Every project has a Canvas tab: a whiteboard the whole team sees, guests included. Use it for renderings and site photos, a sticky-note exercise in a meeting, or a quick sketch of a workflow.

Add things

  • + Note adds a sticky note in the colour picked beside it; + Text adds a heading or label. Both go in the middle of what you're looking at, ready to type.
  • Shapes opens a panel: a rectangle, a rounded box, an ellipse or a decision diamond, in the colour picked (the colour button beside it). Double-click a shape to write in it.
  • Shapes also has the Line and Arrow tools: pick one, then drag on the canvas to draw it. Start or end on an item and that end attaches to it.
  • + Frame adds a titled area at a sheet size (Letter, Tabloid 11×17, ARCH C, D or E, or a 16:9 slide) or a custom one. Put things inside it, and moving the frame moves them all. Double-click it to rename it.
  • Select a frame for its Size button: another sheet size, Make it portrait (or landscape), or Fit to contents to wrap it around what's on it. Drag its corner for any size, and pick a background with the colour button.
  • + Picture adds renderings, photos or markups (JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP). You can also drop pictures onto the canvas, or paste a screenshot.
  • Pictures are saved with the project's files, so they're in Library too.

Connect things (workflow diagrams)

  1. Point at a sticky note, shape, text or picture: a dot shows on each side.
  2. Drag a dot onto another item. A line joins them, and it follows them when you move either one.
  3. Drop it on empty space instead, and a new item of the same kind appears there, already connected, ready to type in. Keep going to build a flow quickly.
  4. Click a line to select it: the toolbar's Line button sets its arrows (one end, both ends or none) and makes it straight or curved. Double-click a line (or choose Label this line under Line) to write on it, such as Yes or No after a decision.
  5. Drag a selected line's end dots to move them: onto an item to attach it there, anywhere else to let it go. A line that isn't attached at either end drags as a whole.

Turn notes, shapes and text into tasks and RAIDD items

  1. Right-click a sticky note, shape or text and choose Make a schedule task… or Log in RAIDD…. To do several at once, select them first (drag a selection box around them), then right-click one of them.
  2. For a task, check the name (the note's first line) and the due date. It starts on today, so the task lands on the calendar. The task goes on the schedule as a one-day task under the phase that holds that date.
  3. For RAIDD, pick the kind (Risk, Action, Issue, Dependency or Decision) and, if you like, a target date. The note's first line is the title and the rest is the description. It starts Open, Medium priority.
  4. The note keeps a small tag in its corner, such as SCH-014 or RSK-004. Click it to open the task or item; it turns green with a ✓ once it's done or closed. The task or item says Made from a Canvas note, with a link back to it.
  • A note can become one task and one RAIDD item. Your firm's people can do this; guests can't.
  • If the schedule or the RAIDD log is turned off for your organization, its choice doesn't show.

Your own canvas in Notebook

  • Notebook → Canvas holds your own canvases, as many as you like, private like the rest of Notebook. + New canvas starts one; everything above works there too, except live cursors (nobody else is on it).
  • Copy to a project… (above a canvas) puts a copy on one of your projects' Canvas, in a frame with the canvas's name, where the team can see it; pictures go into the project's Library. Your own canvas stays as it is, private.
  • Rename a canvas from the list or by clicking its name above it. Archive one you're done with: it moves to the Archived section at the bottom of the list, and you can still open it. Delete moves it to Trash, where you can restore it.
  • Pictures you add there go in your Notebook → Library.

Work with it

  • Drag anything to move it; drag the corner of a selected item to resize it (a picture keeps its shape).
  • Drag on empty space to draw a selection box: everything inside is selected (a frame brings what's in it). Drag any of them to move them together, pick a colour for them all, or press Delete. Ctrl+A selects everything.
  • To move around, pick the Hand (beside the arrow in the toolbar), hold Space, or drag with the right mouse button. The mouse wheel or a pinch zooms; on a touchscreen, one finger moves around.
  • + Table adds a grid of cells. Double-click a cell to type; Tab moves along, Enter goes down. Select the table and a small bar above it has + Row, + Column, − Row and − Column. Leave it empty for a plain grid.
  • A sets the text colour, and Thickness sets a line's thickness (or a shape's outline). Hold Ctrl (or Shift) while drawing a line, or dragging its end, to keep it level, upright or at 45°.
  • Double-click a note or text to write on it, or select it and press Enter. Click away or press Esc to finish.
  • The outline button, right beside the fill colour, sets the border of a shape, frame, note or picture: Auto (a darker tone of its fill), None, or any colour. On a line it sets the line's colour. It's always there, and works once something is selected (several at once too).
  • The dots button at the end of the zoom controls hides or shows the dot background (just for you, in this browser).
  • Transparency (the half-filled circle) makes the selected item see-through, from solid to 90%: a note's, shape's or frame's colour (its text stays solid), or a whole picture, text or line. Handy for laying notes or a rendering over a plan.
  • Aa sets the text size of the selected note, text, shape, frame title or line label (12 to 72, or Auto for the usual size).
  • Select a note, shape or frame and pick a colour from the colour button: soft colours on top, bright ones (with white and charcoal) below; select a shape and use Shape to switch it (to a diamond, say). Delete (or the Delete key) removes it, with the lines joined to it; Undo (Ctrl+Z) brings them back.
  • The toolbar never moves around. Every button keeps its place: pick or move around, add things, colours (fill and outline), text and look (text colour, size, transparency, thickness), then Shape, Size (a frame's) and Line. Buttons that don't apply to what's selected are greyed out.
  • Right-click anything for Bring to front, Bring forward, Send backward and Send to back (Ctrl+Shift+], Ctrl+], Ctrl+[ and Ctrl+Shift+[). Frames always stay behind everything else.
  • Drag empty space to move around the canvas; the mouse wheel or a pinch zooms. Fit shows everything.
  • Print (top right) prints the canvas or saves it as a PDF: Everything, What's on screen, or one frame, on Letter, Tabloid or ARCH C, D or E. A sheet-sized frame picks its own paper. It fills one sheet, turned to suit; in the print window choose Save as PDF for a PDF.
  • Everything saves as you go. People who can only view the project can look but not change it.