Working on the canvas

The canvas gives your notes positions and connections. A note appears as a node; a line between two nodes is a connection. You can arrange an argument, collect related observations, or leave a cluster of ideas around a question.

The Mac beta uses zoom to move between the overview and editing. Opening a note brings it into focus at a closer scale. Closing its editor returns you to the wider canvas. This matters when following instructions written for a different version of Glob.

Choose how dragging behaves#

The canvas mode button cycles through three modes. Its icon and help text identify the current mode.

Use Navigate when reading. Use Select when arranging. Use Connect when changing relationships. Select and Connect add a faint grid treatment to help you recognise the mode.

Press the backtick key to cycle modes. This beta handles that key across the window, so it can change modes even while a text field is active. Hold Option for temporary Select or Control for temporary Connect. Release the key to return to the chosen mode. If you hold both, Option takes precedence.

Hold Space and drag to pan while the pointer is over the canvas and you are outside text editing. A precise trackpad scroll pans; a conventional mouse wheel zooms around the pointer. Pinch to zoom with a trackpad. Moving over the note editor changes which surface receives scrolling.

Create and open notes#

Use New Note in the app menu or Command-N for a new note. You can also double-click empty canvas. If a note is already selected, the first empty-space double-click clears that selection; double-click again to create.

The lightbulb/checkmark creation button chooses ordinary notes or tasks. Task creation can produce a list task without a canvas position. A task missing from the drawing may still be in the Tasks tab; see tasks and habits.

Right-click a node and choose Open for a direct route into its editor. At a distant overview, pressing a cluster root can first bring its branch into view. Continue into the note, or use Open when your intent is to edit its text.

Press Escape to leave the inline editor. Outside editing, Escape also dismisses a preview or clears selection. The exact result depends on what is open.

Select and arrange#

In Select mode, drag over empty canvas to surround several nodes. Drag nodes to reposition them. Navigation mode intentionally does not perform this movement.

With canvas focus, arrow keys select a note in the corresponding direction. Tab cycles through positioned notes in the active project. Return focuses the selected note for opening. These keys belong to the canvas; a text field uses them for text entry instead.

Right-click and choose Lock Position to toggle a note's position lock. This is a layout control, separate from Bookmark and summary pinning. Use it for a note you want to remain an anchor while arranging the rest of the project.

Color opens the note colour choices. Bookmark toggles the note's bookmark. Duplicate creates another note rather than opening a second view of the same one.

Connect, split and collapse#

In Connect mode, drag from one node to another to create a connection. Drag across a line from empty canvas to break it. Switch back to Navigate before ordinary panning if you do not intend to change connections.

The canvas derives a branching structure from the connected notes. Crown Root influences which note leads a cluster. Parent Pin influences parent selection within that structure. Neither is the same as locking a note's screen position.

Split appears when a note has a structural parent. It makes that note and its branch a separate cluster while retaining the connecting relationship as a bridge. A note already at the root has nothing to split from, so the action is absent.

For a node with neighbours, Collapse Children and Expand Children change how its branch is shown. The list header also offers Collapse to Anchors Only and Expand All. Collapsing is a view change; it is not deletion.

Read without opening every editor#

The body-preview button toggles note body previews. Holding Shift temporarily shows previews while the editor is closed. Release it to leave the temporary preview. A persistent preview chosen with the button is a separate state.

The hexagon summary action and Summarize Connections work with branches. An isolated note has no branch to synthesise. The eye button switches the eligible project between its ordinary view and its summary view. Read synthesis for the source scopes, generation, saved results and pin behaviour.

Remove a note#

Choose Delete from the node's right-click menu, or use Delete with canvas selection. Ordinary canvas deletion moves notes to Trash. Multi-selection deletion affects the selected notes, so clear an old selection before deleting a single item.

Use projects and Trash to restore a note. Command-Z and Command-Shift-Z provide Undo and Redo for supported canvas changes. They are not a replacement for an export.

Returning to a project#

A Return brief can appear when you revisit a project with a recorded earlier visit and eligible material. It is assembled from available records associated with that project. It is not a newly generated project synthesis or a complete account of every change since you last looked.

The card shows Last here and source references. Source selects an available supporting note. If its text does not open, use the note's right-click Open action. This is a link to the available note, not a recovery of its earlier body. Dismiss the card with its close control or an upward swipe. Reading it does not create a new task or replace a note body.

The project name in the list header also supports a long press to inspect the quiet return state. Nothing material since … means no material brief is being presented for that visit, rather than a claim that every note is unchanged. When brief suppression applies, Resume briefs lifts it. An empty or quiet result is expected when there is no supported material to show.