The Build elements hold what you lay a board out with. They sit on the palette strip after Draw as Layout: what you arrange and label a board with (lane, frame, stack, boundary and the Timeline, then the board key, card, badge and step number). The Table, which also holds other work, is in Write. Everywhere else in the palette you are adding something to the canvas; here you are deciding how the canvas is arranged.
What the containers have in common is that each one holds other work. A frame gathers a region, a lane carries the steps in a row, a stack lines up what you drop in it, and a table organises cells. You reach for them at the same moment: once you know how the board is arranged, before you have decided what goes in it.
What the category contains
- A Table is an editable grid of cells you can style, link, and fill row by row; double-click a cell to type. See Tables.
- A Lane is a titled horizontal band for swimlane diagrams, its title down its left edge. Dragging the lane carries everything sitting in it, so a row of steps moves as one. See Lanes.
- A Frame is a labelled box that groups a section of the canvas. It draws behind its contents and carries them when you move it, and a slide with one frame on it is framed by it. Press
Fto add one. See Frames. - A Stack lines up whatever you drop into it in a row, a column or a grid with even gaps, and reflows as things are added, removed or resized, so a row of cards never needs nudging into line. See Stacks.
- A Diagram Key lists the line styles and tag colours the tab uses, each with a meaning you type, and keeps itself up to date as the board changes. See Diagram Keys and Tag Colours.
- A Boundary is a titled, tinted container for a cloud region, a VPC, a cluster or a C4 system. It carries what sits inside it like a frame, and boundaries nested in each other read deeper. See Boundaries.
- The Timeline is milestones along a line, each with when and what, laid out as you add them. See Timeline.
Three more tiles follow, for the nodes and marks a finished board is made of:
- A Card is one node with a title, a meta line, a body, an icon and tags, each switched on or off. See Cards and Callouts.
- A Badge is a small pill of text and a Step Number a numbered disc; drop either on a node's corner and it travels with the node. See Badges and Step Numbers.
Card and Badge each come in presets: press one and its presets open in a second panel beside Layout's.
Cards, not pictures
Shapes show as a grid of pictures, because the picture is the explanation. The containers here are, at tile size, all a rectangle. So the palette panels list them as cards with a one-line description each, Layout's in two groups, Containers and Parts: "A titled band that carries its steps" against "A labelled box that groups a section" is what you are actually choosing between, and no icon says that.
These elements are filed by what they do rather than what they look like: the lane, frame, stack and boundary sit together because each holds other work.
Working with them
Each behaves like any other element once placed: select, restyle, lock, and move it freely, and each can carry a link, a note, or a comment like anything else on the canvas.
Because they hold other work, two habits pay off. Put the container down first and fill it afterwards, so the things inside are captured by it as you go. And when you move one, check what came with it: a frame and a lane carry everything whose centre sits inside them, which is usually what you want and occasionally a surprise. Resizing a frame or a lane never moves its contents.
Reach for Layout at the start of a canvas and the rest goes faster: lay out the lanes or frames you know you need, then switch to Shapes and fill them in.
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