The Canvas

The Canvas - How Do I Start? How do I customize my canvas design settings and design controls?

Building conversations on Voiceflow starts with the Canvas! The Canvas is a highly interactive design space and sandbox experience, similar to many popular design tools.

Control Canvas Elements

The Canvas is an infinite canvas that hosts your conversation designs. To move around the canvas and any elements, you can pan with two fingers on a trackpad or click and drag with your mouse.

Zooming in and out

You can use the + and - keys on your keyboard or your mouse wheel to zoom in and out, respectively.

Alternatively, if you want a more precise and/or controlled zoom, you are also able to right click any blank area in your canvas and select Zoom In + or Zoom Out - to configure your zoom.

Tip: If you're using a track pad, you can use two-finger scroll and zoom.

Refocus the Canvas

To refocus your view on the Start block in your current flow, use the S key to automatically center the view on your Start step.

This can be particularly useful when you lose track of where you are when editing a complex assistant.

Tip: You can change your method of navigation from trackpad to mouse control manually within canvas settings. See below section for more details.

Toggle between Mouse and Trackpad Controls

If you have both a mouse and a trackpad connected to the device that you are designing on, you can choose to optimize your experience for either by clicking on the cursor icon at the top left of the screen. 

• Mouse mode - Click and drag to pan the canvas. Zoom by scrolling the mouse wheel.
• Trackpad mode - Pan the canvas by sliding two fingers on the trackpad. Zoom by pinching in and out.

Canvas shortcuts

All of the above can also be achieved by right-clicking a blank area on your Canvas, and accessing the shortcuts menu.

You also have the option to Hide/Show UI to toggle the Topics & Flows navigation bar to help give you a more fuller screen and more design real estate for a focused Canvas experience.

Quick access to Canvas Markup and Commenting features is also available in this menu.

Path and Connection Settings

You can change your canvas lines to be either straight or curved. By default, lines are straight but can be changed to curvy. You can switch path modes back and forth at any time. You can also change the color and add accompanying text to any line. 

More Settings

You can also custom toggle all the following settings from the Settings tab:

• Navigation Mode
• Zoom Type
• Line Type
• Canvas Grid

Under this section, you will find additional settings available to enhance and configure your designing experience.