FigJam for iPad

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• Guide to FigJam

  Before you start

  • FigJam is available on any team or plan
  • Use FigJam from anywhere with the FigJam for iPad app

  FigJam is an online collaboration tool you and your team can use to brainstorm, develop, and organize ideas. You don't need to have any prior knowledge of design tools to get jamming.

  FigJam files are lightweight, inclusive environments where anyone can take part. Think of them as digital whiteboards where you and your team discover, explore, and execute on ideas.

  • Brainstorm and explore ideas
  • Create decision trees, diagrams, and mind maps
  • Run critiques or feedback sessions on designs
  • Collect ideas, note feedback, and organize research
  • Plan and run meetings, tutorials, or other interactive sessions
  • Collaborate and align with project stakeholders all in one place

  Want to jam on the go?

  Learn how to create and edit FigJam files on an iPad →

  Share assets between file types

  Copy and paste elements between Figma design and FigJam files to extend your collaboration tools and progress your design process. Work between FigJam and Figma design files →

  Create FigJam files

  FigJam files are a specific type of file in Figma. You can access them alongside your regular design files in your teams, projects, and drafts.

  Create a new FigJam file from any file creation point in the file browser.

  Left sidebar

  1. Open Figma in the file browser.
  2. Click next to your drafts or a team project in the sidebar.
  3. Select FigJam file.

  

  File browser

  1. Open the folder or project in the file browser.
  2. Click New at the top of the page and select FigJam file.

  

  Link

  1. Type figjam.new or figma.com/jam in the address bar.

  Access FigJam-specific file templates to get you started.

  Got a great template you want to share with others?

  You can publish FigJam files to share them with the Community. Publish files to Community →

  Explore FigJam files

  Board

  Unlike design files, FigJam files don't have multiple pages or canvases. Instead, you have one infinite board to explore your ideas.

  All boards you create have a white background and a dotted grid. It's not possible to customize the background of a board.

  

  • A

    Find settings and perform actions from the menu

    Open the file menu to perform a range of actions. Some actions will only available when you have one or more objects selected.

  • B

    Use the creation tools in the toolbar

    Access FigJam-specific tools: marker, stickies, shapes, text, images, and connectors.

  • C

    Use the meeting tools in the toolbar

    Start a timer, run a voting session, or insert a template to your file.

  • D

    Use audio to chat with your team

    Use audio to have live conversations with other collaborators directly in your FigJam files.

    Click to start a call.

  • E

    Spotlight yourself and follow others

    Hover over your avatar and click Spotlight me to share your view of the board with everyone in the file.

    View the avatars of anyone currently active in the file. Click someone's avatar to observe their actions in the file.

  • F

    Invite collaborators

    Click Share to open the share modal for that file. Invite collaborators, copy a link to the file, or update the file's link sharing settings.

  • G

    Add comments

    Add comments to a jam file in commenting mode. You can @mention collaborators, as well as add emoji to your messages.

  • H

    Adjust your view settings

    • Control the zoom level
    • Toggle dot grid
    • Toggle snap to grid
    • Toggle multiplayer cursors

    

  FigJam or Figma design?

  You can identify FigJam files in the file browser by the on the file card.

  Colors

  Color is a valuable tool that can be used in FigJam to visually communicate your ideas. FigJam comes with default color palettes depending on the object it is applied to.

  You can apply colors to text, shapes, connectors, and stickies. To improve contrast, you'll see less saturated versions of these colors on objects that support text, like shapes and stickies.

  Apply curated colors in FigJam →

  Toolbar

  With FigJam files there's less focus on precision and polish, and more focus on joyful exploration and collaboration.

  

  Tip

  Both stickies and shapes support quick create mode, allowing you to add ideas and explore concepts. Learn more about quick create →

  • A

    Navigation

    Pan, zoom, and move around FigJam files like you would in a design file:

    • Select tool: Select, move, and order objects →
    • Hand tool: Pan and zoom in FigJam files →
  • B

    Drawing tools

    Use the marker tool and highlighter to draw freehand lines and expressive shapes. It's a fun way to add doodles to the board, call attention to something important, or make abstract connections.

    Switch between thin and thick versions to make your mark(er). Figma will apply some smoothing to any lines you create with the marker.

    Use the eraser tool to remove any drawings if you make a mistake or want to make changes.

    Use drawing tools →
  • C

    Shapes

    A curated selection of shapes gives you the tools to build detailed flows and diagrams. Add text to shapes to capture ideas and use connectors to connect them.

    There are eight shapes you can access in FigJam files:

    • Ellipse (otherwise known as a circle)
    • Square
    • Rounded rectangle
    • Diamond
    • Triangle
    • Downward-pointing triangle
    • Right-facing parallelogram
    • Left-facing parallelogram
    • Cylinder
    • Horizontal cylinder
    • File
    • Folder
    Create and edit shapes with text →
  • D

    Stickies

    Stickies are the virtual equivalent to the sticky notes we all know and love.

