Canvas vs linear note
30-second rule: if your thought is a list, a regular note is faster. If you need arrows, spatial grouping, or two ideas sitting next to each other for comparison, reach for a canvas.
Linear notes win on: meeting notes, daily logs, property write-ups, call scripts. Canvases win on: deal-flow diagrams, market mind-maps, comp clustering, post-walkthrough property triage, anything where "this connects to that" matters.
Creating a canvas
From /app/notes, hit New → Canvas. Name it (the canvas inherits the name on the index page) and you drop into an empty infinite board with a toolbar on the left.
Canvases live in the same tree as linear notes — same folders, same search, same share permissions. You can convert a linear note to a canvas if it grows past usefulness, but it's a one-way conversion.
Templates and starting points
The New canvas modal offers four starter templates: blank, deal pipeline (Lead → Negotiating → Under contract → Closed swimlanes), market mind-map (central market node with offshoots for neighborhoods, comps, owners), and post-walk triage (subject property card center, condition / repair / opportunity columns).
Templates seed the canvas with blocks and arrows you can edit or delete. They're optional — blank is fine if you'd rather build the structure as you think.
Blocks and embeds
The toolbar gives you five block types: text, sticky, property card, image, link embed. Drag any of them onto the canvas, resize from the bottom-right corner, double-click to edit.
Property cards pull live data from the property report — address, photo, owner, last update — so a card placed today still reflects current state next month. Image drops handle paste (cmd+V) and drag-from-finder. Link embeds render OpenGraph cards for Zillow / Redfin / county GIS URLs.
Connecting nodes
Hover any block and grab the small handle on its edge — drag it to another block to draw an arrow. Click the arrow once to label it ("follow up", "comp", "blocked by"). Arrows snap to the nearest edge automatically.
Two-finger pan and pinch-zoom work on trackpads; mouse users hold spacebar to pan, scroll to zoom. The minimap in the bottom-right shows where you are in the larger canvas — click it to teleport.
Linking to a property or contact
Right-click anywhere → Insert property card → search by address. The card pins to that property's live record, so price changes, new photos, or status flips (under contract, sold, withdrawn) reflect in the canvas without you re-syncing.
Same flow with Insert contact card for sellers, buyers, or partners. Useful when you're mapping a complex deal — "this LLC owns these 3 properties, that bird-dog brought them to us, this lender is funding."
Keyboard shortcuts
A handful pay back the muscle memory:
- Space + drag — pan the canvas
- Cmd / Ctrl + +/− — zoom in/out
- Cmd / Ctrl + 0 — fit canvas to viewport
- Cmd / Ctrl + D — duplicate selected block
- Cmd / Ctrl + Z / Shift+Z — undo / redo
- Backspace — delete selected blocks and any arrows touching them
- Shift + click — multi-select; useful for moving a cluster
The shortcuts panel (? from anywhere in the canvas) shows the full list and stays open as a reference.
When a canvas gets too big
Canvases handle a few hundred blocks comfortably. Past that, performance dips and the spatial model breaks down — you can't actually find anything.
Two patterns to split: by status (one canvas per pipeline stage, linked via cards) or by zoom level (a master canvas with cluster blocks that link to detail canvases). The Canvas link block (right-click → Insert canvas link) creates a deep-link to another canvas, so you can move between them like nested pages.
Saving, sharing, and exporting
Canvases auto-save every few seconds — there's no Save button. The badge in the toolbar flips from Saving… to Saved when it's flushed.
Share opens a view-only link (no canvas edits from outside your team) or a team-edit link if you're on Enterprise. Export PNG snapshots the current viewport at 2x for putting in a deck or PDF. Full-canvas exports come out as one big image — let the auto-fit fit-to-canvas before exporting if you want everything in frame.