Canvas
Your whole studio on one board, with records as cards beside images, links, files and text.
Updated Oct 23, 20263 min read
- canvas
- cards
- board
- home
The canvas is Plya's home. It's an open board where your projects, people, notes, tasks and invoices sit as cards, next to images, links, files, stickies, shapes and drawings. Plya opens on your home canvas every time you sign in.
Main concepts
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Home canvas | Your main board, at Canvas in the sidebar |
| Record canvas | A board of its own for each project, contact and organization |
| Card | A record shown on a canvas. It points at the record, so it always shows the latest version. Editing the record anywhere updates every card |
| Sticky | A colored note on the board. A sticky is different from a Note, which is a document in Notes |
| Link line | A line drawn between cards whose records are linked, such as a contact and their project |
| N linked | A count on a card of linked records that aren't on this board yet |
What you can put on a canvas
| Kind | How it gets there |
|---|---|
| Projects, tasks, notes, contacts, organizations, outreach targets, pipelines, invoices | The add card on the left, or right-click → Add |
| A task list | Add task list: Today, Upcoming, or one record's tasks, live |
| A checklist | Type one in a text box or sticky: Checklist in the text bar, or ⇧ ⌘ 9 |
| Files | Drop them on the board, or Add file |
| Images and videos | Paste or drop them |
| Links | Paste a web address to get a link card with a preview |
| Text | Double-click empty space and type |
| Stickies, shapes, arrows and drawings | The tool dock on the left |
How the canvas connects to the rest of Plya
- A card opens its record in a peek: double-click it, or select it and press Space.
- Cards update live. Rename a project in Projects and its card changes on every canvas.
- Deleting a card from a canvas only removes the card. The record stays in its module.
- Deleting a record leaves a "Missing record" card behind on any canvas that showed it.
- Each project, contact and organization has its own canvas, in the Canvas tab of its detail.
- Ash sits at the bottom of the home canvas, ready for a question.
The parts of the screen
| Part | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Tool dock | Left | Select, Hand, Text, Sticky, Shape, Pen, Eraser |
| Add card | Under the tool dock | Add a record, task list or file |
| Zoom readout | Bottom left | Shows the zoom level. Its menu zooms in, out, to 100%, to fit or to the selection, and has Show links |
| Save status and settings | Top right | "Saved", "Saving…" or "Not saved", and the gear for canvas settings. In a record's Canvas tab, the save status at the top of the record covers the canvas |
| Selection toolbar | Above what you select | Color, alignment, arrowheads, Open, Delete and more |
| Ash bar | Bottom center, home canvas only | Ask Ash anything about your studio |
Related
How do I add a record to the canvas?
Place existing records or create new ones as cards.
How do I add images, links and files?
Paste, drop and upload, with size limits.
How do I link cards on the canvas?
The +, link lines and bringing in linked records.
How do I move around the canvas?
Pan, zoom, select, arrange and undo.
Canvas troubleshooting
Missing cards, uploads and saving, with fixes.
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