# Working on the canvas

> Selecting, arranging, copying, undoing, zooming, and seeing who's here.

## Selecting

- Click a shape to select it. `Shift`-click (or `⌘`-click) adds to the selection.
- Drag on empty board with the select tool (`V`) to draw a box: anything it touches is selected. `Shift`-drag adds to the selection.
- `⌘` `A` selects everything. `Esc` deselects, or stops editing.

With cards or stickies selected, a bar under the selection offers the [actions that write to GitHub](https://tack.social/writing-back/actions.md).

## Moving and arranging

- Drag to move. Shapes snap to each other’s edges and centres, with guides. Hold `⌘` (`Ctrl`) while dragging to move without snapping.
- Arrow keys nudge by a pixel, and `Shift` with an arrow by 10.
- With two or more shapes selected, a toolbar aligns them (left, centres, right, top, middle, bottom), distributes them evenly (three or more), or tidies them into a grid (**Tidy up**, `⌃` `⌥` `T`). A tidied grid that would land on shapes you didn’t select slides, as a whole, to the nearest clear space.

Other people see your drags live, in your colour.

## Copying, deleting and undoing

- `⌘` `C`, `⌘` `X` and `⌘` `V` copy, cut and paste, between boards too (images bring their files). Copying a section copies what’s in it, and connectors between copied shapes come along. Pasted into another app, a copy is plain text: stickies’ text, cards’ links, decisions’ titles.
- `⌘` `D` duplicates. Move the copy and duplicate again, and the next copy repeats the offset.
- `⌫` or `Delete` deletes. Deleting more than three shapes, a decision, or anything with writing on it shows an undo toast.
- `⌘` `Z` undoes and `⌘` `⇧` `Z` redoes. **Undo only ever undoes your own changes**, never anyone else’s, and brings what changed back into view.
- If someone else deletes a sticky or text you’re writing in, a toast says so, with **Restore** to bring it back as you had it.

Copies are always cards placed by you: they don’t carry where the original came from, silent mode, or a decision’s write-back.

## Zooming and panning

Opening a board shows all of it, clear of the toolbar and minimap. Come back to a board in the same browser and it opens where you left it, as long as there’s still something there.

- Scroll, or hold `Space` and drag, or use the hand tool (`H`), to pan.
- `⌘` `+` and `⌘` `-` zoom. `⇧` `1` fits everything, `⇧` `2` fits the selection, and `⇧` `0` goes to 100%.
- The zoom level shows between the zoom buttons in the bottom left. Click it for a menu of the zoom shortcuts.
- The minimap in the corner shows the whole board, and steps aside when you reach for something under it. It appears once there’s something on the board, and the zoom menu turns it off (or on again) in this browser.

## Who’s here

- Everyone on the board shows as an avatar in the top bar, and as a named cursor. People who haven’t touched anything for three minutes show as idle, and people on another tab as away.
- People who aren’t signed in get a name like “Gentle Heron”, remembered by their browser.
- **Follow**: click someone’s avatar to follow their view. The board is framed in their colour. Pan, zoom or press `Esc` to stop.
- **Cursor chat**: press `/` and type, and your words show beside your cursor as you type. `Enter` sends, `Esc` cancels. Nothing is kept.

For spotlight, timers, emotes and the rest, see [Running a session](https://tack.social/facilitation/running-a-session.md).

## When the connection drops

A green dot beside the board’s title says it’s in step with everyone else. If the connection drops, words take its place (**Reconnecting…**). Keep working: your edits are kept on this device, and the top bar counts them (**Offline · 3 edits waiting**), and they’re sent as soon as the connection’s back, even if you reload the page in the meantime. Closing the tab while edits are waiting asks first.

## Light and dark

**Theme** in the account menu (your avatar) changes the theme: light, dark, or following your system. Tack follows your system’s setting until you choose, and remembers your choice in this browser. Signed out, the sun and moon switch is in the top bar. Stickies stay paper-coloured in both, like paper on a dark desk.

The board’s motion follows your system’s reduced motion setting.