Once you have placed callouts, arrows, shapes, and text frames on your asset, you will often need to adjust their positions, duplicate them for consistency, or remove ones that are no longer needed. All of these operations work through the Select tool and apply to any annotation type.
This article continues with the toaster example, which now has callouts on each component, an arrow pointing to the browning dial, a shape framing the control panel, and a text frame describing the browning dial.
Selecting annotations
Switch to the Select tool by clicking the Select tab in the left panel or pressing V. All selection operations require the Select tool to be active.
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Select one annotation | Click it |
| Toggle selection | Ctrl/Cmd + click |
| Select all annotations | Ctrl/Cmd A |
| Marquee select | Click and drag around the annotations you want to select |
| Deselect all | Click on an empty area of the canvas |
Info
Clicking an annotation always selects it, even when a drawing tool such as Callout, Line, or Shape is active. New annotations are only created when you click on an empty area of the canvas.
Moving annotations
Move a single annotation
- Click the annotation to select it.
- Drag it to the new position.
Move multiple annotations together
- Select the annotations you want to move using Ctrl/Cmd + click, or a marquee drag.
- Drag any one of the selected annotations. All selected annotations move together, preserving their relative positions.
Tip
Hold Shift while dragging to constrain movement to perfectly horizontal or vertical. This is useful for aligning a row of callouts along the top of the toaster asset.
Duplicating annotations
There are two ways to duplicate annotations. Both produce exact copies. Duplicated callouts carry the same label as the original and do not auto-increment.
Duplicate in place
- Select the annotation or annotations you want to duplicate.
- Press Ctrl/Cmd D. Copies appear 20 pixels to the right and below the originals.
- Drag the copies to their final positions.
Copy and paste
- Select the annotation or annotations you want to copy.
- Press Ctrl/Cmd C to copy to the clipboard.
- Press Ctrl/Cmd V to paste. Copies appear 20 pixels to the right and below the originals and are automatically selected.
- Drag the pasted copies to their final positions.
Note
Ctrl/Cmd D duplicates without using the clipboard. Your system clipboard contents are unaffected. Use this when you want to duplicate quickly without overwriting something you have already copied elsewhere.
Copy-drag
To duplicate by dragging rather than using a keyboard shortcut:
- Select the annotation or annotations.
- Hold Alt/option and drag. The originals stay in place and new copies are created at the drag destination.
- Release to commit the copies.
Tip
Combine Alt/option + Shift + drag to copy-drag with horizontal or vertical constraint. This is the fastest way to duplicate a callout and align it precisely on the same axis as the original.
Undo and redo
The editor keeps up to 60 undo steps. Every placement, move, resize, style change, and deletion is a separate undoable action.
| Action | Shortcut | Left panel control |
|---|---|---|
| Undo | Ctrl/Cmd Z | ↩ button in the bottom bar |
| Redo | Ctrl/Cmd Y or Ctrl/Cmd Shift Z | ↪ button in the bottom bar |
Note
Performing any new action after undoing clears the redo stack. If you undo several steps and then place a new annotation, you cannot redo the steps that were undone.
Deleting annotations
Delete selected annotations
- Select the annotation or annotations you want to remove.
- Press Delete or Backspace.
Delete all annotations
To remove every annotation from the canvas in a single action, click the trash icon in the left panel bottom bar.
Warning
The trash icon removes all annotations from the canvas, not just the currently selected ones. Press Ctrl/Cmd Z immediately to undo if you trigger this by mistake.
Note
Deleting callouts does not automatically renumber remaining callouts on the canvas. If your document references callout numbers in a parts list or legend, review and update those labels manually after any deletion.
Arranging with the grid
The canvas grid provides a visual alignment aid when positioning annotations. It does not snap annotations to the grid — it is a reference overlay only.
To toggle the grid on or off, click the grid icon in the left panel bottom bar.
The alignment grid toggled on. Grid lines are visible over the artboard and do not appear in the saved output.
Info
The grid is a display aid only. It does not appear when you click Save, and it does not affect annotation positioning or snapping behavior.
Save your work
Click Save in the left panel when you have finished arranging your annotations. Your annotations are saved to the asset and reflected in your document.
Warning
Do not close the editor or navigate away before clicking Save. Unsaved annotations cannot be recovered.
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