Create a canvas in a project

Projects are made of canvases. Create a canvas in a project when the work needs a shared place for notes, files, comments, decisions, review material, or presentation output, and the team also needs project-level structure around that canvas.

A useful project canvas has a name that can stand on its own. Launch brief, Homepage copy review, Client kickoff notes, and Q3 retrospective are easier to scan than Notes, Review, or Untitled.

For the full project model, see Understand projects. For section and drag behavior, see Organize canvases and sections.

Create from Project List

Open the project and switch to List. Choose the section where the canvas belongs, then use the add row or add action in that section. Enter a clear name and confirm.

If you paste several lines into the add row, ALLO can create one canvas for each non-empty line. This is useful when you are turning a launch checklist, meeting agenda, content plan, or client deliverable list into project canvases.

Add the first canvases where the work actually starts. For example, a launch project might begin with Launch brief in Planning, Creative asset review in Design, and Release checklist in QA.

Set the fields that change behavior

Add an owner when one person is accountable for the canvas. Add collaborators when other people need to stay visible in the project view.

Add a due date when timing changes what people do next: review deadlines, client meetings, publish dates, launch milestones, or follow-up dates. Avoid fake dates; they make the Calendar and Dashboard harder to trust.

Add tags when people will filter or group by them. Good tags describe priority, team, channel, customer, region, risk, or work type. See Use tags and filters.

Put the canvas in the section that matches its current project state. Sections are workflow groups, and they can also define project progress.

Choose sections with progress in mind

A section can be marked complete from the section menu. Every top-level project canvas in a complete section counts as completed for Project progress and Dashboard burndown. More than one section can be marked complete.

For example, a project can mark both Approved and Published complete. A canvas in either section counts as completed. A canvas in Draft, Review, or Blocked still counts toward the project total, but not toward completed progress.

You can mark a section complete after canvases already exist there. That immediately makes the section history useful: when Project progress refreshes, existing top-level canvases in that section count as completed. You do not need to recreate them or move them out and back in.

Canvas subtasks are separate. Subtasks help organize work inside a canvas, but Project progress is based on the canvas section. Sub-canvases are also separate from the top-level project canvas count.

Create sub-canvases when work needs hierarchy

Use sub-canvases when one canvas needs child work under it, such as Homepage copy review with child canvases for Hero, Pricing, and FAQ, or Client onboarding with child canvases for Kickoff, Access, and Training.

In Project List, dragging one canvas onto the middle of another canvas row makes it a sub-canvas under that target canvas when the current view allows the drop. You can also move or copy a canvas under another canvas through supported move flows. See Use sub-canvases.

Use hierarchy sparingly. If every canvas becomes nested, the project becomes harder to scan. Keep the top level for the project canvases people track most often.

Examples

For a launch project, create canvases for the brief, asset review, QA notes, launch room, release checklist, and retrospective. Mark sections such as Approved or Published complete only when they mean done work for your team.

For a content calendar, create one canvas per content piece or publishing unit. Use tags for channel and type, owners for writers and reviewers, and due dates for draft, review, or publish timing.

For a client project, create canvases for kickoff notes, requirements, review rounds, approvals, and handoff. Keep external-facing canvases named clearly so they make sense when shared outside the project.

For recurring operations, start with a small set of sections and add canvases as real work appears. Tags usually handle cross-cutting categories better than extra sections.

If the canvas does not appear where expected

Check filters, view, section, calendar date, and project access. A canvas can be hidden by filters or appear in another section after a move.

If the add action is missing, the project may be read-only, archived, restricted, or outside your role. See Troubleshoot project and canvas access, Read-only access, and Members, guests, and external collaborators.

If the canvas still looks missing, use All canvases, Search across ALLO, and When work looks missing.