Signing in to livedocuments is entirely optional. The canvas works without an account, so there is never a sign-in wall in front of the editor. An account simply adds something useful on top: it keeps your documents with you across browsers and devices instead of being tied to one guest identity, unlocks teams, and lets you create API tokens to call the API from your own scripts.
Creating an account
Your livedocuments account is a liveworkspace account: one sign-in for livedocuments, livediagram and the other liveworkspace apps. Choosing Sign in at the top right of the editor or the Explorer (or opening /sign-in or /get-started) takes you to the liveworkspace sign-in page at liveworkspace.app. Enter your email and we send you a 6-digit code; type it in and you are back in livedocuments, signed in. There is no password, and there is no separate sign-up step: the first time you sign in with an email, that is your account made.
If you are already signed in to another liveworkspace app in the same browser, signing in to livedocuments takes you straight back with no code to type.
Accounts are free, with no paid tier and nothing to upgrade. After signing in from the sign-in page you land on the Explorer to see your documents; after signing up you land on the new-document flow to start building. If you used the Sign in link in the editor or the Explorer, you go back to where you were instead.
Once you are signed in, your initial and name replace the Sign in link. Click it for the account menu: Account opens the Account category of Settings, where your name, email, Trash and Delete Account live, and Sign out signs you out of livedocuments and returns you to the home page. Settings shows the name and email of your account; it does not edit them.
Delete Account removes everything you have in livedocuments, closes your liveworkspace account and signs you out. Closing it signs you out of the other liveworkspace apps too, and you can no longer sign in to them with it.
When sign-in is not available
Sign-in is optional: the editor works fully as a guest. If sign-in is failing on the hosted site, see Cannot Sign In.
Your guest documents come with you
The best part of signing up is that you keep the work you have already done. When you sign in, whether to a new account or an existing one, everything your guest identity owns in this browser moves into the account: your documents, folders, favourites and your Shared With Me list. liveworkspace does the move, so it covers every liveworkspace app at once, and a canvas you made as a guest on livediagram comes across too. From then on that work is owned by your account and follows you to any browser or device where you sign in.
The move happens in the background as you sign in, and never holds the sign-in up. Afterwards, the next time this browser needs a guest, it starts a fresh one.
Only the guest in this browser moves. Guest documents you made in a different browser or on another device belong to that browser's guest: open livedocuments there and sign in with the same account to bring them across too.
If you have documents kept in This Browser, which were never on the server, a Move Documents in This Browser to Your Account? dialog lists them when you sign in: every one is ticked, so press Move to bring them all across, or untick any you would rather keep in this browser. Not Now leaves them in this browser, and we only ask again when there are more. If one fails to move, it stays in this browser and a follow-up dialog names it. You can also move one any time with Sync Document in the Explorer or the Share dialog. Documents in This Browser belong to the browser, not to an account, so after you sign out they are offered to whoever signs in next on it.
Build freely as a guest, then sign up when you want your documents everywhere. The hand-off is automatic, so there is no manual import to do.
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