Write Elements

The Write elements (in Diagram and Facilitate mode, the first half of the palette's Draw category; in Illustrate, its own Write category) hold the elements whose content is words. Everywhere else in the palette you place something with a shape and then maybe label it; here the text is the point and the shape is just what carries it.

They differ mostly in how much you have to say. A Page holds paragraphs, a Sticky note holds a thought, a Text label holds a line, an Annotation holds a remark you have to hover to read, and a Pointer note holds a remark about one spot, joined to it by a line. The Page sits first because it is the largest writing surface on the canvas.

What the category contains

A Page is a paper-shaped surface for prose, and the largest writing surface on the canvas. Double-click to write. Reach for it when the diagram needs a paragraph rather than a caption: a brief beside the boxes, a summary at the top of the canvas. See Pages.
A Text element is a free-standing label with no box around it: just words on the canvas. T drops one. Use it for titles, column headings, and anything that labels a region rather than an element, since a shape's own label is the better way to name a shape. See Text and Fonts.
A Sticky note is a coloured note card, the one that reads as somebody's contribution rather than the author's structure. N drops one. It is what retros, brainstorms and dot votes are made of, and it is what an idea box scatters into. See Sticky Notes.
An Annotation is a small marker you drop on the canvas that holds a note. Hover it to read, double-click to edit. It is the one that keeps its text out of the way: the remark lives inside the marker instead of taking up canvas. See Annotations.
A Pointer note is a short note with a line out to a dot. Drag the dot onto a corner or edge of a shape and the note follows that shape wherever it moves: use it for "this is where it fails" remarks. See Pointer Notes.

In other editor modes

The five are Diagram mode's set. Each editor mode keeps its palette to what suits it:

In Illustrate mode, Write holds Text, Note and Pointer note: the page is the canvas there, so there is no Page element, and no Annotation.
In Plan mode there is no Write category; a Content category offers the sticky note, text, image and page to sit beside your boards.

Any of the five is still a search away in another mode, and works there once placed.

Looking for the coloured workshop stickies? The Event Storming notation has its own palette category.

Picking between them

Three of the five are surfaces you compose on; the annotation is not, and the pointer note sits between. That is the line worth knowing.

A Page, a Text label and a Sticky note all put their words on the canvas, where everyone reads them without doing anything. An Annotation puts a marker on the canvas and hides its words until somebody hovers it. So the question is whether the text is part of what the diagram says, or a side remark about it.

If the diagram is incomplete without the words, use one of the three surfaces. If the words are commentary (a caveat, a reminder, a "we should revisit this"), an annotation says exactly that by being small.

There is a fourth way to attach words, and it is not in this category: any element can carry a note or a comment of its own. Those belong to the element they are on and move with it, which an annotation dropped nearby does not.

Cards, not pictures

Shapes show as a grid of pictures, because the picture is the explanation. These five are all rectangles with text in them, so at tile size they would look nearly alike. In their palette panel each one is a card with a one-line description instead, the text surfaces (Page, Text) first, then the notes (Note, Annotation, Pointer note), because "a paper-shaped page for prose" against "a marker that holds a note" is what you are actually choosing between.

The Write elements as their panel lists them: Page, Text, Note, Annotation and Pointer note, each with the line that tells them apart.

Working with them

Each behaves like any other element once placed: select, restyle, lock and move it freely, and each can carry a link like anything else on the canvas. The one exception is rotation, which the three surfaces allow and the annotation marker does not: it is a round pin, so turning it would only turn its number.

Text styling is shared with the rest of the canvas rather than special to this category: font, size, weight and alignment all come from the same controls that style a shape's label. See Text and Fonts.

T and N drop a text label and a sticky note without opening the palette at all, which is the fast way through a brainstorm: type, N, type, N.

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