Canvas
A canvas is a freeform board of short notes joined by lines. Some cards are real tasks, some are docs, the rest are notes that give a task its context. Thinking happens on the canvas; the outcome lands on the board and in Docs without being copied.
What you can do
- Use a canvas per project, as a view next to List and Kanban, shared with everyone who can see the project's tasks.
- Make personal canvases from Docs > Add doc > Canvas. Only the owner sees them.
- Place notes, task cards, doc cards, images, PDFs and Nextcloud files.
- Draw lines. A line between two tasks in the same project is a dependency (the first blocks the second); a line between a doc and a task links them. Both show in the task drawer and on every canvas holding both ends.
- Turn a note into a task or a doc. Turn a task or doc card back into a note.
- Add shapes, frames, tables, checklists and link cards. See Shapes, frames and lines and Tables, checklists and link cards.
- Tidy lays the canvas out automatically. Fit view brings everything into view. Fullscreen fills the screen.
How to
- Pick a tool from the toolbar, or press its key:
- V - Select: drag items, drag empty space to draw a selection box.
- H - Hand: drag to pan.
- T - Text: click to add a note.
- U - Shape.
- K - Frame. <!-- verify: what U and K do once the tool-key change lands (a placing tool, or an insert) -->
- Space - hold to pan with any tool.
- Esc - back to Select; pressed again, leaves fullscreen.
- Add a note: with Text, click the canvas and type. Enter saves, Shift+Enter adds a line, Esc drops the edit.
- Add existing work: Insert doc, Insert tasks, or Insert from Nextcloud in the toolbar. Mod+V pastes an image or file.
- Make a task: select a note and press Shift+T, or right-click it. On a personal canvas, choose the project.
- Make a doc: right-click a note. <!-- verify: Make doc key after the tool-key change (was K, now Frame) -->
- Remove: select items or lines and press Del or Backspace.
- Select several: Shift+drag a box, or Mod+click to add or take an item.
Limits
- No live co-editing: a canvas reloads on focus and when someone else changes it.
- A task or doc appears at most once per canvas.
- Only notes become tasks or docs. Shapes, checklists and tables do not.
- A task made from a note goes into the project's first task list; a doc made from a note is unpublished, at Project width on a project canvas and Private on a personal one.
- Client accounts do not see canvases.