Getting started with Lucidchart in Canvas: A guide for Students

Reading time: about 6 min

Topics:

  • Canvas Integration

Let's cover the basics of using Lucidchart within Canvas. Lucidchart is an interactive tool for note-taking, concept mapping, graphic organizers, process diagrams, timelines, and more.

Lucidchart examples

Navigation

  • Trackpad Users: Swipe with two fingers to pan and pinch to zoom in and out.
  • Mouse Users: Right-click and drag to pan.

Tip: If you need to scroll to the bottom of the Canvas page, place your cursor outside the Lucidspark board first.

The primary toolbar

The primary toolbar contains the essential tools for adding content to your workspace, including templates, shapes, images, and more. Let's begin by exploring the most commonly used tools.

Primary toolbar

Template gallery

Explore and add pre-built education templates directly to your Lucidchart document.

Template gallery

The shapes panel

Add content to your workspace by dragging shapes, text, stickies, and lines directly from the panel.

Shapes panel

Click at the bottom of the shapes panel to access and add more shapes to your toolbar. Explore the full range of shape libraries to enhance your designs.

Shape libraries

Containers panel

Use the Containers panel to organize your content by dragging containers, swim lanes, or other organizational tools onto the workspace.

Containers panel

Images panel

Search for or import images, then drag them onto the workspace.

Images panel

Visual Activities

When working in a group, you can add a visual activity to the workspace to help make better, unbiased decisions. Vote on ideas, prioritize tasks, rank priorities, and more. Each member completes the activity independently, and Lucid will average the results for the group to review. Learn more about Visual Activities.

Visual Activities templates

Visual Activities

 

Breakout boards

Breakout boards are separate Lucidchart workspaces linked to the main document. If your instructor assigns you to a breakout board, click the breakout board icon in the toolbar and select your board. Use the back button in the upper left corner to return to the main Lucidchart workspace.

Breakout boards

Quick tools

Quick tools let instructors add shortcuts to the workspace, streamlining access to essential tools like sticky banks, dot banks, custom shape banks, and the pen/highlighter.

Quick tools

Lucidchart pages

Access and add pages to your document at the bottom of the Lucidchart interface. If you're having trouble within Canvas, use the Canvas page scroll bar on the far right to navigate.

Lucidchart pages

Line connections

Line connections can be made between any object on the canvas.  Click on the blue nodes to automatically add a connecting arrow and shape.  

Lucidchart Lines

Drag from a blue node to create a line connection to another object on the workspace. 

Connecting shapes with lines

Use the change shape icon to modify each shape as needed.

Change shape

Formatting Toolbar

The Formatting Toolbar allows you to style text, lines, and shapes, and access advanced tools like conditional formatting, actions, locking, and magnetizing.  

Formatting toolbar

Formatting options from left to right include:

  • The back arrow to undo your last change.
  • The forward arrow to redo the action.
  • The Paint format icon to copy and paste shape styles (see our Add and Customize Shapes in Lucidchart article for details).
  • Text font, size, color, and more settings.
  • Shape and line styling options (refer to Add and Customize Shapes in Lucidchart and Add and Style Lines in Lucidchart for details).
  • Icon sets and Conditional Formatting rules (see Add Conditional Formatting in Lucidchart for more info).
  • Click the 3 dots for additional features.
  • The action icon to add actions to an object (learn more in our Add an Action or Link to a Shape in Lucidchart article).
  • The magnet icon to attach shapes to a container or table row.
  • The lock icon to lock a shape's size, position, style, or content.
  • The contextual panel icon on the far right for advanced shape options.

The header

The header

The Header includes:

  • The Lucidchart icon to return to your Lucid Dashboard outside of Canvas.
  • The Comments icon to discuss ideas with collaborators (see our Collaborate in Lucid article for details).
  • The Edit menu for copying/pasting objects, setting default styles, spell check, and find & replace.
  • The Select menu is used to choose different groupings of objects for bulk styling.
  • The View menu for zoom options, turning off webGL, and showing/hiding guides, rulers, and margins.
  • The Insert menu adds images, gifs, templates, and document-specific info like creator names, creation/modification dates, and page numbers.
  • The Arrange menu for arranging shapes (e.g., bring to front, align, distribute).
  • The Help menu for onboarding tutorials, Lucidchart Help Center, hotkey shortcuts, and product updates.
  • Feature Find to search for features and help within the workspace.
  • Revision History to view edits and restore previous document versions.

Note: Some options may be grayed out based on your selection on the canvas. For example, many "Arrange" options require selecting multiple objects.

The footer

Beneath the workspace, you will find the footer.

Footer

Manage your document pages with the icons on the left side of the footer:

  • The page list icon to view all pages in your document.
  • The page thumbnail icon to see a pop-up with thumbnails of each page.
  • The dropdown arrow next to a page title for options like renaming, duplicating, deleting, changing tab color, converting to a master page, or creating a new document from the page.
  • The add page icon to add a new page.

On the right side of the footer, find document options including:

  • The Page Insights menu icon for creating formulas.
  • The layers icon to access and edit layers.
  • The minimap icon to view and adjust your canvas location.
  • The subtraction and addition icons to zoom in or out, with additional options for zooming to content, width, page, or resetting zoom.
  • The fullscreen icon expands the canvas to the entire workspace.

Your Lucid homepage

Use the Lucid shortcut icon in your Canvas course navigation to access your Lucid home page. From there, you can create new documents, access all your existing ones, organize them with folders, and browse through hundreds of ready-to-use templates. Learn more about your Lucid home page. Learn more about your Lucid home page.

Lucid homepage

 

About Lucid

Lucid Software is a pioneer and leader in visual collaboration dedicated to helping teams build the future. With its products—Lucidchart, Lucidspark, and Lucidscale—teams are supported from ideation to execution and are empowered to align around a shared vision, clarify complexity, and collaborate visually, no matter where they are. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucid.co.

Related articles

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    Cover the basics of using Lucidchart in Canvas, an interactive tool for concept mapping, diagrams, timelines, and more.

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