Slack - Canvas

Summary

This article details Slack Canvas, including the right ways to use it, different use cases, and how to create and manage a canvas. A canvas is a document that's created and lives in Slack; canvases allow you to dynamically consolidate and format information that's commonly referenced.

Note: Slack posts - documents that are created and live in Slack, not messages - will be automatically converted into canvases beginning October 1, 2024.

Sections in this Article

• The Best Way to Use Canvases
  • As Wayfinders
  • For Light-weight Ideation
• Don't Use Canvases as Content Repositories
• Use Cases for Different Audiences
  • Team or Project Level
  • Individual Level
• Canvas Types
  • Channel/DM Canvases
  • Standalone Canvases
• Create, Edit, or Manage a Canvas
  • Canvas Templates
• Sharing and Access

The Best Way to Use Canvases

Canvases are best used at Zendesk in two ways: as wayfinders and for light-weight ideation. As you create your canvases, feel free to share your use case or find out how others are using Canvas in our #pro-tip Slack channel.

As Wayfinders

A wayfinder is a sign or indicator to guide people to a particular location. To use Canvas as a wayfinder, organize and redirect your audience to various links or pieces of information that are referenced regularly. 

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  • Example: Your team is growing, and each new hire is given a copy/paste message of various information and links to get them started with the team. Instead of copy/pasting for each new hire, you create an onboarding canvas that includes: profile cards of team members, links to the team Google Shared Drive, and links to common Slack channels they need to join.

For Light-weight Ideation

Canvases are great for jotting down fast notes or brainstorming ideas.

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  • Example: Your team will be meeting offsite in two months, and you’re brainstorming team activity ideas. Your offsite canvas might include: a list of topics to discuss, an image of a local map with activity locations marked, and a table that details available dates to meet.

Don't Use Canvases as Content Repositories

Canvas is not intended for detailed or long-term information, in the way that Google documents or Employee Help center articles are. At a to-be-determined date, canvases may be added to the Slack 2-year retention policy, so don’t use them as a long-term repository.

Use Cases for Different Audiences

Canvas can be used by everyone, but your audience size will influence your content.

 

Team or Project Level

Here are some ideas of how your team or projects can benefit from canvas. 
Note: These are suggested use cases. If your team has a process established for one of these use cases, please continue to follow the existing standard.

• Channel overview: This is up-leveling a channel description to include what the channel is used for, profile cards for who’s who, related channel links, and links to often-visited sites or content.
  
• Team links and information: Avoid too many bookmarks by consolidating frequently referenced information like team agendas, documents, and retrospectives in a canvas.
• Incident Management: Incidents can move fast, and it’s easy to love details in the rapid messages. Instead, use a canvas to pull key pieces of information out so channel members can quickly reference what’s happened and where the incident is now without reading.
• Offsite planning: Oooh, everyone loves a work trip. Canvases make a great temporary brainstorming space for deciding offsite topics to discuss, team activities, and even where you’ll have dinner in the evenings.

Individual Level

• Out-of-Office Coverage: The Slack Out-of-office status is great for a quick glance at when you’re unavailable, but what if you need to include more information? Canvases present a great option to provide more details about the status of your ongoing projects and profile cards for people who should be contacted in your absence.
  
• Huddle notes: When you quick-sync with a teammate to align on project details or statuses, previously you might send a recap message in the DM/channel. After several Huddle instances, you’d have to scroll and search to find all those messages with notes. Canvases can keep track of what you spoke about without needing to scroll, scroll, scroll and find all the disjointed messages.

Canvas Types

Channel/DM Canvases:

Every channel and DM (direct message) has one canvas tied to the conversation, which you can locate at the top of the conversation window. If you're on mobile, click the channel name to see the Canvas option.

Since each channel and DM has one canvas, we recommend it's used for whatever information is most frequently used by the channel or DM members, such as a channel overview or team links and information.