From the course: Figma: Using Auto Layout

Absolute positioning - Figma Tutorial

From the course: Figma: Using Auto Layout

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Absolute positioning

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- [Instructor] Let's talk about absolute positioning in auto layout. Sometimes you may want to add an extra element to your auto layout frame without modifying its layout and dimensions. And this is exactly where absolute positioning comes in handy. In principle, absolute positioning allows you to exclude an object from the auto layout flow while still keeping it inside the auto layout frame. To show you exactly what I mean with this theory, let's quickly open up Figma and get to practice. In the exercise file we have an image avatar and a green ellipse that indicates that the person is online. So let's select both of these elements and apply auto layout. So as always, I'm going to navigate to the auto layout section and click on the plus icon. Here we can see that in our auto layout frame both of these elements are just placed next to each other. And if you remember from the previous lesson, if we select any of the objects within the auto layout frame and try to drag it around, it'll only change the order of the elements. But in our example, we want to add the small ellipse on top of our avatar. So to fix this, I'm going to navigate to the right panel and actually click on the absolute position button. So right now, this ellipse will be treated as a simple object in a regular frame while still having auto layout settings. So now you can see that I can actually drag the small ellipse anywhere I want within my auto layout frame. So let's just simply place it right here in the bottom-right corner. In the end, you can see that absolute positioning is quite useful while working with different visual elements. So now it's your turn to give it a try. Go ahead and experiment with this setting and see how it can enhance your design workflow.

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