Find your way around the canvas

The Flow Designer is a map. Each box is a step, the lines show the order they happen in, and the whole thing reads from the green Start box downwards.

You get here from Edit Flow on a conversational form or a bot flow. The designer opens with the flow already zoomed to fit.

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1. Add Step palette
2. The map overview
3. Zoom controls
4. Save status

#The header

The arrow at the far left takes you back to your list of flows.

#Adding a step

The Add Step palette sits in the top-left corner with three items: Panel, Action and Split. You drag one onto the flow.

There are two kinds of +:

• On a line between two boxes — drops the new step between them.
• Under a box with nothing after it — adds the new step at the end of that branch.

Select a + without dragging anything and you get the same three choices as a small menu, plus Paste if you have something on the clipboard.

#Getting around

• Move the map — drag any empty part of the canvas.
• Zoom — scroll, or use the zoom controls in the bottom-left corner. Those controls also have a button that fits the whole flow back into view, which is the fastest way to recover when you get lost.
• The overview map in the bottom-right corner shows the whole flow in miniature, colour-coded by step type. Green is the start, blue a panel, orange an action, purple a split. On a long flow it is the quickest way to jump to the far end.

Boxes snap to a grid as you drag them, so a flow you have tidied stays tidy. Moving a box is saved for you automatically — it is only the position that saves itself, not the contents.

#Editing a step

• Select a box to open its properties.
• Right-click a box for Copy, Cut and Delete.

Keyboard shortcuts work on the selected box:

The Start box cannot be copied, cut or deleted. Every flow needs somewhere to begin.

#Reading the save indicator

A small panel in the bottom-left corner tells you where you stand:

#Things the designer does not do

Worth knowing so you do not go hunting:

• No undo. There is no Ctrl+Z. Deleting a step is immediate and permanent. Copy a step before you experiment on it.
• No test simulator. You cannot walk through a draft inside the editor. To try something, publish and open the live page.
• No version history. There is no way to roll back to yesterday’s version.