Pinned Canvas

Canvas shows your pinned tasks and objectives as cards on a spatial workspace: your own Pinned list, including anything you pinned from teammates (see Your Own List). Arrange cards, zoom out for an overview, and open a parent's children on their own canvas. It is a layout of the Pinned section, separate from the task board's swimlane Board view.

Open Canvas

1. Open the dashboard in Tasks or Objectives view.
2. Select Pinned. Pin a task or objective first if this section is empty.
3. Click the Open as canvas icon on the active Pinned tab.

The entry icon is hidden in windows 720 pixels wide or narrower. Clear an active dashboard search to see the Pinned layout.

You can also ask Ask CoderFlow: “Open Canvas” or “Take me to Canvas.” Ask opens the dashboard if needed, selects Pinned, clears the search and opens Canvas. From Board view it switches to Tasks first. Other dashboard filters stay in place. It explains if Canvas cannot open because the window is too narrow, there are no pinned items, or the Canvas module cannot load.

Ask can also “Close Canvas.” Opening and closing Canvas need no Allow Actions permission or confirmation; they change the view only. The usual Ask navigation rules apply in voice conversations: another page is offered as a link.

Work on the canvas

• Drag a card to arrange it. The positions, zoom, pan and opened path are remembered in this browser.
• Use the zoom controls, Fit, or the +, −, 0 (100%) and F (fit) keys to change your view.
• Use a parent's Open control to see its children. Use the breadcrumbs or Backspace to go up a level.
• Click a task to open it, or an objective card to edit the objective.
• Use New or double-click empty canvas space to start creating an item at that location. Available choices depend on the level you are viewing.
• Select several cards to arrange them together. Click Select in the toolbar, then click each card or drag a box across the empty canvas; every card the box touches is selected. While Select is on, a click selects a card instead of opening it and a drag on the canvas draws the box instead of panning; scrolling still pans. Click Select again to turn it off. The toolbar shows how many cards are selected. Drag any selected card, or use the arrow keys on its grip (the dotted handle beside it), and they all move. Clear or a click on the empty canvas lets go of the cards; Esc does too and turns Select off. A selection only arranges cards: to move items between levels, move one card at a time.
• Shortcuts for the same thing without Select: Shift-click a card, hold Shift and drag a box, click a card's grip, or press Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on a Mac) for every card.
• Use a card's Move menu or drag it onto a supported parent or breadcrumb to move it between levels. Unlike repositioning a card, moving between parents changes its task/objective relationships. Ask CoderFlow can open Canvas and point at a task's Move button; you choose where it goes.

Use Home or Esc to return to the dashboard. Esc first dismisses an active menu, gesture or selection when applicable, so while you are selecting cards the first Esc ends that and the next closes Canvas. Your saved layout remains for the next visit.

Team canvases

A team canvas is an objective opened as a canvas that everyone who can see the objective shares. It shows the whole objective, not anyone's pins: all of its sub-objectives, the tasks and task groups launched from them, and their child tasks, whoever created them and whether or not they are pinned. Card positions are shared, and changes from teammates appear as they happen. Your personal Pinned Canvas is not affected.

Open a team canvas

• From an objective: hover over the objective's tile in the dashboard's Objectives list and click Open as team canvas (the board icon beside its name). On the Pinned Canvas, use the same button beside an objective's card. If the objective is not a team canvas yet, this turns it into one. That needs permission to change tasks in the objective's environment. An objective that is already a team canvas shows the icon all the time.
• From the list: open your avatar menu and choose Team canvases…, beside My Work. This entry appears when you can access at least one team canvas and your window is wider than 720 pixels. The list includes canvases outside your current dashboard filters. Choose a Team to show only the canvases filed under that team. Availability is checked each time you open the menu; to create your first canvas, use Open as team canvas on an objective.
• From a link: use Copy link in the canvas toolbar and share it. The link (index.html?teamCanvas=<objective id>) opens the team canvas for anyone who can see the objective. In a window 720 pixels wide or narrower, such as a phone, it opens the objective's dialog instead. A team canvas you leave open reopens on your next visit to the dashboard.

You can also ask Ask CoderFlow: “Open the Launch plan team canvas”, “Show the team canvases” or “Close the team canvas.” Ask opens a team canvas by its objective's name. It does not turn an objective into a team canvas.

What you see and do

The board works like the Pinned Canvas: drag cards, select several to arrange them together, pan and zoom, open a parent card to see its children, and use the breadcrumbs (which start at the team canvas's objective) or Backspace to go back up.

• Who made it: each card shows the avatar and name of the person who created the item. The toolbar shows everyone with items on the board.
• Shared layout: when anyone moves a card, or several selected cards at once, it glides to the same spot on everyone else's board. Which cards you have selected is yours alone; teammates don't see it. If two people move the same card at the same time, the last move saved wins. Pan, zoom and the opened level stay in your own browser.
• New items: New (or a double-click on the board) creates a sub-objective of the objective you are viewing, or launches a task from it. The new card appears where you asked, for everyone.
• Moving between levels: a card's Move menu, or dragging it onto a breadcrumb or an objective card, moves the item to another objective on the same board. This changes the item's parent objective, exactly as moving it on the dashboard does.
• Opening items: click a task to open it, or an objective card to edit the objective and read or add its comments.
• Pins: the board doesn't depend on pins. Each tile keeps its pin control, which works the same as on the dashboard: pinning a teammate's card puts it on your own Pinned list and Canvas only, and changes nothing for them.

Permissions and teams

A team canvas uses CoderFlow's existing permissions. It adds no rules based on who created an item.

You can	With
See the team canvas and everything on it that you can see elsewhere, and comment	View permission on tasks in the objective's environment
Arrange cards, and edit or move anyone's shared items	Permission to change tasks
Add sub-objectives and tasks	Permission to create tasks

Private tasks keep their usual rules: a private task, and anything under a private sub-objective, appears only for the people who could already see it. Someone who can only view sees View only in the toolbar. They can still arrange cards for themselves, but those moves are not saved for others. Opening a card's objective shows its dialog with Save, Stage, Launch and Delete turned off, and a note at the top saying why (see When Someone Else Edits the Same Objective).

Moving a task to another objective needs access to open that objective, too. Live updates follow current permissions: once someone loses access, an open board stops receiving card positions and changes, without reloading.

To file a canvas under a team, use the Team button in the canvas toolbar (shown if you can change the objective) and choose one of your teams. Teams only help people find canvases in the Team canvases list. A team doesn't grant or limit access. The same menu has Turn off team canvas: the objective leaves the list and open boards close. Nothing on the board is deleted, and its layout comes back if the objective is opened as a team canvas again.

Team canvases are included in every edition.