Understand canvases

A canvas is the shared workspace in ALLO where a team arranges ideas, files, diagrams, notes, comments, and presentation pages in one place. Use it when the work needs spatial thinking: planning a workshop, reviewing a design, collecting research, or giving feedback on a document without losing the discussion around it.

The simplest mental model is: a project organizes work, a canvas is where the work happens, and elements are the things placed on the canvas. If you are new, start with Canvas basics, then come back here to decide which canvas format fits a real job.

Canvas terms at a glance

Canvas, project, and file

A project is the container for related work — canvases, sections, owners, tags, Due dates, progress, and collaborators. A canvas is one item inside that project where people create and review the visual content. A file is content you place inside a canvas: images, PDFs, spreadsheets, and uploads become elements you can move, resize, comment on, preview, replace, or download, so when the file itself is what is being reviewed, place it on a canvas so comments and context stay attached.

This distinction drives permissions. Project access can make a canvas visible to the right workspace members, while canvas sharing controls who can open or collaborate on a specific canvas. See Share a canvas when the question is who can view, comment, or edit.

Page canvas or freeform whiteboard

Choose a page canvas when the work has a sequence — review steps, meeting sections, slides, report pages, or a workshop that moves from agenda to exercises to wrap-up. It gives you a slide rail, page menu, overview, presentation mode, print, and PDF export.

Choose a freeform whiteboard when the work should not be forced into pages — mapping systems, clustering sticky notes, brainstorming, or keeping one large board alive across sessions. The board stays one continuous space and grows as content spreads. For the detailed tradeoffs, see Page canvases and freeform whiteboards.

A canvas is not just a file previewer, not automatically a project, and not always a slide deck — page canvases can present like slides but also work as documents, workshops, or review boards, and freeform whiteboards are deliberately not slide decks. For heavy data work, use spreadsheets or source systems and place the useful view on the canvas when the team needs to discuss it. To add content, the toolbar keeps object creation next to the work; start with Canvas elements and the Inline toolbar / Element menu references, and collaborate through comments and mentions, live collaboration, chat, calls, and guest collaboration.

How canvas state changes what you see

The same person can see different controls on different canvases because the state differs.

If a menu item is missing, do not assume the product is broken — check canvas type, permission, guest status, selected object type, device, and workspace settings. Theme should not change meaning, so keep enough contrast that the work reads in both light and dark.

Availability and permissions

Troubleshooting

• A button is missing. The likely causes are permission, canvas type, device, or workspace settings. Guests do not see every owner control, freeform whiteboards hide page-specific controls, mobile uses a smaller toolbar, and some file actions are disabled during upload or when downloads are restricted.
• A canvas will not open or shows a permission error. Check that you are signed in with the right account, that the share link still allows access, and whether the canvas was moved, archived, deleted, or removed from your project. See Troubleshoot canvas issues.
• A canvas feels chaotic. The fix is usually structure, not another tool — add page titles, split work into pages, create sub-canvases for deep dives, lock stable instructions, resolve old comments, and move finished work into a clear project state.