Sticky notes

Sticky notes are the canvas object for short thoughts that need to stay visible while a group works. Use them for workshop capture, brainstorm ideas, meeting takeaways, affinity mapping, lightweight tasks, decision notes, and open questions that still need attention.

For a broader view of every object you can place on a canvas, start with Canvas elements. If the content needs to look more like a heading, instruction, or permanent label, use a text object instead.

Availability and permissions

Locked sticky notes cannot be edited until someone with edit access unlocks them. If another person is actively editing or selecting an object, some actions may be unavailable until the selection clears.

When to use sticky notes

Sticky notes work best when each object represents one idea. That makes sorting, voting, grouping, and commenting cleaner later. During a workshop, write one customer pain point, risk, assumption, or decision candidate per note. During planning, use one note per follow-up rather than packing a full task list into a single square.

Use sticky notes when the canvas needs many peer-level ideas that can be rearranged. Use shapes when you need structure around the ideas, such as swimlanes, blocks, highlights, or containers. Use arrows and lines when the relationship between notes matters more than the notes themselves.

Avoid using sticky notes as long-form documentation. A sticky note can hold text, but dense paragraphs become hard to scan, hard to sort, and awkward to resize. If the canvas needs instructions, section titles, or a stable explanatory paragraph, use a text object.

Add sticky notes

On desktop, choose the Sticky note tool from the canvas toolbar, then click on the canvas to place the note. The P shortcut selects the sticky note tool when your cursor is not inside a text editor or input field. Depending on how the tool was opened, ALLO may show a placement preview before the note is created; click the canvas or press Enter to place it.

On mobile, the toolbar includes Sticky notes. Creating a note places it near the visible canvas area so it is not lost off-screen.

New sticky notes open ready for text entry when the canvas is writable. Type the thought, then select elsewhere or use normal editor controls to finish. Keep the first version short. It is better to create three notes for three related ideas than one note that needs to be split later.

Keep notes short enough to scan. If one note starts carrying a paragraph, turn it into a text object, comment, or linked document instead.

Select and edit sticky notes

Click a sticky note to select it. Drag it to move it. Use the resize handles or the size controls shown for the selection when the note needs more room. Double-click or use the edit action from the object menu when you need to change the text.

The inline toolbar appears close to the selected sticky note and shows the actions that apply to that object:

• Text formatting actions can include bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, checklist styling, alignment, and links.
• Sticky-note styling can include background color and stroke.

For the shared editing behavior behind sticky notes, text objects, shape text, and spreadsheet cells, see Use the rich text editor.

Use the element menu for the longer action set. It is the place to duplicate a note, copy it, delete it, lock it, copy its link, change color, or access layout actions such as tidy up, align, distribute, group, and ungroup when the selection supports those actions.

Format, group, and tidy up

Color is the most useful sticky note format. Use it to encode meaning that the team has agreed on, such as yellow for ideas, pink for risks, green for decisions, and blue for customer quotes. Do not create a color code that only one person understands. Add a small legend with a text object when color carries real meaning.

Resize notes only enough to make the text readable. Oversized sticky notes tend to become accidental containers, and tiny notes turn into confetti at zoomed-out levels. If the note is acting like a heading or a lane label, convert the pattern: use a text object for the heading and a shape for the background area.

When a cluster of notes gets messy, select multiple notes and use Tidy up from the object menu. Tidy up helps clean the layout without changing the note content. Group notes when they should move together, for example a cluster of interview findings or a set of sprint retro themes.

Collaboration and comments

Sticky notes are collaborative objects. In a live workshop, participants with edit access can add and move notes while others watch the canvas update. Comment access is useful when someone should respond to a note without changing it. Add a comment to ask for clarification, request evidence, or keep a decision thread attached to the exact note that raised it.

Use comments for discussion and sticky note text for the durable summary. If a comment thread changes the decision, update the note so the canvas remains readable without opening every thread. For more detail on comment behavior, see Comments and mentions.

Lock a finished cluster when it should not move during the next exercise. Locking protects the layout. Keep the canvas readable by moving old or resolved note groups away from the active work area.

Examples

A retro canvas can use sticky notes for "went well", "could improve", and "try next" items. Add shapes behind the columns, then tidy up each note cluster after the team finishes writing.

A product discovery canvas can use one note per customer quote or insight. Use colors to separate evidence, assumptions, and opportunities. Add arrows and lines only where the relationship matters, such as connecting a pain point to a proposed experiment.

A planning canvas can use sticky notes for open decisions. When a decision becomes final, rewrite the note so it says the outcome, not the debate that led there.

What can go wrong

If the sticky note tool shortcut does nothing, check whether your cursor is inside a text object, comment editor, browser input, or another editing surface. Canvas shortcuts only run when the canvas owns keyboard focus. Click empty canvas space, then try P again.

If a sticky note will not move or edit, it may be locked, selected by someone else, or you may not have edit access. Open the Element menu to see whether unlock or edit actions are available.

If a workshop produces hundreds of notes, do not leave them as one huge cloud. Sort them into labeled groups, tidy the clusters, and delete duplicates. Sticky notes are best when they help people converge, not when they preserve every rough draft forever. For the larger facilitation flow, see Run a workshop in a canvas.