Arrange the board
Once objects are on the canvas, this page shows how to tidy them up: select and move, group and align, auto-lay out whole diagrams and mind maps, control stacking order, manage everything from the Objects panel, and move around the infinite canvas with zoom, minimap and smart guides. Creating and styling objects is covered in "Tools and shapes".
Select and move
The Select tool (V) is the base for everything here. Click an object to pick it, drag to move it, and drag over empty space to select everything inside the box. Selecting one member of a group selects the whole group.
Group, align and distribute
Group objects (Ctrl + G) to treat them as one unit — they move, copy and delete together until you ungroup (Ctrl + Shift + G). With two or more objects selected, the Arrange section of the panel offers alignment and spacing tools:
- Align left, center or right, and top, middle or bottom.
- Distribute horizontally or vertically for even spacing (three or more objects).
- Same width / Same height copy the size of the first selected object to the rest.
- With several sticky notes selected, Pack into grid snaps them into a tidy grid.
Auto-layout for diagrams and mind maps
When shapes are linked by connectors, the Arrange button in the header re-lays out the whole diagram with one click. Positions animate into place and the connectors redraw themselves.
- Automatic
- Detects the topology: trees become tree or radial layouts; graphs with cycles use a layered flow.
- Vertical flow / Horizontal flow
- Layered flowchart layout, top-down or left-right.
- Tree
- Clean hierarchical tree — ideal for org charts.
- Radial (mind map)
- Root in the middle, branches around it.
Layer order
Objects stack in creation order — newer ones cover older ones. Change the stacking with shortcuts or the context menu:
The Objects panel
The Objects button in the header lists everything on the board. Use it when the canvas gets crowded:
- Search objects by name and click an item to select it on the canvas.
- Double-click an item to rename it — names appear in searches and exports.
- Drag items in the list to change their stacking order.
- Locked objects show a lock icon.
Navigate the canvas
The canvas is infinite. The Hand tool (H) drags the view, but you rarely need to leave Select:
- The status bar shows the active tool, object and slide counts, and zoom controls (zoom out / in, reset, center view).
- Toggle the Minimap from the status bar: it shows the whole board with your viewport marked — click or drag inside it to jump anywhere.
- If you pan into empty space, a Back to content button appears to bring you home.
- While dragging, smart guides highlight when edges and centers line up with neighbors; Snap to grid (see the module preferences in Settings) snaps positions to grid points.
Canvas background
With nothing selected, the panel shows the canvas properties: the background pattern — dotted (default), grid or blank — the background color, and the Board colors palette used across the flyouts and color pickers.