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Anchors and zones

An anchor is a named rectangular area of a MultiTaction Canvus canvas. You use anchors to jump straight to an area, to run a simple presentation, and as targets for canvas macros. Canvus also calls an anchor a zone, for example in the grid and macros menus. Both words mean the same thing.

Anchors are saved with the canvas, so everyone working on it shares them.

Create an anchor

  1. Open the finger menu and tap Anchor Menu.
  2. Tap one of these:
    • New anchor from viewport creates an anchor that covers exactly what you see now.
    • New anchor creates a smaller anchor, half the size of your view, centred where you opened the menu.

A new anchor is active, so you can move and resize it straight away. Give each anchor a title in its title bar that says what the area is for.

The anchor list

Open the main menu and tap Anchors. The anchor list shows a preview and the title of every anchor on the canvas.

  • Go to an anchor. Tap it in the list. The view zooms so that the anchor fills the workspace.
  • Change the order. Drag anchors in the list. The order is the order of an anchor presentation and decides which anchor is first.
  • Delete an anchor. Select it in the list, tap Delete, then confirm.
  • Show or hide anchors. Tap the eye button to show or hide the anchor frames on the canvas. This affects only your workspace: other workspaces and sites do not see the change, and the frames are hidden again the next time the canvas is opened.
  • Start a presentation. Tap the play button. See Presentations using anchors.

To open a canvas at its first anchor, set anchor-viewport=true. See The view when a canvas opens.

Create a grid of zones

From Canvus 26.10.0, the anchor list can cover the whole canvas with a grid of equal zones in one step.

  1. Open the anchor list.
  2. Tap the grid button (Create a grid of zones over the whole canvas).
  3. Tap a size: 2×2, 3×3, 4×4 or 5×5.

Canvus divides the whole canvas into equal zones and pins them. A new grid replaces the previous grid. Zones you created by hand are kept.

Zone names and numbering

Each grid zone is named with its number, its spreadsheet-style cell reference and the marker (auto), for example 1. A1 (auto), or 5. B2 (auto) in the middle of a 3×3 grid. Columns are letters from the left and rows are numbers from the top.

The numbering button sets the order of the numbers for the next grid you create. Tap it to cycle through the orders:

Order Button Numbering
Reading order Default colour Left to right, then top to bottom
Snake Purple Row 1 left to right, row 2 right to left, and so on
Spiral Red Clockwise around the edge from the top-left corner, then inwards

To renumber an existing grid, choose the order and create the grid again.

Remove the grid

  1. Open the anchor list.
  2. Tap the remove grid button (Remove all grid zones).
  3. Confirm.

Canvus removes every zone whose name ends in (auto). Zones you created by hand, and grid zones you renamed so that the name no longer ends in (auto), are kept. Grids made with the old Anchor Pages plugin, whose zones end in AutoZone!, are removed too.

Canvus 26.10

In Canvus 26.10.x, removing the grid removed every anchor on the canvas, including anchors created by hand. From Canvus 26.11.0, only grid zones are removed.

Use zones with macros

The Macros section of the finger menu moves or copies everything in view to or from a zone you pick. See Canvas macros.

Anchor Pages plugin

The grid replaces the Anchor Pages plugin, which Canvus no longer loads from 26.10.0. See Anchor pages.