Undo and redo canvas edits

Undo and redo help you recover from recent canvas editing mistakes: a moved object, a deleted note, a formatting change, or a group of object edits that should be reversed. They are not a complete backup system and they do not reverse every action in ALLO.

Use undo for recent canvas content edits. Use version history, backup, permissions, Trash, or support workflows when the problem is broader than a local edit.

Availability and permissions

What undo and redo cover

Undo and redo are built around canvas content edits. They are most reliable for object-level changes such as creating an object, moving it, resizing it, editing its style, updating its content, or deleting it.

Typical undoable changes include:

1. Adding a sticky note, text object, shape, drawing, image, file, or spreadsheet.
2. Moving or resizing an object.
3. Changing object style, color, text formatting, or similar object data.
4. Deleting one or more objects.
5. Restoring objects deleted as part of some page deletion flows.

Redo reapplies the edit you just undid, as long as the redo path has not been replaced by a new edit. If you undo something and then make a new canvas edit, the earlier redo path may no longer be available.

What undo and redo do not cover

Undo is not the same as "reverse anything I did in ALLO." It does not reliably reverse account, project, sharing, permission, export, print, billing, template library, or server-side processing actions.

Do not expect canvas undo to reverse:

1. Sharing a canvas, inviting people, changing roles, or removing access.
2. Exporting to PDF, printing, downloading images, or opening in the desktop app.
3. Moving a canvas to another project or changing project-level organization.
4. Creating, deleting, editing, or publishing a reusable template in the template manager.
5. File upload processing after the file has already been submitted.
6. Server-side conversion work such as PDF/Office import.
7. Permission changes, Canvas PIN changes, or workspace settings.
8. Every page-only operation, especially recovery of an empty deleted page.

For whole-canvas recovery, use Use the canvas header menu to find version history, backup, and restore options when your workspace supports them. For missing or inaccessible work, start with Troubleshoot canvas issues.

Use the controls

Undo and redo controls appear near the zoom and navigation controls when the canvas is writable. The undo button is enabled when there is an edit to reverse. The redo button is enabled after you undo and there is a forward step available.

Use undo once, look at the result, then decide whether to undo again. Rapidly pressing undo without checking the canvas is a fine way to overshoot the mistake and create a new one.

Use redo when the undo went too far or when you want to reapply the change. Redo is most useful when you are testing a layout change: undo to compare, redo to restore.

The Element menu can also expose undo and redo actions in canvas editing contexts. If the menu is missing those actions, use the main controls or keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard shortcuts

When keyboard shortcuts are available, use:

Keyboard shortcuts only apply when the canvas shortcut layer owns the event. If you are typing inside text, a comment, a note, a spreadsheet cell, or another focused editor, that editor can handle undo and redo for its own content first.

If a shortcut does nothing, click the canvas background, exit text or cell editing, confirm the canvas is writable, and try again.

Collaboration changes the result

Canvas history is local to the editing session, but the canvas itself is shared. ALLO keeps remote changes in the working baseline so undo does not destroy content another collaborator just created or updated.

That means undo can feel different in a live session than it does in a single-player editor. If someone else deletes an object after you changed it, undoing your earlier change may not bring the object back. If someone else creates content, your undo history should not erase their work.

The safest collaboration pattern is to announce major cleanup before doing it, use comments for decisions, and undo immediately when a mistake happens. Waiting ten minutes while three people keep editing makes the history harder to reason about.

Page edits and deletion

Page canvases have more structure than simple object layouts, and page history has edge cases. Object edits on pages are the normal path. If deleting a page removed objects, undo can restore objects into recreated pages in supported flows.

Empty pages are different. If a deleted page had no objects, there may be no object edit for undo to reconstruct. In that case, recreate the page manually and use page titles, copied content, version history, or backup tools if available.

Before deleting pages, read warnings carefully, especially if comments are attached. If a page contains decisions, page comments, or review history, undo should not be your only safety plan. See Use canvas pages and Page menu.

Imports, files, and generated placeholders

Undo works best with canvas objects after they exist on the canvas. Long-running imports, file processing, PDF/Office conversion, upload previews, and generated placeholders can have processing states that do not behave like a simple object move.

If a file import or generated result is still pending, wait for the processing state to finish before deciding whether undo is the right recovery tool. Deleting a pending placeholder can abandon work that is still running.

For PDF/Office import, the upload and conversion steps are separate from normal object editing. If conversion fails, retry the import or use the recovery guidance in Import PDF and Office files instead of expecting undo to fix the processing job.

Examples

During a workshop, you accidentally drag a cluster of sticky notes. Use undo once, confirm the cluster returned, then switch to the hand tool if you only meant to pan.

During a design review, you delete the wrong screenshot. Use undo immediately. If someone else was editing the same area at the same time, check whether their changes still look correct before continuing.

While editing a text object, Cmd+Z removes recent text instead of moving an object back. That is normal. Finish text editing, select the canvas, then use undo for canvas-level changes.

Undo and redo do not behave as expected

If undo is disabled, there may be no local edit history, the canvas may be read-only, or the canvas may still be loading.

If redo disappeared, you may have made a new edit after undoing. New edits usually replace the redo path.

If undo changes text instead of objects, your cursor is probably inside a text or spreadsheet editor. Exit the editor and try again.

If undo did not restore a page, the deleted page may have been empty or the action may not have been covered by canvas object history. Recreate the page, check version history or backup if available, and ask collaborators what changed before making more edits.

If undo seems to ignore another person's change, that is usually protective. Undo is not supposed to erase unrelated remote work just because it happened after your local edit.