Feedback and Suggestions from an XD User

Branching Feedback
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Well, recently I migrated to Figma because Adobe apparently won’t take care of XD anymore, so I’m having to adapt to the new app, however, Figma is quite strange at first sight and doesn’t have a very intuitive UI. In terms of practicality, XD still has advantages, however, in terms of functions and stability, Figma is much better.
Due to the clear abandonment of XD by Adobe, I would like to suggest some positive things that the app has that could be included in Figma, as I am learning to use it and I see that they could be useful.

The first of these suggestions is the side panel, in Figma everything gets crowded and is quite awkward to use due to the overload of information, so there could be something similar to XD, where there is a button for each type of panel, the Styles panel, where only Colors, Fonts and Components that the user has saved are shown, the Layers panel, which shows the layers and their groups, and the Plugins panel, where the plugins that the user uses are fixed and recommended plugins from the community could be included , is much simpler and more organized.

Another thing that Figma could have is the “Repeat Grid” option that XD has, and instead of pressing CTRL + D to duplicate a layer, the user would simply click and drag the object to the desired direction, creating multiple copies quickly.

The organization of components is also quite strange, so something similar to XD could exist, where the main component would be in the style panel and copies of it could be created.

Speaking of components, I’m having a problem when inserting an icon into a copy of a component, I just can’t insert it in the middle of the group, something that in XD is possible, so if anyone can help me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Basically I created a main component as a base, and its copies would be customized later, each one would have a different icon and text, thus reducing the need to create several components as it is in XD, however, it is not possible to add this icon to none of these copies, either in vector or if it is another component already animated, so I would like to know how to do this without having to create a component for each button.

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If I understand what you’re trying to do correctly, it’s possible in Figma. Here’s a quick example file.

Also: welcome to Figma! I made the jump a few years back and have never regretted it. Figma blows XD out of the water in almost every way, which is probably why Adobe (regretfully) acquired it.

Also also, pro tip: Figma offers Playground files that walk you through how to use features directly within Figma. The easiest way to find them is by going into the Figma app and searching the community for anything labeled “Playground,” but you can also find them by visiting the Figma team’s profile here: https://www.figma.com/@figma

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Well, this solution solved my problem, in this case I need to make a state for each button I want to add, what I wanted to do was create an animated state of a single button that would be the base component, and for the copies of it, I would just insert different icons and labels, preserving the states it would have. It’s a little less practical, but it works in XD and I thought it would work in Figma, thanks for the answer anyway.

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@eualin Got it. You can do that in Figma too. See the example here. https://www.figma.com/file/vm6v9yrBz7MGiCRWFDDSVx/Component-example?type=design&node-id=15-13&t=JNtOEHQMgwNMW4Yy-4

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I believe they all answered above but will still comment in case you might find it helpful.

Anyway, if you want to change something in a particular component copy - it’s not possible, you can do these changes In the main component then turn on/off the layers in the specified copy, that way you’re adding the change to all of the copies but you can still have different versions of the copy.

Also, if you want to make a component that will you will be able to change to different versions of the same component without having to manually edit the main component then it’s copies, you can do that by using master components, a pretty powerful tool that allows you to create dynamic and interactive components.

Welcome to Figma btw! I was using XD too a while back but Figma is definitely better in every possible way, I believe you’ll adapt quickly and understand how Figma works easily.

P.S. I would suggest to create and keep all components in a different page within your file to easily access and edit it in one place without distractions, hope that helps!

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