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

this is like how miro works with a mouse right?

@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?

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.

Gotcha! Ty for the feedback 😁

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.

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Hi @Kristen_Rawlings, where can i find this setting?

I myself would absolutely hate that. I don;t find that in many tools and it is counter to what the right click option is. Sorry. Not meaning to downplay the idea. But for me, no I would not want that. Stick with the way most other design tools work.

Figma works like most other tools, see Sketch/Axure/Adobe products for instance. hold spacebar and drag to move the canveas. Been that way as far back as Freehand and Macromedia tools. I think Paint might even work that way.

I do know that holding the mouse wheel and dragging moves my canvas.

That gives you two options. Maybe that helps?

No setting. Just hold mouse wheel and drag. Cursor should turn to a hand.

They’re both options now in the Figma dropdown’s preferences menu. Second section from the bottom!