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Creating and Using Figma Components (the Beginners Tutorial)

Beginner's Figma Components

In the realm of design, components play a pivotal role as reusable building blocks that contribute to the cohesion and uniformity of your projects. They offer a means to establish and uphold consistent design elements across diverse frames or pages within a project.

Creating a component in your design can be accomplished through various methods. Whether you opt to click the “Create Component” button in the toolbar (represented as a diamond with four square boxes), utilize keyboard shortcuts (Command Option K for Mac or Control Alt K for PC), right-click on the item and select “Create a Component,” or navigate through the Main Menu under the Figma logo to “Object” and choose “Create a Component,” the process is flexible to suit your workflow.

The true advantage of incorporating components into your design becomes evident when they are implemented across multiple frames and pages in a prototype. Manual adjustments to the colors of these components may pose a challenge, but with components, this challenge is met with a solution. Once a component is established, it transforms into the master component, and any modifications made to it are instantaneously applied to all instances throughout the project.

A centralized hub for all components is found in the ‘Assets’ tab. Placing an instance onto a frame is as simple as dragging and dropping. To edit the master component, double-click on it, make your changes, and witness the ripple effect as those changes seamlessly propagate across all instances within the project. Imagine adjusting the fill color, and in an instant, all instances on the frame harmoniously shift in color.

Yet, there are instances where you may want to customize the attributes of a specific instance without influencing the master component. This capability is known as overrides, granting you the power to tailor the properties of individual instances without impacting the master component. You can modify text, fill, stroke, effects, and other attributes in each instance separately. To apply an override, simply double-click on the instance and make the desired changes. Keep in mind that certain attributes, such as size, position, rotation, constraints, hierarchy, and point and bezier positions, cannot be overridden. If needed, you can always revert to the original state by selecting ‘Reset All Changes’ from the toolbar next to ‘Create a Component.’