Using Components to Stay Consistent

Components are Framer's secret weapon for maintaining consistency and saving time. Edit once, update everywhere—that's the power you unlock when you understand how to work with components properly. This guide shows you how to use them without breaking things.

What Makes Components Different

A component is a reusable element that appears in multiple places throughout your site. Your navigation menu, footer, buttons, and card layouts are likely all components. The key characteristic is that when you edit the main component, all instances of it update automatically.

In the Layers panel, components have a distinct icon—a purple diamond or component symbol. This visual indicator helps you immediately identify which elements are components and which are regular frames.

Think of components as a blueprint. Each instance of a component is built from that blueprint. Change the blueprint, and every building built from it changes too. This is incredibly powerful for things that need to be identical across your entire site.

The Most Important Components in Your Template

Your navigation menu is almost certainly a component, and it's probably the most critical one to understand. It appears on every page, so any change you make affects the entire site. This global presence is exactly why it's a component—you want navigation updates to propagate everywhere instantly.

The footer works the same way. Update your copyright year, add a social media link, or change contact information in one place, and it updates across every page automatically.

Buttons might also be components, especially if your template uses a design system approach. The "primary button" style is defined once, and all instances inherit that styling. This ensures visual consistency and makes it easy to update your button style site-wide.

Card layouts for blog posts, team members, or case studies are often components too. The structure and styling are defined once, and CMS content fills in the specifics for each instance.

Editing Components Without Breaking Things

When you select a component instance and start editing, you need to understand the distinction between editing the main component and creating an override.

To edit the main component (affecting all instances), right-click the component in the Layers panel and choose "Edit Main Component" or look for the "Go to Main Component" option. This opens the component definition, and any changes you make here apply everywhere the component is used.

If you just start editing without explicitly going to the main component, you create an override on that specific instance. The change applies only to that one version, which can be useful but also creates inconsistency if you're not careful.

Common Navigation Edits

Most people need to update navigation links to match their pages. Find the nav component, edit the main component, and update the link text and destinations. The links are usually regular text elements with click actions set—edit the text, then update the action to point to the correct page.

If you need to add or remove nav items, do it carefully. The navigation is likely set up with specific spacing and alignment. Adding items might require adjusting the layout settings on the nav container. Test it at mobile breakpoints to ensure the responsive menu still works.

Some templates use a separate mobile navigation component that appears at smaller breakpoints. If yours does, you need to edit both the desktop and mobile nav components separately to keep them in sync.

Footer Updates Done Right

Footer edits usually involve updating contact information, social media links, copyright text, and potentially adding or removing sections. Go to the main footer component and make your changes there.

When editing social media icons, look for the click action on each icon. Update the destination URL to point to your profiles. If the icons are images, you might need to replace them if the template doesn't include all the platforms you use.

The copyright year is often just a text element. Some templates use a code override to automatically display the current year, but if yours doesn't, update it manually and set a reminder to update it each January.

Avoiding Accidental Overrides

Overrides happen when you edit a component instance without meaning to change just that one. They're not inherently bad—sometimes you genuinely need a unique variation—but accidental overrides create maintenance headaches.

If you accidentally create an override, you can reset it. Select the component instance, look in the properties panel for "Reset overrides" or a similar option, and click it. The instance reverts to matching the main component exactly.

Before making widespread changes, always ask yourself: "Do I want this change to apply everywhere this component appears?" If yes, edit the main component. If no, you're creating an override intentionally.

When to Create Your Own Components

As you customize your template, you might find yourself duplicating the same element repeatedly. A custom service card, a testimonial block, or a feature list that appears on multiple pages—these are perfect candidates for turning into components.

Select the element you want to componentize, right-click, and choose "Create Component." Name it clearly, then use instances of this component wherever needed. Future edits become a breeze because you edit once and it updates everywhere.

This approach scales beautifully as your site grows. Each new page you add can pull from your component library, ensuring consistency without repetitive work.

Component Troubleshooting

If a component isn't updating as expected, check for overrides first. Overridden properties won't update when you edit the main component—that's their entire purpose. You might need to reset overrides and reapply intentional customizations.

If you accidentally break a component and can't figure out what went wrong, you can detach it from the main component. This converts it to a regular frame that you can edit freely, but it loses the connection to the component. Use this as a last resort, as you lose the benefits of component syncing.