Work with canvas elements: styling, grouping, and locking

In this support article, we'll explore how to enhance your canvas elements in ALLO. Learn how to style your objects, group them for better organization, and lock elements in place to prevent accidental changes. These powerful features make your canvas not only a creative space but also a highly functional tool for collaborative work.

How to style an element

Canvas elements such as texts, shapes, and sticky notes can be styled based on your preferences. The general styling options include element color, border color, border thickness, element angle, shadow, and transparency. There are also some additional options depending on the type of element you are working with. To style an element, click the element and select the option from the styling menu. 

Styling examples:

• To adjust the arrow thickness, click the arrow, select "Border," and use the thickness slider to customize it to your preference.

• To change the angle of a textbox, click the textbox, move your cursor to one of the four corners until it becomes a rounded two-sided arrow icon, and then click and drag to adjust the angle as desired.

• To adjust the roundness of a rounded rectangle, select the shape and click and drag the yellow dot towards the top left corner to achieve your desired level of roundness.

How to group and ungroup elements

When you want to apply the same style to multiple elements or move multiple elements all at once, grouping them together can make the process easier and more efficient. To group multiple elements together, follow the below steps:

1. Select the elements you want to group together
2. Hold "Control (or Command on Mac)" and hit "G" on the keyboard 
3. Or you can also right-click the mouse and select "Group"

Here's how to ungroup grouped elements:

1. Select the grouped elements you want to ungroup
2. Hold "Control (or Command on Mac)" +"Shift" and hit "G" on the keyboard 
3. Or you can also right-click the mouse and select "Ungroup"

How to lock and unlock elements

Locks can be used when you want to prevent other collaborators from modifying certain elements. When you want to lock an element, you can decide whether you want to grant the unlock permission to others or not.

To add the protected lock to a certain element, follow the below steps:

1. Click the element
2. Click the "Lock" icon located in the object toolbar. Once clicked, you should see two options appear.
3. If you select the option "Anyone can unlock", not only you but also everyone that has the editing permission of this canvas can unlock this object and modify it. On the other hand, if you select the option "Only you can unlock", only you and the canvas owner can unlock the element. 

To unlock a locked element, follow the below steps:

1. Click the element. You will see a lock icon appears at the top right of the element.
2. Click the lock icon once to unlock.

💡Note: If you click on the lock icon and see the message "Only {name} and canvas owner can unlock", that means you do not have permission to unlock that object.