The palette is the strip across the top of the editor. It holds the canvas tools and every category of thing you can add to a page, so it is your main launchpad while you build.
The two dropdowns
The menu button and the tab's name sit just left of the strip. The strip itself starts with the selection mode, then the categories:
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On the left, the selection mode (what your pointer does), shown as a grid in three groups. Edit: Select (
V), Hand (H) and the Format painter. Present: Laser (K), Spotlight and Slide Deck. Preview: Isometric (I) and Zen (Z). Spotlight and Slide Deck are desktop only, and most of these stay greyed out until the canvas has something on it. See Selection Modes. -
Then the categories, by name. Rest the pointer on one, or click it, and its elements open in a panel underneath, in named groups; click one to add it or drag it onto a page. On a blank page they are Popular, Shapes, Write (text, sticky notes and pointer notes), Concepts (concept graphics, the Timeline and the Sankey), Components (the Hero, Header, Banner, Stack, cards, callouts, stats and more), Devices, Icons, Stickers, Media (images, embeds and the Tab Window) and Data (charts, meters and the Table).
A wireframe and a logo page each have their own arrangement, offering what that kind of page is made of: a wireframe page leads with Components and Elements, the parts of a screen, and a logo page with Draw, which holds the Polygon. On a photo page the strip holds the photo tools.
Search (the magnifier, or S) finds any element by name. See where each one lives.
Adding elements
Pick a tile and it arms a tap-or-drag gesture: click a page to drop the element at its natural size, or drag on the page to size it as you place it. You can also drag a tile straight onto a page.
If a boxed element is already selected when you click to drop another, the new one inherits its width and height, so you can chain similarly-sized elements quickly. (A circle or diamond takes a square the size of the larger side.)
A tile with a keyboard shortcut shows its key in the corner on the strip; in the More and Search grids, hold ⌘ (Ctrl on Windows and Linux) to show them. See Keyboard Shortcuts.
More about the strip
The strip stays pinned to the top of the canvas on every device; on a phone its categories swipe sideways. It steps aside in Zen mode and on a view-only link. See Toolbar Layout for the categories, Search and the order of the tiles, and Panel Layout for where everything else sits.
Looking for commands rather than elements? ⌘K opens search with its actions; see the Command Palette.
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