Arranging canvases

Moving and sizing#

Turn on Move canvases to drag canvases around the page and resize them by their handles. Choose Move canvases again to turn it off. The same control is both the way in and the way out.

Layout mode places and sizes canvases by exact numbers. Type an X or Y position and the canvas moves there. Layout mode also reveals canvases that are hidden, off the page, or too small to see.

Auto-layout#

Auto-layout rearranges every canvas on the page. Choose a style: Tidy, Tight, Grid, Rows or Columns. Whichever you pick, no canvas overlaps another afterwards. Try a few and see which suits the page.

Two settings in Settings ▸ Appearance affect it: Fit canvases to their contents during Auto-layout and Keep group sizes during Auto-layout.

Which canvas is in front#

Every canvas has a Layer, shown as two numbers separated by a point, such as 12.3. Higher is in front. Every canvas in layer 12 is in front of every canvas in layer 11, and within a layer, 11.3 is in front of 11.2. 0 is the back. No two canvases on a page share a layer, so what's in front is always decided, never left to chance.

• Bring to front and Send to back, and the one-step forward and backward moves, keep a canvas within its own major layer number. Treat each major number like a group.
• Typing a layer into the Layer field: 12 puts the canvas on top of layer 12, and 12.2 puts it at that position, or the nearest free one. The digits after the point are a whole number, so 12.10 is position ten, not 12.1.
• Layers lists every canvas on the page with the front-most at the top. You can move a canvas up and down the list one step at a time. It needs an open page with at least two canvases.
• A new canvas goes on top of the highest layer on the page.

Grouping#

Canvases can be grouped so they move as one. Captions are the most common example: Add caption creates a text canvas already grouped with its picture. See Pictures.

Frames and backgrounds#

• Frame style and Hide canvas frame control the outline of a selected canvas.
• Transparent background lets what's behind a canvas show through, which is how a caption sits on top of a picture.
• To hide every frame on one page, right-click the page in the tree and choose Hide canvas frames on this page. Settings ▸ Appearance has options to hide frames in the whole notebook or everywhere.

Deleting#

Select a canvas and press Delete. The first press only arms the delete, and the canvas shows that it's waiting for you to confirm. Press Escape to disarm it. Nothing is deleted without a confirmation.

Archiving instead of deleting#

Archiving keeps a canvas in the notebook but takes it off the page. Choose a reason when you archive it. If the reason is Other, a note is required. DunneNote confirms with "Canvas archived." Use Retrieve to bring it back: "Canvas retrieved."

Pages and groups can be archived from the notebook tree, and brought back with Retrieve from Archive.

Related#

• Tutorial: arrange a page and make a template
• Reflow and text layout