How do I… · Figma

How do I make a component in Figma?

A component is one master and any number of instances. Editing the master changes every instance, which is the entire point and also the thing to be careful about.

Steps

  1. Select the layer or group and press ⌥⌘K / Ctrl+Alt+K, or use Create component in the toolbar.
  2. Name it with slashes to build a menu: Button/Primary, Button/Secondary. Figma groups them by the part before the slash.
  3. Drag it out of the assets panel to make instances. Edit the master and every instance follows.
  4. For variations that belong together, select the components and choose Combine as variants. Now they are one component with properties you switch — state, size, icon — instead of a list.
  5. To let text and images differ per instance, add component properties: text properties for labels, boolean for showing or hiding a layer, instance swap for icons.

Worth knowing

Anything you override on an instance — text, colour, a hidden layer — sticks, and survives changes to the master. That is usually what you want, and occasionally it means an instance quietly stops matching; right-click → Reset all changes puts it back. Publishing to a library is what makes components available in other files.

Related

Faster than searching: box the part of your screen you cannot work out and ask about it directly — in Figma or anywhere else. Answers arrive where you drew the box.

Try it on a screenshot Download free