Help Arranging the canvas

Auto layout

Auto layout arranges a deck as a tidy dashboard grid and keeps it that way as cards come and go. You can turn it off any time to place cards freely again.

Turn it on or off

Use the toolbar. Click the auto layout button, or press ⇧A.
Or use the right panel. With nothing selected, flip the “Auto layout” switch.

It’s set per deck, for everyone who opens it. Turning it off leaves every card exactly where it is.

How it arranges cards

Numbers come first, in even rows of up to four.
Charts come next, two to a row. An odd one out takes the whole row.
Tables, lists and maps go last, each at full width.
Cards keep the deck’s order within each group, the same order as the sidebar’s “Layers”. Cards in a row share the tallest one’s height.
Loose cards and each frame get their own sections, laid out top to bottom.
Locked cards keep their place in the order and flow along with the rest.

While it’s on

A bar on the canvas shows “Auto layout”, a “Spacing” slider and “Turn off”. A dashed outline marks the loose cards it holds together. A frame already outlines its own.

Change the spacing with the slider, or drag any gap between cards (“Drag to change the spacing”). You see it as you drag, and it’s saved as one undo step.
Reorder cards by dragging one to a new spot. The others make room.
Change a card’s height with its handle, and the whole row takes the new height. The right panel reminds you: “Auto layout sets the position and width. Height applies to the whole row.”

What it blocks

While it’s on, auto layout decides where cards go and how wide they are. So the align tools, scaling several cards and resizing frames all wait until it’s off. Try to scale cards and the bar lights up to say auto layout “sizes and places these cards”. See Align, distribute, match, tidy.

Who can do this

Editors and admins. See Roles: admin, editor, viewer.