How to Preview a Prototype in Figma (Cmd+Option+Return)

Cmd+Option+Return on Mac (a similar chord on Windows that varies slightly by version, or simply clicking the Present button in Figma's top-right toolbar) launches full-screen interactive preview mode, starting at whichever frame has been designated as the prototype's starting frame. **Before you can meaningfully preview anything**: presenting a prototype only demonstrates whatever interactions have actually been wired up in Prototype mode beforehand — pressing Present on a file with no configured connections just shows the starting frame as a static image with nothing clickable, which is a common point of confusion for anyone expecting Figma to automatically infer interactivity from visual cues like a button-looking shape, when in reality every single interaction has to be deliberately connected first. **Setting the starting point**: if Present doesn't seem to be opening the frame you expect, check whether a starting frame has been explicitly set (right-click a frame > Set as starting frame) — without one explicitly designated, Figma's choice of which frame to open first isn't necessarily the one you intended, especially in a file containing many separate frames representing different screens or flows. **Interacting during the preview**: once inside Presentation view, clicking, hovering, or dragging on any element that has a configured prototype connection triggers whatever action was wired to it — navigating to another frame, opening an overlay, swapping a component's variant, or scrolling to a specific point, depending on what was configured back in Prototype mode. **Reloading versus closing entirely**: pressing R while inside Presentation view restarts the current preview session from the starting frame without needing to close the presentation window and click Present again — a small but meaningful time saver when you're iterating quickly, testing a small edit, going back to Design mode to adjust something, and then wanting to re-test the flow from the beginning repeatedly. **Sharing a live preview link**: beyond the in-editor preview, Figma also generates a shareable link (via the Share button, or a dedicated Present link) that opens the same interactive preview in a browser for anyone with access, without requiring them to have the Figma file itself open or even a Figma account in some sharing configurations — this is commonly how a design gets handed to a stakeholder or developer for review without them needing to navigate the actual editing file. **Related shortcuts**: Shift+E switches between Design and Prototype modes, the step that has to happen before any connections can be wired in the first place. Right-click > Set as starting frame determines exactly where a Present session begins. **Mistake to avoid**: testing a prototype flow only in the Figma desktop or web editor's Presentation view and assuming it will look and behave identically when shared via a public link and opened on an actual mobile device — device frame sizing, viewport scaling, and certain interaction behaviors can render slightly differently on a real device than in the editor's preview window, so testing a genuinely important handoff prototype on an actual target device before finalizing is worth the extra step.