Words written in Jira, copied by hand into Figma
The writers' team writes the microcopy in a table in Jira. It is a good place to track the text, but the writers never see the result: how the words look inside the design, in the real layout.
The designers carry the rest. They copy each string from the table into Figma by hand, and there is no tracking of whether the text changed after it was copied. Over time the design files fall out of date and stop reflecting what was actually approved.
A promotion feature, where every word is critical, showed the cost: the text changed in Jira but not in Figma, so the two no longer matched. It also made it harder for product managers to follow the copy and give it an accurate review.
A searchable list of every text in the design
The plugin turns a design file into a searchable list of its texts, built for someone who thinks in sentences, not layers.
Page or selection
Pull every text from the current page, or only from what is selected, including layers nested inside. Moving between pages refreshes the list.
Search and counter
Search by the words themselves, the layer name, or the name of the element that contains it. A counter shows how many texts match.
No save button
Change a text in the list and it updates the design as soon as you leave the field. Fonts load first, including layers that mix several fonts.
Two-way selection
Clicking a row selects and focuses the layer on the canvas. Selecting on the canvas highlights the matching rows in the list.
Hand off to anyone
Export the current filtered list to Excel for review, translation, or a ticket. The sheet keeps the structure writers and developers need, and leaves a column for the Hebrew translation:
- Layer ID
- Parent
- Layer name
- Text
- Hebrew translation
Five decisions that shaped the plugin
A real plugin, not a standalone tool
My first version was a standalone web tool: read the texts, edit them, export to Excel, and hand the result back to a designer. It worked, but anything outside Figma can only read a file. Edits still had to be re-entered by hand, which was the exact problem I wanted to remove.
So I rebuilt it as a plugin that runs inside Figma and changes the text in the design itself. The standalone version still exists for quick checks outside Figma.
Show where each text lives
A string alone is hard to edit well. "Continue" means different things on a payment screen and in an onboarding flow. Each row shows the name of the nearest frame, component, or section that contains the text, so writers keep the context they need without opening the file.
No save button, and no silent failures
Writers should edit text the way they would in a document, so a change applies when they leave the field. To make that safe, the plugin loads fonts before touching a layer, and when something cannot be changed, such as a missing font, the reason appears on that row instead of failing quietly.
Excel as the bridge to everyone else
Not everyone who reviews copy works in Figma. Excel is where reviewers, translators, and developers already are, so the export follows the current search and filters, with a frozen header and wrapped text for easy reading. The sheet also carries a column for the Hebrew translation, so the copy and its Hebrew version travel in one file rather than two.
Small safeguards protect the content: text that starts with an equals sign stays text and is never read as a formula, and a string beyond Excel's cell limit stops the export with a clear message instead of being cut off.
Minimal permissions
The plugin asks for one network permission only, to load the library that builds the Excel file. Texts stay in the file and are not sent to any service. That keeps it simple to approve inside a company.
How writers and designers work with it
Designer shares the file
The writer opens the design and runs the plugin.
Writer finds and edits
Search the copy, read it in context, and change it in the list.
Both review in the design
The updated text is already in the screens, so the designer sees real wording in the layout and can flag overflow or tone.
Export for the rest of the team
An Excel file goes to reviewers, translators, or development, with the Hebrew text in its own column.
One tool instead of three systems
A tool that made the work more efficient, faster, and more pleasant for writers and designers. The writers' team uses it regularly to hand off the copy to development.
Work that used to spread across three systems now happens in one. The final document exports to Excel with the numbers compiled, ready to send to the development team.
“It saved me hours of work, and of figuring out what I am working on and in what context.”
Value beyond the design itself
I learned that I can build a plugin myself, working with AI and without writing any code.
I also learned to create value beyond the design itself: in the way our teams work together, by improving the shared process between writers, designers, and developers.