Creating a new canvas template is easy. In the Admin Studio, you go to Canvases. Here, you can find all the templates already created for your company. To add a new one, you have two options: 1. Create a new template, 2. Clone an existing template, or 3. Install a Canvas template from the Accept Mission library.
1. Create a new template
A Canvas template consists of two important elements: the settings and the layout.
Settings
In the settings, you define the template title, the template's owner, and the status, whether it is a draft or a final. Only templates with the status final can be used in the platform.
Title - The title of the canvas template
Owner - Who is the owner of the canvas? Good for asking questions.
Status - Is it draft or final? The rest of the software can only use final templates.
Orientation - The standard is landscape, but you can also set it to portrait.
Description - You can add a description to define more information.
Layout
The layout is where the content of the canvas is all about. It consists of three parts:
Header (fixed)
Content in containers and blocks (dynamic)
Footer (fixed)
Header
The header presents the elements that will be presented at the top of the canvas. Consider this the canvas's metadata. It will contain the idea's title, owner, status, and actual date and time to understand when you exported this information.
Footer
The footer presents the elements at the bottom of the canvas. The title of the canvas template will be used as a standard.
Content
The content consists of containers (rows) and Content Blocks. A row can have a maximum of 5 content blocks. If you select only 1 content block, that block will fill 100% of the width. If you select 2 blocks, they will both be 50%, etc. Every Content block can have multiple types of data: 1. Application field, 2. Custom field, or 3. Data list.
Application fields are fields like idea title, idea description etc.
Custom fields are fields you define in the custom fields of the application.
Data list type you can use to show a list of fields in a data table in your canvas.
Example:
For example, you want to create a specific SWOT canvas to be used in ideas to discover an idea's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is what you do:
Create four custom fields in the company custom fields:
Go to Settings -> Custom fields
Add the custom field "Strengths" with the type of Long text and give it a proper description for the tooltip.
Create a custom Canvas Template
Fill in the title of the canvas template in the right side settings bar: "Idea SWOT"
Create a new container and add two blocks:
Assign the blocks to: Strengths and Weaknesses
Create another container and add two blocks:
Assign the blocks to: Opportunities and Threats
Save the Canvas template. Done!
Now, you can open an idea. Fill in the custom fields you created, and then go to the tab 'Canvas' -> select the right canvas you want to see: 'Idea SWOT'. You will see the full canvas. You can now, for example, Export it to PDF.
2. Clone an existing template
You can easily clone an existing template in the list view of all the Canvas templates. After cloning, an exact copy of this template will be created. The cloned version will have CLONE in the title. Update the title and the layout adjustments you want to do. Remember to set the template to LIIVE to use it in the application.
3. Install a Canvas template from the Accept Mission library
You can use this feature to install one of the templates we created for you. In the Canvas template, you can flip the switch to Accept MIssion templates, and you will see a list of templates we did create. You can click on it to see a preview of the setup, and in the listview, you can INSTALL the template.
The following happens when you click install:
It will create the needed custom fields in your company's custom fields settings
It will create the template and connect the fields to the created custom fields.