    Capture your thoughts in stickies and move them around the board to organize your ideas. Unlike their paper counterparts, they grow vertically giving you more space to explore your ideas.

    Figma will add your name to any stickies you create, so you can easily keep track of who said what.

    Access stickies from the toolbar or the S shortcut in FigJam files.

    Create and edit stickies →
  • E

    Widgets, stickers, and more

    Browse through many more resources to get the most out of your board.

    • Templates to speed up your workflow
    • Stickers and components from your library
    • Code blocks
    • Images and link previews
    • Plugins and widgets
  • F

    Text

    Text is a crucial element while brainstorming and communicating information to others.

    Use the text tool to create titles and headings, add blocks of body text, or quickly jot down ideas.

    Add links to text to reference other FigJam or Figma files, direct collaborators to product documentation, or link to external websites.

    Add text and links →

  • G

    Connectors and lines

    Lines in FigJam let you create paths between shapes and stickies, illustrate order, or annotate something on your board.

    Use the connector tool to draw straight lines or elbow connectors between objects.

    Every line can be customized with its own color, text, end points, and stroke weight.

    Make connectors and lines →
  • H

    Stamps and emotes

    The stamp and emote wheels allow you to quickly add your feedback to files. Toggle between stamp and emote mode on the fly.

    Select to access short-lived emotes and express your reactions in the moment.

    Select to add your stamp of approval or other more permanent sentiments to the board.

    Use stamps, emotes, and high fives →
  • I

    Sections

    Organize your board with labeled sections to group related objects or guide workshop participants through activities.

    • Cluster objects together without having to group them
    • Contain objects that can be moved together around the board
    • Hide sections of the board that can be revealed when needed
    • Link collaborators to a specific section of the board

    Organize your board with sections →

  Collaborative

  Emotes, stamps, and high fives

  

  • Anyone on the file can add emotes, including people with view-only access.
  • Anyone on the file can use high fives.
  • Only people with edit access to the file can add stamps to boards.

  Emotes are temporary expressions that are great for live multiplayer experiences. They're energetic reactions that you share with others who are currently active in a file.

  Stamps are permanent stickers that you can add to the board. They're great for both live and async collaboration when you want to show your support or impressions.

  High fives are a fun way to celebrate achievements, greet others, or capture someone's attention in a file.

  Add stamps and emotes →

  Cursor chat

  Cursor chat allows you to type live, temporary messages to others in your FigJam file. This is great for quick communication and interactions.

  In cursor chat mode, start typing and other collaborators in your file will see what you're typing as you're typing it. There's no action to confirm or send your message. Your cursor displays the message for five seconds after you've finished typing.

  Select cursor chat from the emote wheel.

  Anyone on the file can connect via cursor chat, including people with view-only access.

  Connect with cursor chat →

  Timer

  Track time and manage working sessions with the timer in FigJam, whether you're working solo or in a group setting. Anyone in the file can start, pause, add time, and stop the timer.

  To access the timer modal, click in the upper right corner of your FigJam file and select Timer from the dropdown.

  Use the timer in FigJam →

  Comment

  Comments are a great addition to collaboration in FigJam - they work like comments in Figma design files and prototypes.

  Select comments in the collaborator menu, or press the C key to enter commenting mode.

  Use comments to give feedback, ask questions, or leave notes throughout the board. You can @mention collaborators, as well as add emoji to your messages.

  Comments in FigJam →

  Shared features and functions

  If you've worked in Figma, you may recognize some tools and features in FigJam. While some of these features work the same, others have functionality that's curated to that product.

  Learn more about features in design and FigJam files →

  Spotlight

  Gather everyone around you to facilitate a design crit, meeting, or just share your ideas with spotlight.

  

  When you spotlight yourself, all collaborators viewing a file are notified you’ve requested they follow you. Collaborators in a file have the option to ignore your request. Once they accept your invitation to follow, they’re shown your view of the file’s board or canvas. This comes in handy when using audio conversations for running meetings and workshops in FigJam and Figma design.

  Learn how to step in the spotlight →

  Keyboard shortcuts

  View Figjam keyboard shortcuts in the shortcuts panel:

  1. Click in the bottom-right.
  2. Select Keyboard shortcuts.
  3. Select headings to view related shortcuts.

  

  Explore the FigJam shortcuts Community file →

• Get FigJam templates

  Before you start you should know

  • FigJam is Figma's new digital whiteboarding tool.
  • Anyone with a Figma account can use the FigJam templates from the Community.

  Speed up your workflow and save time setting up a FigJam board with templates for brainstorms, meetings, diagramming, and more.

