Illustrate mode is a way of working on a tab, made for building finished visuals: a poster, a one-pager, a set of social posts or a short deck. Instead of an endless canvas you work on pages, sheets laid out in a row, each one a picture you build up and then export or present. It is one of five modes, beside Diagram, Draw, Plan and Facilitate, and like them it never changes what is on the tab: the same elements are there in every mode. It is on for everyone, with nothing to turn on first.
Four Kinds of Page
- Infographic: a sheet to lay out freely, starting from a layout if you like. Everything on this page is about infographic pages unless it says otherwise.
- Article: a page to write on, like a document, its writing flowing onto new pages as it grows. See Writing Articles.
- Slide: one slide of a deck, always landscape in a slide size (16:9, or the classic 4:3). It starts from its own slide layouts (Title Slide, Section Header, Title and Bullets, Two Columns, Image and Text, Statement, Thank You and more), has no portrait to turn to, and joins the slide deck in one press. See Slide Pages.
- Logo: a square artboard (1024 x 1024) to design a logo on, with construction guides, mirror drawing, wordmark type, combining shapes and a logo kit export. See Logo Pages.
A tab's first page asks What Is This Page For? while it is the only page and still empty; after that, every page keeps the kind it was made with.
Switching to Illustrate Mode
- The switch shows the current mode: press it and choose Illustrate. It sits beside the menu button at the top left. Shift+D cycles through the modes too. See Editor Modes for how the switch works.
- On a phone there is no switch: open the tab menu (the … on the tab) open its Mode section and choose Illustrate.
- Everyone switches together. The mode belongs to the tab, so everyone on it moves to Illustrate with you, and Undo switches the tab back to the mode it was in.
- People who can only view a tab follow its mode. Event storming boards have no switch.
Starting From a Template
Choose Illustrate in the New Document wizard, or switch an empty tab to Illustrate, and the tab opens on Start Illustrating: every Illustrate template, grouped by what it makes (Slides, Infographics, Articles, Posters, Logos), with Recommended first and a search. No page is drawn behind it until you choose. Recommended leads with Blank Infographic, Blank Article and Blank Slide Deck, each one empty page of that kind with nothing to choose; Blank Logo is first under Logos, and the Article template, one article page, is under Articles (Templates). The × leaves one empty page, ready to ask what it is for. Deleting the last page empties the tab and brings Start Illustrating back.
Your Content, Put Onto a Page
Switching modes never changes your content. Switch a tab that already has a diagram, a mind map or a sketch on it into Illustrate mode, and if it does not fit the first page, a page is made around it, where it is: nothing moves, shrinks or is scaled. The page is A4 when the content fits on it, and otherwise Fit to Content, a page exactly the size of your board plus a margin all round. Back in Diagram mode the board looks just as it did.
It happens in the same step as the switch, and a message says so: Undo switches the tab back to the mode it came from, with no page. Content you later leave off the pages (in the space around them) stays where you put it.
Split Into Pages breaks a Fit to Content page into separate pages, from its page panel. Things joined by arrows, or sitting close together, stay together; each group gets a page of its own, A4 when it fits or Fit to Content when it does not, turned portrait or landscape to suit its shape, in reading order (top to bottom, then left to right). Each group moves onto its page at its own size, never scaled. At most 20 pages are made in one go; anything left over shares the last of them.
Pages
- Add a page with the + after the last page, or the + at the end of the palette strip, and choose Infographic, Article, Slide or Logo in Add a Page. A new infographic page takes the last one's size and orientation, and every new page carries over the background of the page before it (its colour, gradient or picture, and its pattern; a logo page takes the fill without the pattern), so a series keeps its look. It is the new page's own from then on. With no background to carry over, a new infographic page starts on a soft gradient in your theme's colour (the Theme Mist gradient); a new slide, article or logo page starts on plain paper. A tab holds up to 100 pages.
- Each page's label sits above its top-left corner: its name, or "Page 2", then its size ("A4 · Portrait", "Square", "Story (9:16)"), then "Article", "Slide" or "Logo" on those kinds of page. An infographic page, the plain page, leaves its kind off, so its title bar keeps the room for its buttons. Press the label to fit that page to the screen.
- Drag a label sideways to reorder the pages. A blue bar in the gap shows where the page will land; let go and it moves there with everything on it. Escape cancels.
