those old-school Apple cycles where they say: “No new features for now, we’re just going to focus on bug-fixes and stability”.… (not holding breath).

I got an idea. I bet, all each other know some fellow designers using Figma. Let’s share this thread with them and ask them politely for upvoting. Maybe we can reach over 1000+ points and somebody at Figma will reconsider the value of this issue.

Same here. Adding a big +1 on this feature ASAP. It’s not only about real estate screen space but the sidebar even when expanded has a limited with. This is affecting productivity like mentioned here by many designers. @Figma_Moderation or someone please help the community to push this request, it has been started in 2021!

That is a Superb Idea

i mean i’m tired of expanding my layer panel

This post was merged by a moderator to this thread, and was originally titled:

Request to change UI panels to palettes

First off, let me say that for this post I am using the term “panels”(perhaps mistakingly) to refer to the two UI columns in Figma on the left (containing Layers and Assets) and the right (containing the Design and Prototyping tools). They are contained within the window and are fixed and inflexible. By "palette,” for this post, I am referring to the UI elements in many Adobe applications (but not XD) that are like mini-windows. You can move them around and resize them freely. And show and hide them individually and at will. And save your arrangement of palettes in order to have more than one.

One of the biggest problems I have with Figma (and frankly, XD) UI is these panels:

1. Tools and functions come and go depending on what exactly is selected. I find myself frequently searching for a button or a menu that jumps up and down within the panel and sometimes disappears. If the panel were a palette, then I would immediately see the item I’m looking and be able to click it OR see that it is disabled. I spend a lot of time trying to understand where something went or what I selected to make it disappear.

2. If I’m working with text, I want to see all my text styles and be able to select them. If I’m working with colors, then that’s what I would like to see. Instead, I’m limited on my 27” high definition monitor to seeing, for example, a mere seven colors. And it takes multiple clicks to get there. If I had palettes, I could see dozens of colors all the time and be able to click them instantly.

I don’t understand how Figma (and XD) took such giant steps backwards from palettes to panels. I can’t even comprehend the advantage of panels. I wonder if this is a massive compromise in order for Figma to make their stand alone electron app and / or constrain it to a browser app?

To be clear, I’m not requesting a mere option to expand the Layers panel more (though that is important). I’m looking for an overhaul of the UI to a better system for everyone’s needs. Here is an example of palettes in Adobe Illustrator — 100% customizable. On a two monitor setup, you can even put all the palettes on one monitor with your workspace on the other.

Arghhhh this is spot on. To resizability, please add dockability.

The inflexible left panel doesn’t stretch far enough open to reveal the ends of some name strings, and that’s without using control naming.

Can you please also permit resizing of the variables table! While it may be a general rule that one doesn’t want scrolling inside scrolling, in this case, managing the scrolled contents is easy (it scrolls) while managing its window is not possible, and the table easily occludes the content. Popping it closed and back open to see edit results is cumbersome.

HOW IS THIS STILL NOT A THING???

For a tool that is all about UI and usability they really fall flat on this very important issue.

When you incorporate a tool like Autolayout that requires a lot of nesting to function properly, this is a necessity!

I read people here comment that i shouldn’t use so many layers, but that is just making excuses…components have a lot of layers, and if you put components inside other components, all with autolayout… it’s going to get to a unreadable level very quickly.

If they add an ‘ai’ feature before this i swear i’m going to scream.