The canvas
Opening a model opens its canvas: an open surface where its tables sit side by side, everyone working in the model sees changes as they happen, and a few bars at the bottom hold every action for what you have selected.
The layout
A model's canvas has four parts:
- The left panel has two tabs. Directory lists the model's tables and their views, with the model's trash at the foot. Import brings data in from files, other Mycorr models and your connections. Above it, the breadcrumb names the model's space.
- The canvas in the middle shows the tables. Each collaborator in the model appears as an avatar at the top right.
- The details pane on the right describes what you selected: a table, a column, a row, or the model itself when nothing is selected. See the details pane.
- The bars at the bottom act on the selection and change how you look at the canvas. See the bars.
Either side panel folds away with the toggle on its edge when you want more room.
Move around
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Pan | Scroll, hold Space and drag, or pick the Pan tool (H) and drag |
| Zoom | Hold ⌘ and scroll, or use Zoom In and Zoom Out on the view bar |
| See everything | Fit to Content on the view bar |
| Go back to selecting | Pick the Select tool (V) |
On Windows and Linux, use Ctrl wherever this page says ⌘, and Alt for ⌥.
Build a table
The canvas guide in the app (Help → Canvas basics) walks through these steps with the clips below.
Add a table
Drag a CSV, Excel or Parquet file onto the canvas and it becomes a table where you drop it. To start from nothing, press New Table on the action bar, or paste rows copied from a spreadsheet onto an empty part of the canvas. See Ways to add data for every route in.
Grow it
To add rows, drag the grip under the table. To add a column, drag the grip on its right edge.
Edit in place
Cells edit in place. Select a cell and start typing, or press ⌘ E to edit what is there. Enter confirms and moves down, Tab moves right, and Esc cancels. Double-click a column's header to rename it.
Every edit is saved as you go, and everyone in the model sees it at once. To hold a batch of edits back until they are all done, use commit mode.
The bars at the bottom
Three bars sit along the bottom of the canvas, each with one job.
| Bar | Where | Its job |
|---|---|---|
| Action bar | Bottom centre | Acts on what you selected. It shows only the actions that apply, one icon per family, with the rest under ⋮ |
| Mode bar | Beside the action bar | Moves the canvas between its modes: the table canvas, the graph view and a row investigation |
| View bar | Bottom right | How you look at the canvas: the Select tool and Pan tool, zoom, Fit to Content and Help |
The action bar
What the action bar offers follows the selection:
| You selected | The bar offers, for example |
|---|---|
| Nothing | New Table, Import (from a file, Mycorr or a connection), Manage Access for the model, Arrange |
| A table | Checkpoints, Add table link, Export, Manage Access, Add to dataset, and for a connected table its sync action |
| A column | Set Data Type, Display Format, Add description, Set unit, Edit intents, Split column values, Search & replace, Link Column, Add column right, Delete from Table |
| Two or more tables | Align and, from three, Distribute |
An action that doesn't apply to the selection is left off the bar rather than greyed out. Hover an icon to see its name.
Some icons have an alternate. Hold ⌥ and the icon changes to it: Add column right becomes Add column left, for example. Click while holding ⌥ to run the alternate.
The mode bar
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Switch to graph view | Shows the model's tables as a graph. ⌘ ⇧ G |
| Back to table canvas | Returns to the tables. Same shortcut |
| Investigate rows | Opens the selected rows in the row graph |
| Clear investigation | Empties the row graph |
Graph view
The graph view draws each table as a box and each link as a line between them, so you can see how your data connects at a glance. Switch to it with Switch to graph view on the mode bar or ⌘ ⇧ G.
In the graph:
- Select a table to see its links and details. Hover a line to see the columns the link joins on.
- Expand or collapse a table with Enter to show or hide the tables it links to, including tables in other models you can see.
- Gather around the selection with R to pull the selected tables and their neighbours together.
- The Datasets legend at the top left lists the datasets its tables belong to. Pick one to light up its tables.
- Reset graph on the mode bar puts the graph back to its starting layout.
Investigate rows
The row graph follows individual rows across links: an order, the customer who placed it, the products on it.
- On the table canvas, select one or more rows.
- Click Investigate N rows on the mode bar.
- The row graph opens with your rows. Select a row to see its fields in the details pane; a field that a link runs through offers to show the linked row.
Add N rows to investigation adds more rows later, and Open rows investigation returns to it after you leave. Press Esc to leave the row graph, and Clear investigation to start over.
Each table's rows are drawn with the table's colour. Under Node label in the details pane, choose which column names a node (Name) and which adds a Second line.
Work together
Everyone who opens the model works on the same canvas at the same time. Their avatars appear at the top right of the canvas, and their cursors and selections move on yours as they work.
To follow someone, double-click their avatar. Your view then pans and zooms with theirs, so you see what they see while they walk you through something. Press Esc to stop following.
If your connection drops, the canvas says it is reconnecting and becomes read-only until it is back, so no edit is made that can't be saved.
Keyboard shortcuts
Press ? on the canvas, or choose Help → Keyboard Shortcuts, to see every shortcut in the app. The full list, for Mac and for Windows and Linux, is in Keyboard shortcuts.
Help on the canvas
Help on the view bar opens a menu:
- Canvas basics: a one-minute guided tour of adding, growing, editing and linking a table. It is offered to people who can edit the model.
- Documentation: these docs.
- Keyboard Shortcuts: the list above.
- Contact Support: a message to the Mycorr team.