- Content belongs to its page. Anything whose centre is on a page moves with it when the pages around it change, and whatever hangs off a page's edge is cut off at the edge, on screen and in exports, as if the pages were the only paper.
- Arrows stay on one page. An arrow's end pins to an element only when that element is on the same page as the arrow's other end; elements on another page show no connection points, so the end stays free where you drop it.
- The page navigator under each page (once there are two or more) shows "2 of 5" between Previous page and Next page, each fitting that page to the screen.
- Back where you left off. Come back to a tab of pages, from another tab or after a reload, and it opens on the page you were last on rather than the first. Each person's place is their own, kept in this browser.
- Snapping: move or resize an element and it snaps to its page's edges, centre lines and margins, with the same guides as lining up with other elements.
- The title bar above each page holds its buttons, ending in the padlock and the cog: see Beside the Cog.
- The Layers panel and its button are not offered in Illustrate mode; in their place is the Slides button (see Exporting and Presenting Pages).
- In Zen mode and while presenting, the pages show on their own, without labels, cogs or buttons.
Contents
In Illustrate mode, Contents sits in the bottom-right corner, beside the theme button. Press it for a list of every page in the tab, each with a picture of the page as it is, its number, its name and what kind of page it is ("Slide · In the deck", "Infographic · A4 Portrait"). The page you are looking at is marked Here.
- Go to a page: press its row, or move with the arrow keys and press Enter. The canvas glides there. On a computer the list stays open so you can hop around; on a phone it closes so you can see the page.
- Find a page: with more than six pages, type in Find a Page to narrow the list by name, kind or number.
- Add a page: at the foot, Add Page offers Infographic, Slide, Article and Logo. The new page lands after the last one and the list marks it.
Anyone can open Contents to find their way round. Only Editors see Add Page.
Beside the Cog
An infographic or slide page's title bar, above its top-right corner, holds the buttons you reach for most, so you rarely need its panel:
- Layout opens the page's layouts in a popover: press a category, hover a layout to preview it on the page, press it to place it. It is there on every page, empty or not, and placing a layout replaces what is on the page at once (one Undo brings it back). A slide page offers the slide layouts. See Infographic Layouts.
- Tidy (the broom, just left of the padlock and the cog, on infographic and slide pages while there is something to straighten) straightens the page in one press: it nudges anything poking past the margins back inside, lines up edges that nearly line up, evens out gaps that are nearly even, and settles the rest on a fine grid. It keeps your layout, never moves anything far, never makes things overlap, and leaves locked and turned elements where they are. Hover it to see the tidied page first; a page that is already tidy says so and nothing changes.
- Background opens the page's backgrounds and patterns in a popover, with the same hover previews as the panel (see Backgrounds and Patterns). It stays open for another pick.
- The padlock locks the page (Locking a Page), and the cog opens the page panel.
While the page is wide enough on screen, each button shows its name beside its icon; zoom out, or use a phone, and they drop to their icons (hover one for its name). On a phone, Layout and Background open as a sheet from the bottom of the screen. A locked page shows no Layout, Tidy Up or Background button. Only Editors see these buttons: Participants and Viewers see the pages without them.
A logo page has its own buttons here instead (Tidy for a drawing, Mirror and Guides, and Start From a Layout while it is empty): see Logo Pages. An article page keeps its background in its panel.
The Page Panel
Press the cog above a page's top-right corner to open its panel, which opens beside the page so the page stays in view (on a phone it slides up from the bottom of the screen). At the top is the page's name (leave it empty to go back to "Page 2"). Below it, what the page offers:
- An infographic page: its size and orientation. Its layouts and background are on the Layout and Background buttons beside the cog.
- A slide page: the Page and Background tabs. Its layouts are on the Layout button.
- An article page: the Page, Background, Style and Text tabs (see Writing Articles).
- A logo page: the Background and Layouts tabs, with no size to choose (see Logo Pages).
Along the bottom are the page's actions.
Size and Orientation
The page's settings start with the Size tiles, each drawn to scale:
| Size | For |
|---|---|
| A4 | Print, the default |
| Letter | US Letter, for print in North America |
| A3 | Posters |
| Square | Square social posts |
| Post | Portrait posts for Instagram and LinkedIn (4:5) |
| Story | Stories (9:16); turned landscape it reads Widescreen (16:9) |
| Fit | Fit to Content: sized around the board it was made for |
Fit shows only on a page already in it, the page made around your board when it entered Illustrate mode; choose another size and it is gone for good. Slide sizes belong to slide pages: a deck is made of slide pages, which offer only Slide (16:9) and Classic (4:3), and no orientation. (An infographic page made before this, still on the Slide size, keeps that tile until you move it off.) A logo page is always its 1024 x 1024 artboard, so it shows no sizes at all.
