Every element on the canvas starts from the palette. The palette organises its contents into categories so it stays compact however much it holds, and adding an element is usually a single tap.
Picking a Category
The palette is the strip across the top of the canvas. Its categories sit along it by name: rest the pointer on one, or click it, and its elements open in a panel underneath, in named groups, with a line on what each one does. On a design or article page the categories are:
- Shapes: the common shapes, such as square, circle, diamond, cylinder, parallelogram, hexagon and speech bubble.
- Write: the words, text, sticky notes and pointer notes.
- Concepts: ideas laid out as one element, such as a pyramid, a funnel and a cycle, then the Timeline and the Sankey.
- Components: themed blocks such as the Hero, Header, Banner and Stack, then the Card, Badge, Step, Callout, Stat and Process, then the Code Block and the Checklist.
- Devices: browser, laptop, phone and other frames for showing a screen.
- Icons: a searchable set of single-colour icons, its groups down the side, that you can drop on the canvas or onto a shape.
- Stickers: full-colour stickers to decorate a page.
- Media: an uploaded image, the embeds, and a Tab Window that shows another tab live.
- Data: charts and meters, then the Table.
A slide arranges its own set, offering what a slide is made of: see Working with Pages. Participants and Viewers on a shared link get no palette: they add nothing.
Dropping or Drawing an Element
Almost every tile arms a combined gesture when you click it.
Click a tile in the palette. It stays pressed to show it is armed, and a banner along the top of the canvas says what comes next (for a shape, "Click to drop or drag to draw" and the shape's name, "Tap" on a phone), with a Cancel button.
Tap an empty spot on the canvas to drop the element at its natural size on that point.
Or, instead of a single tap, drag out a box and release to create the element at that size. Both corners snap to nearby shapes as you drag.
While a tile is armed you can even start the drag on top of another element: the new one is drawn over it rather than selecting it. Press Escape (or Cancel on the banner) to disarm a tile without adding anything. Text lands ready for typing; everything else lands selected, ready to move or restyle. An Image lands as an empty placeholder: press its Select Image button when you are ready to add the picture.
If a boxed element is already selected when you tap a tile, the new one inherits its width and height (a drag sets its own size), so you can chain together similarly sized nodes quickly. Circles and diamonds are an exception: they are inherently square, so they snap back to a square using the larger inherited dimension.
You can also drag a tile straight from the palette onto the canvas instead of tapping. As you drag, a translucent preview of the element follows your cursor at its real size, so you can see exactly where, and how big, it will land before you let go.
Adding from the Keyboard
Single keys arm the most common elements without opening the palette: R for a rectangle, O for an oval, D for a diamond, C for a cylinder, G for a parallelogram, T for text, N for a sticky note, A for an arrow and 9 for an image. See Keyboard Shortcuts for the full list. With one labelled element selected, a letter key types into its label instead. A Participant's keys add only what its palette holds, and a Viewer's add nothing. You can also double-click empty canvas to drop a text element and start typing straight away.
Icons can be added to a shape rather than as standalone elements: drag an icon tile onto a shape, or click an icon while a shape is selected, and it attaches beside that shape's label.
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