Using the Canvas

Think of the canvas as a giant shared whiteboard that never runs out of space. You and your team can add sticky notes, draw shapes, drop in images, and organize ideas together—all in real time. When someone moves a note, you see it move. When someone types, you see the words appear.

Looking for something specific? Jump to selection tricks, aligning things neatly, or all the shortcuts.

What Can You Create?

The toolbar on the left has everything you need:

Adding Things to the Canvas

Sticky Notes

The bread and butter of collaboration:

1. Click the sticky note icon
2. Click where you want it
3. Start typing
4. Click anywhere else when you're done

Good to know: Notes grow to fit your text automatically. To edit later, just double-click.

Text

For labels, headers, or anything that needs to stand alone:

1. Click the T icon
2. Click on the canvas
3. Type away
4. Click elsewhere to finish

Shapes

Rectangles and circles help you organize and frame content:

1. Click the shape you want
2. Click and drag to draw it
3. Let go when it looks right

Want a perfect circle? Hold Shift while you drag.

Want text inside a shape? Double-click any shape to start typing in it.

Images

Three ways to add images:

• Click the image icon and pick a file
• Drag and drop straight from your desktop
• Copy and paste with Ctrl + V (or Cmd + V on Mac)

Selecting Things

One Thing

Just click it. You'll see handles appear around it, plus a toolbar with options for that element.

Multiple Things

Sometimes you want to move, align, or change several items at once. Here's every way to do it:

Good to know: When you have multiple items selected, a special toolbar appears above them with alignment, distribution, and more options.

About locked items: You can include locked elements in a multi-selection, but they won't move or change—only the unlocked items will be affected.

Deselect

• Click on empty canvas
• Press Esc

Moving Things Around

With your mouse: Just drag. Selected items move together.

With your keyboard: Use the arrow keys for precise positioning.

Resizing and Rotating

Make It Bigger or Smaller

Drag any corner handle. Want to keep the proportions? Hold Shift while dragging.

Spin It Around

Hover just outside a corner—you'll see a curved arrow cursor. Drag to rotate.

Lining Things Up

When you select two or more items, you can snap them into perfect alignment. This is really satisfying.

Quick Shortcuts

You can also use the Align button in the toolbar that appears when you select multiple items.

Spacing Things Evenly

Got three or more items selected? You can distribute them with equal spacing:

The first and last items stay put—everything in between gets spaced perfectly.

Formatting Text

Double-click any text element to edit it (or select it and press Enter). While editing:

The formatting toolbar also lets you change fonts, sizes, colors, and alignment.

Resize while editing: You can drag the handles to resize a text element even while you're typing—the text reflows in real time.

Press Esc or click outside when you're done editing.

Locking Things in Place

Don't want something accidentally moved or edited? Lock it.

1. Select the item (or items)
2. Click the lock icon 🔒 in the toolbar

Locked items can't be moved, resized, or edited until you unlock them. Great for templates, instructions, or anything you want to protect.

Note: Only facilitators and hosts can lock and unlock elements.

Oops! Undo and Redo

We all make mistakes. No worries:

You can also use the undo and redo buttons in the bottom-right corner.

Copy, Paste, and Duplicate

Pro tip: Ctrl + D is great for quickly creating a row of similar items—it duplicates right next to the original.

Getting Around the Canvas

Panning (Moving Your View)

Zooming In and Out

The zoom controls in the bottom-right corner also work great.

Lost? Find Yourself

Click the Find Me button (📍) in the bottom-right. The canvas smoothly pans to where you are and gives you a little highlight so you can spot yourself.

Layering: Front and Back

Items stack on top of each other. To change the order:

1. Select the item
2. Right-click and choose Bring to Front or Send to Back

Or use the ⋯ menu when you have multiple items selected.

Working with Your Team

The magic of Kolab is seeing everyone work together in real time:

• Cursors — You'll see other people's cursors with their names
• Instant updates — Changes appear the moment someone makes them
• Editing badges — When someone's editing an element, you'll see their avatar on it

What if someone else is editing? You'll see their avatar badge on the element. While they're editing, you can't edit that same element—this prevents conflicts. Facilitators and hosts can override this if needed.

Tips for Smooth Collaboration

• Spread out — Give each other space to work
• Color-code — Use different sticky note colors for different people or topics
• Communicate — Use chat to coordinate who's working on what

Multi-Select Toolbar

When you select multiple items, a toolbar appears above them with:

All the Shortcuts

Everything in one place. Print this out, stick it on your wall, or just bookmark this page.

The Essentials

Selection

Moving & Transforming

Text Formatting

Alignment (select 2+ items)

Distribution (select 3+ items)

Navigation & Zoom

Having Trouble?

Shortcuts not working?

• Click on the canvas first to make sure it has focus
• Make sure you're not in the middle of editing text
• Try refreshing the page

Things feeling slow?

• Zoom out a bit
• Close other browser tabs
• Check your connection with System Check

Learn More

• Canvas Elements — Everything about sticky notes, shapes, images, and more
• Keyboard Shortcuts — The complete reference
• Navigating Kolab — Moving around spaces
• Presence & Cursors — How real-time collaboration works