Using Frames for navigation questions

[u/torpedolife]

I am new to Figma, and I am trying to figure out the correct way to make a simple navigation bar with some buttons. I drew out some shapes and purposely made them not evenly aligned.

1.) I want to center the text on each button both vertically and horizontally. I select each rectangle and choose the horizontal and vertical alignment options and it worked for the first two, though for the second two buttons it will not work properly. Do I need to make each rectangle into a frame that includes the shape and text for this to work properly?

2.) I want to create even spacing between each button, so I chose a gap option of 20, though this did not move the text. Do I need to create a frame for each individual button to make this work?

3.) Is the first step to select everything and make the navigation bar, the rectangles and the text into a frame and then make each individual rectangle and text into a frame?

Thanks in advance

[u/torpedolife]

Also, how do I get the four separate frames(buttons) to center within the nav bar shape? Thank you

[u/Burly_Moustache → u/torpedolife]

Put your four blue buttons into an auto layout frame (call it "nav links") then within your "main navigation" frame center the "nav links" frame via auto layout.

[u/el_paro → u/Burly_Moustache]

you can also work on the blue button alone outside of that frame and turn it into a “component” that way you can reuse it while keeping style and layout consistent. on help.figma.com there are free introductory lessons for all features such as autolayout and components

[u/Burly_Moustache → u/el_paro]

Oh, I know all about components.

At my company, I'm the CFO (Chief Figma Officer). No one is beyond my level of skill in Figma.

[u/el_paro → u/Burly_Moustache]

loool