Manage canvases in projects

Projects keep canvases organized with the rest of the team’s work. Use project management actions when a canvas needs an owner, Due date, tag, section, project assignment, collaborator list, archive state, or access cleanup.

A canvas can be the place where work happens, but the project is often where people find it later. Good project hygiene keeps important canvases from becoming "that link someone dropped in chat three weeks ago."

Canvas and project relationship

Use Projects for the full project model. This article focuses on canvas-specific management inside projects.

Where to manage a canvas

The exact menu labels and available actions depend on workspace features, project type, permission, and whether the canvas is in List, Kanban, a project, or a shared context.

Organize canvases with names, tags, owners, and Due dates

Rename a canvas so the project list explains the work. "Q3 launch review" beats "Untitled" and "Workshop copy 3" by a frankly embarrassing margin.

Use tags to show category, status, team, client, risk, or workflow stage. Use owners when one person is responsible for follow-up. Use Due dates when a canvas has a real review or delivery date, not just because every row wants a date.

If a canvas has no owner and no due date, it can still be useful, but nobody is clearly responsible for what happens next. Add ownership when the canvas creates action items.

Move or copy canvases between projects

Use Move to another project from the canvas header menu when the canvas belongs in a different project. This changes where people find it and can affect project-based access.

Use Copy to another project when another project needs its own version. Copying is useful for templates, repeated ceremonies, client-specific versions, and experiments. It is risky when two copies are treated as the same source of truth. Rename copies clearly.

If move or copy is unavailable, check whether you can edit the canvas and whether you have access to the destination project. If the destination project is missing from the picker, ask a project or workspace admin to confirm your access.

Sections and project workflows

In Project List or Kanban, canvases can be organized into sections when the project supports them. Use sections for workflow stages, teams, quarters, deliverables, or review states.

Move canvases between sections when the status changes. For example, a canvas can move from "Draft" to "Review" to "Approved" or from "Ideas" to "In progress" to "Archived." Keep the project view honest. If everything stays in "In progress" forever, the section is decoration.

Manage collaborators and access

Use project-level access when a group needs visibility into many related canvases. Use canvas-level sharing when only one canvas needs a different audience or external guest access.

If someone loses access after a canvas moves projects, check whether their access came from the old project. Moving a canvas can change the project path people used to reach it. Share the canvas directly or add them to the destination project.

If someone still has access after you remove them from a canvas, check project or workspace access. There may be another permission path. Private links and share links can also help separate access links from exact-location links.

Archive, unarchive, remove access, and delete

Archive a canvas when it should leave active work but remain recoverable through archive workflows. Unarchive when work becomes active again.

Remove access when a person no longer needs the canvas. Use delete only when the canvas should be removed, and check comments, files, export needs, and project references first. Deleting a canvas can be more disruptive than removing it from a section or archiving it.

If support requests mention deleted, missing, or moved canvases, start by checking project location, archive state, direct links, and access before assuming content is permanently gone.

Use subtasks and related resources

When the Info tab is available in the collaboration side panel, use Subtasks for follow-up work that belongs with the canvas. Use Related resources for connected canvases, files, pages, or project artifacts.

This is useful after a workshop or review. The canvas holds the visual context; subtasks and related resources help people act on it without turning the canvas into a second project tracker.

Examples

For a design project, keep canvases grouped by feature, tag them by review stage, assign an owner to each canvas, and set Due dates for stakeholder reviews.

For a client workspace, copy a clean template into each client project, then rename it with the client and session date. Do not reuse one shared canvas for every client unless you intend every client’s context to live together.

For internal planning, archive old canvases after decisions are captured. Keep final decision canvases accessible and move messy drafts out of the active project view.

What can go wrong

If a canvas seems missing, search the project, check archive state, check whether it moved to another project, and open any direct link you have. Missing often means moved or access-changed, not destroyed. See Troubleshoot canvas issues when the project path does not explain it.

If collaborators cannot open a moved canvas, re-check sharing in the destination project.

If duplicate canvases create confusion, rename the current version clearly, archive old copies, or add a note on the outdated canvas pointing to the active one.

If delete is the only cleanup idea on the table, pause. Archive, remove access, move to another project, or fold pages may preserve context with less risk.