# Draw together on a canvas

> Draw with stickies, shapes and arrows, vote, run a timer, share a guest link, and turn notes into tasks.

A canvas is a live whiteboard. The people of a workspace draw on it together, and the troop reads it. This page tells
how to make a canvas, draw on it, and run a session with a timer and votes. It also tells how to share a canvas with
guests, and turn notes into tasks.

## Before you begin

Canvas is a product. A person sees it only when it has the product. See
[Invite people and choose their roles](/docs/people).

## Make a canvas

1. Open **Canvas** from **Products**, then select **New canvas**.
2. Type the **Canvas name**.
3. Under **Start from**, pick **Blank**, **Brainstorm** (ideas, questions and next steps) or **Retro** (what went well,
   what to improve, actions).
4. Confirm. The board opens.

## Draw

The toolbar holds the tools. A key picks each one.

| Tool                          | What it makes                                          |
| ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Select**                    | Picks items, to move, resize or change them.           |
| **Sticky note**               | A note with words.                                     |
| Text                          | Words with no box.                                     |
| **Rectangle** and **Ellipse** | Shapes. Press the key again to switch between the two. |
| **Arrow**                     | An arrow. It can join two items, and follows them.     |
| Pen                           | A line that you draw by hand.                          |
| **Frame**                     | A box that holds other items, with a title.            |
| **Image**                     | A PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP image, 10 MB at most.         |
| **Comment**                   | A pin with a thread of comments.                       |

- Select an item, then press Enter to edit its words.
- Delete or Backspace deletes what you picked. Escape clears the pick.
- The arrow keys move what you picked. Cmd with Z undoes, and Shift with Cmd and Z does it again.
- Hold Space and drag to move the view. + and - zoom. Shift with 1 fits everything in view.
- **Bring to front** and **Send to back** change the order of items.

## Work together

Each person on the canvas shows as a cursor with a name, and what each person picked shows too.

| Control                 | What it does                                                                                                                   |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Follow                  | Select the face of a person to see what they have in view.                                                                     |
| **Bring everyone here** | Everyone on the canvas follows what you have in view, until they move.                                                         |
| **Timer**               | **Start a timer** for everyone. **Pause the timer**, **Resume the timer** or **Stop the timer**. "Time's up" shows at its end. |
| **Dot voting**          | Each person votes on notes. The counts show on each note.                                                                      |
| **Reactions**           | Send a reaction that floats over the board for everyone.                                                                       |
| **Private mode**        | New notes stay hidden from others until you reveal them from the pill on the board.                                            |
| **Comments**            | Pins with threads. **Resolve** closes a thread.                                                                                |

## Ask the troop

Select **Ask the troop** to ask a teammate about the canvas, such as "Sort these notes into themes" or "Sum up this
canvas in three points". The teammate reads the words of the canvas.

- When you ask, the Chief of Staff adds notes or sorts them into titled themes.
- The Engineer and the QA tester do not read canvases.

## Turn notes into tasks

1. Pick the notes.
2. Select **Make tasks**. Each note becomes a task on the board.

## Share with a guest link

1. Select **Share with a link**.
2. Pick **Who the link lets in**: **Can view** or **Can edit**.
3. Select **Copy link**, and send it.

A guest sees the board with no account. What guests add is marked as theirs. Anyone of the workspace deletes what guests
added, or all of it at once from Share. **Make a new link** stops the old one, and closes the open boards of guests.
Only the person who made the canvas, owners and admins change its link.

Guests have their own limits: 500 live items, 5,000 items in all, and 50,000 points of pen.

## Export and delete

- **Export as a PNG** saves the board as a picture. **Export what's picked as a PNG** saves only what you picked.
- **Delete canvas** deletes everything on it, images too, for everyone. You cannot undo it.

## The canvas and the brain

The brain holds the words of each canvas, after the canvas was quiet for a minute. It leaves out the notes that private
mode hides, and the words of guests. Only people and teammates who read tasks find a canvas in search.

## Related

- [Track work on Tasks and projects](/docs/tasks)
- [Teach the brain about your business](/docs/brain)
- [Write and share docs](/docs/documents)
- [Invite people and choose their roles](/docs/people)