Manage Canvas members

Canvas members are the people who can open a specific canvas, plus the roles that decide what they can do there. Use member management when you need to answer practical access questions: who can view this, who can comment, who can edit, who came in through a link, and who should be removed before the next review.

This is separate from a Canvas PIN. Members and roles decide whether someone has access and what they can do after entry. A PIN adds a code prompt before the content opens.

What member management shows

The canvas Share dialog can show direct collaborators, the canvas owner, guests or external collaborators, people who have access through a share link, and people whose access comes from a broader project or workspace role.

Rows may include labels such as Owner, Guest, or Link. These labels help explain why a person appears in the access list.

Owner means the person owns or manages the canvas at a high level.

Guest means the person is not a normal workspace member for this canvas access path. They may be an external collaborator or someone entering through a guest flow.

Link means the person is associated with access from the share link rather than a direct canvas invite. Change the link settings when the link is the access path.

Do not assume every visible collaborator was invited directly from the canvas. A project role, workspace role, or share link can also make the canvas available.

Open Canvas members

Open the canvas and choose Share. The Share dialog lets you invite people, choose permissions, manage existing members, turn link sharing on or off, copy the share link, and check the current link permission.

When member avatars or Manage permissions appear in the Share dialog, open them to review the access list. From there, people with management permission can change roles or remove members when the access path allows it.

Guests do not see the normal Share management controls. If a guest needs someone else added, a canvas owner, workspace admin, or workspace member with sharing permission should manage access.

Some canvases do not allow every person to manage Share. This can happen when you are a guest, when the canvas is part of a template workflow, or when your account does not have permission to manage access.

Choose the right role

Pick the narrowest role that lets the person do the job.

Workspace and project roles can affect the final result. If a person has project access, the canvas Share dialog may not be the only place to change what they can do; project canvas management explains the broader path.

Invite people by email

Use a direct email invite when you know exactly who should have access. This is the best choice for named teammates, client contacts, contractors, reviewers, instructors, students, or vendors who should be accountable as individual people.

Open Share, enter the person's name or email address, choose the role, and send the invite. Suggestions prefer active workspace members and current collaborators. Deactivated users are excluded from suggestions because they cannot participate normally.

If the email address does not belong to a workspace member, the person may enter as a guest or external collaborator depending on workspace settings. That lets them collaborate on the shared canvas without becoming a full workspace member.

Choose the role before sending. For external review, comment access is usually the strongest default. Use edit access only when the recipient should directly change the canvas.

Manage existing members

Use Manage permissions to review the current access list before a client review, class session, workshop, handoff, or project archive.

Lower access after the work changes phase. For example, move a client from edit to comment after the working session ends, or move a large group from comment to view after a readout is complete.

Remove direct collaborators who no longer need access. Removing a direct canvas member does not always remove every route into the canvas. If the person also has project access, workspace access, or a still-active share link, they may still be able to open it.

Some rows cannot be changed from the canvas member list. Owners, your own row, project-level members, link-based access, or rows controlled by a broader permission path may be read-only in that view. Change the owning access path instead.

If a person appears with a Link label, review the share link settings. If the link is no longer appropriate, turn link sharing off, lower the link permission, or renew the link and send the new one only to the right audience.

Guests and external collaborators

Guests and external collaborators are useful when someone outside the workspace needs scoped access to the canvas without becoming a normal workspace member.

Use guests for temporary sessions, workshops, interviews, classroom activities, client reviews, and lightweight external participation. A guest may enter through a link, provide a display name, and then use the canvas with the permission granted.

Use external collaborators when a named outside person should keep access to a specific canvas or project over time. They are still not the same as full workspace members, and they should be managed from the shared item rather than from the workspace People list.

Guest and external access should be reviewed more often than normal internal access. Remove old client reviewers, turn off old workshop links, and lower edit access when the active collaboration period ends.

Share links and private links

A share link is an access path. Create it from Share, choose the link permission, and send it to people who should be able to enter through that link.

A private link points to a normal canvas location, page, object, comment, or chat message. It helps someone land in the right place after they already have access. It does not invite them, add them as a member, or change their role.

Use a share link when the recipient may not already have access. Use a private page, object, comment, or chat link after access is confirmed.

For example, send a client a share link first so they can enter with comment access. Then send a page link or comment link when you need them to review a specific section.

If the canvas has a PIN, the share link and the PIN both matter. The link provides the access path. The PIN lets the person pass the protected entry screen. The role still decides what they can do after entry.

See Private links and share links in Canvas for the full link distinction.

Choose the right sharing method

Clean up access after collaboration

After a review, workshop, class, or client session, check the member list and the share link settings.

Remove people who no longer need the canvas. Lower edit access to comment or view when the editing phase is over. Turn off share links that were used for a one-time group. Renew a share link if it was forwarded too broadly. Change or remove the Canvas PIN if the code was temporary.

This cleanup matters because canvas access can come from more than one place. A person removed from the direct member list may still have access from a project, workspace, or active share link.

Troubleshooting

If Share or Manage permissions is missing, check whether you are a guest and whether your account has permission to manage access.

If someone is listed as Guest, they are not a normal workspace member through that access path. Manage their role from the canvas or the shared project where they were invited.

If someone is listed as Link, changing their direct member row may not be available. Review the share link permission, turn the link off, or renew it if the link is the access path you need to change.

If someone can open the canvas after being removed, check project access, workspace access, share links, and any external collaborator invitations. The direct canvas member list may not be the only source of access.

If someone can open the canvas but cannot comment or edit, their role is too narrow. Change their role from Share or the broader project permission settings.

If an invited person cannot enter, confirm the email address, the account they signed in with, guest or external collaboration settings, link status, and any required Canvas PIN.