  Templates add pre-created content to a new or existing file, giving your team guidance and starting points they can build on. For example, the Daily standup template adds pre-created columns to your board so your team can add their tasks and goals as stickies. The Prioritization matrix template adds designated spaces for brainstorming and a matrix for determining feasibility and priority for ideas in a project.

  Use templates in FigJam to:

  • Optimize meeting agendas, daily stand-ups, ice breakers, and 1:1s
  • Quickly build user journey maps, fishbone diagrams, and flow charts
  • Create empathy maps, pros and cons charts, and information architecture diagrams
  • Have some fun with your team with games like chess, connect four, and more

  You can browse templates created by Figma from the file browser or the templates picker in a file. FigJam templates by other creators can also be found and duplicated in the Figma Community.

  Browse FigJam templates →

  Use FigJam templates

  File browser

  There are a couple of ways to create a file using templates from the file browser.

  Create a new FigJam file:

  1. Click New FigJam file or type figjam.new in your browser's address bar.
  2. From the templates picker, browse or search templates.
  3. Hover over a template and click Insert template.

  The template you selected will be added to the board in the new file.

  FigJam file

  

  You can add a template created by Figma to an existing FigJam board a few different ways:

  Placeholder controls

  When you create a new FigJam file, you'll see a few default templates to help you get started. You can navigate through the default options using the keys, or by clicking an option in the menu. 

  1. Select one of the default templates or click More templates.
  2. Search or browse templates in the templates modal. 
  3. Hover over a template thumbnail and click Add template.

  Menu

  1. Click in the menu.
  2. Search or browse templates in the templates modal. 
  3. Hover over a template thumbnail and click Add template.

  Bottom toolbar

  1. Hover over the pile of recently used icons in your toolbar.
  2. Click the More button to open the modal.
  3. Select the Template tab.
  4. Scroll and browse through available templates, or use the search bar at the top of the modal to search for a specific keyword.
  5. Hover over any template and click Add template to add it to your board.

  You can select and move the template around the board.

  Don't see what you're looking for?

  Click Browse more in the Community at the bottom of the picker to view templates by other creators.

  Figma Community

  Browse templates by members of the Figma Community you can use with your team. To use a template, duplicate the file. Once duplicated, you can work directly in the duplicated file or copy and paste its contents to an existing FigJam file.

  Click Duplicate from the file's details page to add a copy to your drafts folder.

  Learn more about duplicating Figma Community files →

  Create a template

  Members of the Figma Community can publish their FigJam files for others to use as templates. FigJam files in the community are automatically added to the FigJam category of the community, but are not included in the template picker in a file or the file browser.

  Learn more about publishing files to the Figma Community →

   

  Turn off templates

  You can turn off the option to see the template picker when you create a new file at any time.

  1. Click in the upper left corner.
  2. Navigate to Preferences.
  3. Turn off Show templates for new files.
• Select, move, and order objects

  Select tool

  When you create or enter a FigJam file, the select tool is enabled by default. Use the select tool to select, move, and resize objects on your board.

  Use the select tool in the toolbar or press V . 

  • Select a single object.
  • Click and hold an empty space, then drag your cursor to select multiple objects.
  • Click and hold an object, then drag your cursor to move it.

  Select objects

  Select objects to interact with them and change their properties. Selected objects are surrounded by a bounding box. In FigJam, components and stickers from libraries have a purple bounding box, while all other objects have a blue bounding box.

  You can deselect an object once you are done interacting with it.

  Select a single object

  1. Select the select tool in the toolbar or press V.
  2. Click on an object to select it.

  Select multiple objects

  You can select more than one object at a time. This is great when you want to perform the same action on multiple objects to save time, like changing the color of multiple shapes and stickies to blue.

  This is useful when you want to:

  • Group a selection of objects
  • Move a group of selected objects
  • Update a property, like color, across more than one object
  • Align, distribute spacing, and reorganize objects
  • Resize objects in bulk
  • Lock/unlock multiple objects

  There are a few ways to select more than one object:

  Shift key

  1. Select an object on the board.
  2. Hold down Shift and click another object.
  3. Repeat for each object you want to select.

  

  Tip!

  Click an object while holding Shift to remove it from the current selection.

  Click and drag

  Click and drag your cursor to create a box selection and select all objects in a specific area of the board. Any object that the box selection touches will be selected.

  1. Click and hold an empty part of the board.
  2. Drag the cursor across any objects you'd like to select.
  3. A blue box will appear around each object in the selection.

  

  To remove an object from the selection, hold down the Shift key and click on the object.

  Note

  Click and drag will not select locked objects.

  Select all

  If you want to select everything on your board, use the following keyboard shortcuts to select all.

  • Mac: ⌘ Command A
  • Windows: Ctrl A

  Deselect objects

  To clear your selection entirely:

  • Use the Esc key
  • Click an empty space on the board

  To deselect an object from a selection of multiple objects, hold down the Shift key and click on the object again.

