The Design Canvas

Owned by Stephen Young
Aug 03, 2019

The Design Canvas is the area where the Nodes are arranged into a visual map of the Workflow. Once Nodes are dropped on the Canvas, they can be selected and moved around. An entire Workflow can be seen at a glance, even with detailed branching.

Viewing the Design Canvas

To view more of the Canvas:

  1. Click the arrow in the top left corner of a Pane to collapse it.
  2. Use the Layout menu choices. Refer to the “Layout Menu” section below for details.
  3. Click on a blank area of the Design Canvas and drag to reposition elements.

Nodes on the Design Canvas

  1. To move a Node on the Design Canvas, place your mouse pointer over its graphic icon. When the icon graphic switches to text, and the mouse pointer becomes a Move ( ) icon, drag the Node into a new position.
  • Nodes can be placed within Queues.
  1. To view or edit a Node Settings, double-click on a Node icon or click the Edit (pencil) button in the Information Pane.
  2. To delete a Node, select it and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

Connections on the Design Canvas

With two or more Nodes on the Design Canvas, the individual actions which the Nodes represent (whether manual or automatic) can be joined together with a Connection to form a Workflow.

  1. To connect two Nodes, hover over the starting Node. When the mouse pointer becomes a selection ( ) icon, drag a line to another Node. The arrow indicates the direction of the process from one Node to the other and a label identifies the Connection. The target Node can be within or outside of a Queue.
  2. Connections and be reshaped to change the visual representation of the Workflow in several ways:
    1. Drag one or both of the connected Nodes around the Design Canvas.
    2. Click on one of the Connection grip handles and drag it to a new position, causing the line to bend.
    3. In the Layout menu, in the Formatting group, select Auto Horizontal to line up the Connections horizontally, or Auto Vertical to line them up vertically.
  3. To delete a Connection, select it and press the Delete key on the keyboard.