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A canvas is where you spread the story out away from the manuscript. Lay out the thoughts that have not hardened into prose yet — character relationships, how events sit, the order of scenes — as cards, and join them with lines.

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Placing cards

The toolbar at the bottom holds Note card (N), File card (F), and Image card (I). Click one and it appears on the spot. Double-clicking empty background also places a note card. Rectangle, Ellipse, Line, Arrow, Pen, and Text, which follow to the right, are the drawing tools. You write straight into a note card. Select the card, enter edit mode with Shift + Enter, and leave with Esc. The title row is hidden by default. Turn it on with Show title in the toolbar that appears above a selected card. A file card points at a document, sheet, plotboard, or folder in the project. While it is empty it reads only No file selected. Double-click the card and that file opens. For documents and sheets, turning on Show original puts the body text in the card instead of the description.
A canvas with three or four note cards and one file card joined by lines. The toolbar at the bottom and the vertical button strip on the right are both visible.
A canvas with three or four note cards and one file card joined by lines. The toolbar at the bottom and the vertical button strip on the right are both visible.

The canvas screen. Cards and drawing tools sit at the bottom, zoom and undo on the right.

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Edges

Hover a card and dots appear on its four sides. Drag from a dot and drop it on another card and a line joins them. Drop it on empty space and a menu appears offering Add note card and Add file card. The card you pick is created already attached to that line. Select a line and a toolbar appears above it. Pick Nondirectional, Unidirectional, or Bidirectional under Edge direction, and reverse the arrow with Flip edge. Write something like “because of” or “after that” into Edit edge label and the relationship stays visible.
One edge is selected. In the edge toolbar above it, the edge direction dropdown is open showing the three rows Nondirectional, Unidirectional, and Bidirectional.
One edge is selected. In the edge toolbar above it, the edge direction dropdown is open showing the three rows Nondirectional, Unidirectional, and Bidirectional.

Selecting an edge brings up tools for changing its direction, label, and color.

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Grouping

Select two or more cards and click Create group and a border is drawn around them. The name starts as Untitled group, and you change it with Edit group label. Drag the border and the cards inside move with it. Select the group and click Ungroup and only the border goes; the cards stay. Selecting several also brings up the align menu. Align horizontally and Align vertically line them up, and Arrange in a row, Arrange in a column, and Arrange in a grid under Arrange reset the spacing as well.
Default Width and Default Height for new nodes, Text Wrap Mode, and Auto Zoom on Edit are changed under Canvas in Settings.