  Group

  Groups allow you to combine objects together so they can be treated like a single object. To select a group, click on one of the grouped objects.

  Learn more about using groups →

  Align, tidy up, and organize your objects

  When you diagram with shapes and connectors, and leave fire stamps on that great idea your PM Emily wrote on a sticky note, you're creating objects on the FigJam board. Each object has a location on the board, and you can align and distribute them to keep things tidy.

  Align objects

  Alignment tools allow you to arrange layers on the board in relation to one another. Figma will determine your layer's alignment based on your specific selection.

  Objects in FigJam can only be aligned to other objects. There are six different alignment options:

  • Align left
  • Align horizontal centers
  • Align right
  • Align top
  • Align vertical centers

  Tidy up

  Use tidy up to rearrange and organize objects like stickies and shapes into a uniform grid of rows and columns. You can also adjust the horizontal and vertical spacing between objects and rearrange their order while maintaining their spacing.

  1. Select at least three objects on your board. Learn how to select multiple objects ↑
  2. Click in the selection's toolbar.

  Your objects are moved into a grid formation with even spacing. The dots and lines that appear in the selection's bounding box allow you to rearrange objects and adjust spacing.

  Note

  Tidy up is not available for connectors. Learn more about connectors →

  Adjust spacing

  If a selection of objects have been tidied up or have evenly distributed spacing, pink lines appear within the selection's bounding box. Click and drag the lines to increase or decrease the spacing in between objects on a horizontal or vertical plane.

  

  Rearrange objects in a grid

  If a selection of objects have been tidied up or have evenly distributed spacing, dots appear within the selection's bounding box. Click and hold a pink circle, then drag your cursor to move the object to a different position within your selection

  Rearrange multiple objects

  1. Hold Shift.
  2. Click the pink circles for each object you'd like to move.
  3. Click and hold the pink circle for a selected object, then drag your cursor to move them to a different position.

  

  Swap positions between two objects

  1. Click and hold the pink circle of a selected object.
  2. Hold the modifier key:
     • Mac: ⌘ Command
     • Windows: Control
  3. Drag your cursor over another object's position to swap two objects' positions.

  

  Change object order

  Sometimes an object on your board stacks on top of others, making it hard to see objects beneath it. Or an object might be hidden in the back behind other ones. Change your object's stack order to move it forward or backward on your board.

  

  Right click an object and select from the four options in the menu:

  • Bring forward: shift object forward one stack position.
  • Bring to front: shift object all the way to the front of the stack, on top of all other objects.
  • Send backward: shift object back one stack position.
  • Send to back: shift object all the way to the back of the stack, below all other objects.

  Keyboard shortcuts

  Bring forward:

  • Mac: ⌘ Command ]
  • Windows: Ctrl ]

  Bring to front:

  • Mac: ⌘ Command ⌥ Option ]
  • Windows: Ctrl Shift ]

  Send backward:

  • Mac: ⌘ Command [
  • Windows: Ctrl [

  Send to back:

  • Mac: ⌘ Command ⌥ Option [
  • Windows: Ctrl Shift [
• Pan and zoom in FigJam

  Move around

  The hand tool allows you to move around within your FigJam file without accidentally making selections, or moving objects.

  1. Click in the toolbar, or use the H key to activate the hand tool.
  2. Pan around the whiteboard using your mouse or trackpad:
     Mouse:
     • Click and drag to pan
     • Scroll to pan up and down
     • Scroll + Shift to pan left and right

     Trackpad:

     • Click and drag to pan
     • Use two fingers

  Toggle the hand tool

  Press and hold Space to temporarily toggle on the hand tool.

  Zoom in and out

  When you first open a FigJam file, the default zoom level will be set to Zoom to fit.

  You may want to update this to a specific percentage, or use controls to zoom in and out on the board. You can customize these preferences by clicking the Zoom/view options dropdown in the top-right corner of your FigJam file.

  You have a number of zoom settings available:

  • Use the field provided to enter a specific zoom percentage.
  • Use the Zoom in and Zoom out buttons to adjust the zoom level at pre-determined increments.
  • Use the Zoom to fit shortcut Shift - 1 to fit the entire working area of the board in the screen.
    Zoom to selection

    You can also zoom to selection by using Shift 2

  • Zoom to a specific percentage to display the board at the percentage of the virtual/actual pixel size.

    • Zoom to 50%
    • Zoom to 100%
    • Zoom to 200%

  • Use your trackpad or mouse to zoom in out on the whiteboard:

    • Mouse: Hold down ⌘ Command (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) and scroll the mouse wheel up to zoom in, or down to zoom out.
    • Trackpad: Pinch two fingers together to zoom out or stretch two fingers apart to zoom in