Tools & Drawing
The toolbar across the top of the canvas has seven tools. Three draw, one erases, one types, one selects, and one lets you swipe between pages. Next to them are undo and redo, colour, size, and the Bills and Calculator panels.
On a phone the toolbar splits into two rows: the tools on top, and everything else underneath.
Drawing tools
Pen is the standard stroke, and what you'll use for most writing and sketching. With a stylus it responds to pressure. With a finger it thins and thickens naturally with the speed of the stroke.
Marker draws a steady line of even width. It's good for headings, boxing a figure, or anything you want to stand out.
Highlighter draws a wide, translucent band that lays over what's already there without hiding it. Use it the way you'd use a real one: over a bill you're worried about, or a number you want to come back to.
All three use the current colour and size. The highlighter always draws wider than the pen at the same size setting.
Eraser
The eraser removes whole strokes. Touch any part of a line and the entire stroke is gone, so you never need to scrub over it. A circle shows how far the eraser reaches, and it grows with the size setting.
The eraser only removes drawing. To remove a text note, use the × on the note.
Text
Tap anywhere on the page to place a text note and start typing. It's faster and far more legible than handwriting on a phone. Default to it for anything you'll want to read back later, especially figures.
Each note has a drag handle for moving it and an × for deleting it. A note left empty disappears when you tap away.
Mixing is normal: type the numbers, sketch the arrows.
Select & move
Draw a loop around strokes to select them. Then drag inside the selection to move the whole group at once. Tap outside to start a new selection.
This moves drawing, not text notes. Text notes move by their own handle.
Swipe pages
With Swipe pages active, a swipe turns the page instead of drawing. Text mode swipes too. The drawing tools, the eraser, and Select & move never do, so a stroke can't accidentally flip you to another page.
It's also the safe tool to be on if you're reading back with a finger and don't want stray marks.
Colour and size
Five colours sit in the toolbar, and + opens a palette of eighteen. On a phone, a single colour circle opens the palette. Picking a colour while the eraser or a non-drawing tool is active switches you to the pen.
Size comes in S, M, and L.
A simple convention that pays off: pick one colour for the situation as it is, and a second for what you're proposing. When you come back to a canvas weeks later, that's usually enough to reconstruct what you were thinking.
Undo and redo
Undo steps back through your drawing on the current page, and Redo steps forward again. Each page keeps its own history of up to fifty steps. Undo covers drawing, erasing, and moving strokes. It doesn't cover text notes.
Clear this page
The Clear this page button in the app bar wipes every drawing and note from the page you're on, after a confirmation. You can undo the drawings afterwards, but cleared text notes are gone.
Working with the bills
On a paycheck canvas, the Bills button opens a panel listing that paycheck's housing, debts, and expenses, each with its amount. At the bottom are Paycheck, Bills total, Savings, and Remaining.
Tap any line, bill or total, and it drops onto the page as a text note you can drag into place. That's the point of the tool: you're annotating your real numbers rather than copying them across.
A budget canvas has no Bills panel, since it isn't tied to one paycheck.
The calculator
The Calculator button opens a basic calculator with add, subtract, multiply, divide, percent, and sign change. Tap the + beside the result to drop it onto the page as a text note.
Both panels can be dragged anywhere and closed with their ×.
Practical approach: pull the bills that concern you onto the page, highlight them, work the arithmetic in the calculator and drop the answer beside them, and draw arrows for anything you're thinking of moving.
Stylus, finger, and mouse
Stylus on a tablet is the best experience by a distance. You get pressure-sensitive lines, and a palm resting on the screen is ignored while the stylus is drawing.
Finger on a phone works for highlighting, circling, and rough marks. For anything numeric, use the text tool or drop figures in from the panels.
Mouse or trackpad is fine for selecting and typing, and awkward for freehand.