Flow canvas controls and shortcuts
Find the controls you need to build a flow, move around the canvas, undo edits, and manage branches without deleting shared content.
Use this reference to find a canvas control or check what happens when you add, copy, or remove a step. Each step is called a node. Select one to open its editor.
Find a flow
The Flows library has All, Widget flows, and System filters. Search matches flow names and attached widget names. Grid and List show the same filtered flows.
You can sort by name in either direction, recently or least recently accessed, and recently or least recently modified. With enhanced reporting, you can also sort by most or fewest visitors, most or fewest executions, and highest or lowest completion.
The default sort is most visitors with enhanced reporting and name order otherwise. System flows appear before widget flows. The date control changes the reporting period, not whether a flow is published.
Load appears only for accounts with flow-loading permission. You don't need it to create a flow.
Choose how a new flow appears
In Flows, New flow followed by Blank flow opens the flow setup. Use template starts from a template instead. For the shortest setup, follow Create a flow.
| If you'd like to… | Choose | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Give the flow its own widget | A new widget | Creates a widget with the same name as the flow. |
| Replace what an existing widget shows | An existing widget | Replaces that widget's assigned flow but keeps its appearance and targeting. |
| Start with the default appearance | Start fresh under Style | Uses the selected widget type's default style. |
| Reuse another widget's appearance | An existing widget's style | Copies colors, fonts, and corners, not its trigger, pages, or flow content. The selected type keeps its default placement. |
The widget choices appear under Where should this flow show? when the project already has widgets. Flow name is required. A new widget can't reuse an existing widget name.
What kind of widget? offers Toaster, Popup, Inline, Bar, and Full-screen takeover. These choices control how the flow appears, not its questions. Inline content needs a place on your page. The other types float over or overlay the page. Check Display even when copied Design settings look right.
New widgets are enabled. If you need to publish other project changes while a flow is unfinished, turn off that widget's Enabled switch first. Saving a flow creates a draft. It doesn't change the live website until you publish.
For actions that run without a widget, use a system flow.
Move around and add steps
| If you'd like to… | Control | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Add a step | Build | Groups nodes under Display, Actions, and Flow. Drag a node to an available insertion point. |
| Edit a step | Select the node | Opens its editor in a drawer. A shared question, form, or offer opens that shared resource. |
| Find a step | Search | Finds nodes in the current flow. |
| Change the canvas scale | Zoom in and out | Changes the canvas, not the widget's size on your website. |
| See the whole flow | Fit to screen | Fits the flow into the available canvas. |
| Move across a large flow | Minimap | Lets you navigate to another part of the flow. |
| Try a widget flow | Preview | Opens a non-system flow with widget, device, and color-scheme choices. Test page and audience targeting on your website separately. |
| Reverse or restore an edit | Undo and redo | Uses the available canvas history. A disabled control has no history action available. |
| Copy a flow | Copy flow | Available when your account has permission to copy flows. |
| Copy its definition | Copy flow JSON | Administrator-only action. Copies the definition, not the referenced questions, forms, and offers needed to recreate it. |
| Look up a key combination | Keyboard Shortcuts | Shows the shortcuts for your platform. |
A flow stores the order of its steps and branches. Questions, forms, and offers live in your libraries. Editing a reused question can change every flow that asks it. Removing a node doesn't delete its library resource.
Undo and redo boundaries
Canvas history keeps up to 50 snapshots during your editing session. Changes in a node drawer become one grouped history entry when you close the drawer. Undo doesn't reverse each character separately.
Switching flows resets this history. It can't restore a project backup or reverse a delivered webhook or deleted analytics. Use the project's draft and publishing controls to manage changes to the live website.
Insert without dragging
Press F or / to show letter badges on nodes and available insertion points. Type a badge to open a node or choose where to insert one. Then choose an available node from the palette. Press Escape to leave this mode.
Available choices depend on the flow and position. System flows leave out display nodes that need a widget. High Score needs multiple score or variable names. Connected app nodes need their connection, and Webhook needs access on your plan. You can't insert an item marked as coming soon.
Node menus and badges
Editable node menus have Duplicate and Remove. These menus don't appear in read-only previews or template previews. A question can offer Test this question when it has no draft or active question test.
Question cards can show badges for identification, syncing, multiple answers, write-in answers, and scoring. A card with no question selected says Select a question. Hovering over a card can open a preview of its question.
A node's Duplicate action copies its flow structure. It doesn't make a separate library copy of a question, form, or offer. Use that resource's own duplication controls when you need independent content.
Add or remove answer branches
A single-answer, segment-backed question supports Route off this question. It creates a branch for each segment and a Default branch for visitors without a matching answer. Multiple-answer questions don't support a separate branch for each selected answer.
The branches follow the shared question's segment order. Adding routing doesn't duplicate the question or its answers.
The canvas can hide Default when an attached widget asks questions and this question is asked here or earlier in the flow. Hiding the branch doesn't delete its saved steps. A Router without an earlier asking step still needs a useful path for missing answers.
Remove routing from this question keeps the question but removes its routing tree. Move or recreate any steps you need to keep outside that tree before removing it.
When a path stops
Forms, offers, messages, and exit steps can end the ordinary path. The canvas dims unreachable nodes after a terminal step and disables their insertion points. It also leaves out the final add position after a terminal last node.
An empty branch can rejoin shared steps below it. It doesn't stop the flow. Use Exit Flow when a branch should end without showing anything else. A form or offer inside a branch ends that path, so it won't continue to another form or offer below the join.
For a form, use its separate post-submit path to choose what happens after submission.
Keyboard shortcuts
The modifier is Command on Mac and Ctrl elsewhere. Open Keyboard Shortcuts or press ? to see your platform's labels.
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| Modifier + plus, minus, or 0 | Zoom in, zoom out, or fit |
| Modifier + Z | Undo |
| Command + Shift + Z on Mac; Ctrl + Y elsewhere | Redo |
| Modifier + comma | Toggle the node panel |
| Modifier + M | Toggle the minimap |
| S | Search the flow |
| Arrow keys | Pan |
| Modifier + D or U | Move half a page down or up |
| G then G; Shift + G | Jump to the top or bottom |
| F or slash | Show letter badges for opening nodes and inserting at drop zones |
| Escape | Cancel the current keyboard mode or close the shortcut dialog |
| Modifier + X | Remove the selected flow node while its drawer is open, except when typing or editing a widget |
The dialog saves your Vim preference in browser storage. It uses H, J, K, and L for panning, U for undo, and modifier + R for redo.
Removing a node with branches
Removing a populated Condition removes its Yes and No paths. Removing a populated Router, Random Split, or High Score removes that node's nested paths. Removing a populated question also removes its nested answer paths. The confirmation explains that the referenced library questions, forms, and offers remain.
Removing the whole question is different from removing its answer routing. The routing action keeps the question. Both remove the nested paths, so check those paths first.
For flow-level duplication and deletion, see flow settings. To decide which questions and branches you need, plan your questions and branches.