The canvas
Notes, comments and voice memos
Three ways to leave direction on a board, and the one that pins to a single point on a 3D object.
If you are leaving a board for someone else to pick up, the question is how much of your reasoning has to survive the handover. Three tools cover the range, from a label to a recording of you thinking out loud. ## Sticky notes Drop one from the bottom toolbar and type. A sticky note is not attached to anything, which is the point: it sits beside the work and says what the work is for. Use them for the things a file cannot carry. The brief. The bit the client rejected last time. The reason there are two directions on this board instead of one. ## Comments A comment is attached to something and belongs to a conversation. It opens a thread, takes replies, and can call people in with `@`. The part worth knowing about is that a comment on a 3D object pins to a **point on the surface**, not to a position on your screen. Orbit the mesh and the pin travels with the geometry, staying on the seam you were pointing at. :::tip[Comment on the thing, not near it] On a busy board a note that says "this edge is wrong" beside three meshes is a puzzle. Pinned to the edge, it is an instruction. ::: ## Voice memos Record straight onto the canvas, up to two minutes per memo. The memo lands as a card where you dropped it, plays inline, and syncs to everyone on the board like anything else. Two minutes is a deliberate ceiling rather than a limitation to work around. A memo is for the thing that takes ninety seconds to say and twenty minutes to type: why this direction, what you tried first, what you would look at if you had another day. ## Picking one | Leave a | When | |---|---| | Sticky note | The context applies to the whole area and should stay readable at a glance | | Comment | You need a reply, a thread, or a pin on one exact spot | | Voice memo | Writing it down would flatten the reasoning, or you are handing over mid-thought | ## Emoji There is also the fastest possible signal. Drop an animated emoji from the radial menu and it sits on the canvas, scaling with the camera. That sounds trivial and it does real work on a shared board: a set of directions where one has a tick on it has been decided, and nobody has to open a thread to find that out. :::note[Everything here syncs live] Notes, comments, memos and emoji all arrive on your teammates' boards as you make them, without a save or a refresh. See [working at the same time](/docs/using-plnty/the-canvas/working-at-the-same-time/). :::If you are leaving a board for someone else to pick up, the question is how much of your reasoning has to survive the handover. Three tools cover the range, from a label to a recording of you thinking out loud.
Sticky notes
Section titled “Sticky notes”Drop one from the bottom toolbar and type. A sticky note is not attached to anything, which is the point: it sits beside the work and says what the work is for.
Use them for the things a file cannot carry. The brief. The bit the client rejected last time. The reason there are two directions on this board instead of one.
Comments
Section titled “Comments”A comment is attached to something and belongs to a conversation. It opens a thread,
takes replies, and can call people in with @.
The part worth knowing about is that a comment on a 3D object pins to a point on the surface, not to a position on your screen. Orbit the mesh and the pin travels with the geometry, staying on the seam you were pointing at.
Voice memos
Section titled “Voice memos”Record straight onto the canvas, up to two minutes per memo. The memo lands as a card where you dropped it, plays inline, and syncs to everyone on the board like anything else.
Two minutes is a deliberate ceiling rather than a limitation to work around. A memo is for the thing that takes ninety seconds to say and twenty minutes to type: why this direction, what you tried first, what you would look at if you had another day.
Picking one
Section titled “Picking one”| Leave a | When |
|---|---|
| Sticky note | The context applies to the whole area and should stay readable at a glance |
| Comment | You need a reply, a thread, or a pin on one exact spot |
| Voice memo | Writing it down would flatten the reasoning, or you are handing over mid-thought |
There is also the fastest possible signal. Drop an animated emoji from the radial menu and it sits on the canvas, scaling with the camera.
That sounds trivial and it does real work on a shared board: a set of directions where one has a tick on it has been decided, and nobody has to open a thread to find that out.