Below them, Portrait and Landscape turn the page (a square page, a slide size and Fit to Content have no orientation). Changing a page's size or orientation keeps everything on it: content that still fits stays as it is, and content that no longer fits is scaled down as one to fit inside the margins, its text with it. Nothing is cut off.
Backgrounds and Patterns
Every kind of page has the same backgrounds, sorted into Solid, Gradient and Image at the top of the backgrounds (a logo page has no Image); they open on the kind the page has now. An infographic page keeps them on the Background button beside its cog; a slide page has that button and its panel's Background tab; article and logo pages have the Background tab.
- Solid: Paper (the plain page) leading your tab theme's colours, then a row of light colours and a row of dark ones (the same colours every colour picker in livediagram offers), the colours already used in the document, and Add a custom colour (four coloured dots) for a custom colour of your own.
- Gradient: a Theme group of fourteen gradients drawn from your tab's theme colours, light ones first, then bold and deep ones (change the tab's theme and these follow it), then a Gradients group of thirteen presets, from Sunrise and Peach to Night, Forest and Ember, plus the rainbow swatch for a custom gradient: pick its From and To colours from the same colours, turn its Angle, or Swap the two.
- Image: a photo covering the whole page. Search openly licensed pictures (only ones shaped like your page come back, tall for a portrait page and wide for a landscape one), or Upload an Image of your own. Hover a result to see it on the page. Over the picture, an Overlay keeps your content readable: None leaves it bare, Light or Dark washes it, Tint washes it in your theme's colour, and Fade fades it to white towards the bottom; Strength sets how much, and a new picture starts with a 60% wash. Position chooses which part of a tall picture stays in view (Top, Centre or Bottom). A searched picture shows its creator and licence under it, with links to its source. To change it, search or upload again under Replace Image; Remove puts the page back on plain paper.
- Pattern, over any of them: None, Dots, Grid or Lines, drawn faintly so they never fight the content.
Hover a swatch to preview it on the page; press it to keep it. A dark background keeps the page readable: elements without colours of their own are drawn in light ink on it, and text, arrows and icons you coloured yourself are lightened if they would no longer stand out (or darkened again on a light page). On a bright or mid-tone colour, such as teal or yellow, icons, progress bars and outlines are lightened or darkened the same way, keeping their hue, and charts adjust their colours as they are drawn.
Page Actions
Along the bottom of the panel: Split Into Pages (on a Fit to Content page only, see above), Duplicate page (a copy right after it, with everything on it), Move page left, Move page right and Delete page (the page and everything on it; the pages after it close the gap, and the view glides to the page before it so you are never left looking at empty canvas). On an article page the same four act on the whole article. Each one is a single step that Undo reverses.
Locking a Page
Press the padlock beside a page's cog to lock it; it reads Locked while it is. A locked page, of any kind, stays as it is:
- What is on it can't be selected, moved, changed or deleted, and nothing new can be drawn, dropped or pasted onto it (a short notice says why).
- Its name, size, orientation, background and layout can't change, and it can't be deleted. You can still move it along the row or duplicate it (the copy is unlocked).
- Locking a page of an article makes the article's writing read-only.
Press the padlock again to unlock it. The lock is part of the document, so everyone you share it with sees the page locked too.
Leaving Illustrate Mode
Diagram, Draw and Facilitate modes do not show pages, so switching to one of them from a tab you can edit asks first (Plan works in tabs of its own, so an Illustrate tab never switches into it):
- A tab with pages asks Switch to Diagram? (or Draw, or Facilitate) beside the switch: what you change there may not fit back onto your pages when you return. Press Switch to go, or Cancel to stay.
- A tab with articles asks Turn Articles Into Pages?: Turn Into Pages, Keep as Articles or Cancel (see Writing Articles).
Good to Know
- Everything else works as always: sharing, live collaboration, comments, undo and redo. Collaborators see your pages and their changes live.
- The mode belongs to the tab: everyone on it is in Illustrate mode with you, and sees the pages as you build them.
- People who can only view a tab see the pages but not their cogs, buttons or the +.
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