Once you have placed callouts, arrows, shapes, and text frames on your image, 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 range.
Selecting annotations
Switch to the Select tool by clicking the Select tab in the sidebar or pressing V. All selection operations require the Select tool to be active.
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Select one annotation | Click it |
| Add to selection |
Alt + click each additional annotation |
| Toggle selection | Ctrl/Cmd + click |
| Select all annotations | Ctrl/Cmd A |
| Marquee select | Click and drag on an empty area of the canvas — all annotations whose centre falls within the rectangle are selected |
| Add to marquee selection | Hold Alt while dragging a marquee |
| Deselect all | Click on an empty area of the canvas |
All annotations selected with Ctrl/Cmd A. Selection rings appear around each callout, arrow, shape, and text frame.
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
Alt + click,Ctrl/Cmd A, 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 image.
Duplicating annotations
There are two ways to duplicate annotations. Both produce exact copies with new IDs. Neither method affects the callout label sequence — duplicated callouts carry the same label as the original and do not auto-increment.
Duplicate in place (Ctrl/Cmd D)
- Select the annotation or annotations you want to duplicate.
- Press
Ctrl/Cmd D. Copies appear 40 pixels to the right and below the originals. - Drag the copies to their final positions.
Copy and paste (Ctrl/Cmd C / Ctrl/Cmd V)
- Select the annotation or annotations you want to copy.
- Press
Ctrl/Cmd Cto copy them to the clipboard. - Press
Ctrl/Cmd Vto paste. Copies appear 40 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 (Alt + drag)
To duplicate one or more annotations by dragging rather than using a keyboard shortcut:
- Select the annotation or annotations.
- Hold
Altand drag. The originals stay in place and new copies are created at the drag destination. - Release the mouse button to commit the copies.
Tip
Combine Alt + 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 — for example, placing a second callout directly below the first along the toaster's side panel.
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 | Sidebar 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
DeleteorBackspace.
Delete all annotations
To remove every annotation from the canvas in a single action, click the trash icon in the sidebar 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 any 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 sidebar bottom bar.
The alignment grid toggled on. Grid lines are visible over the artboard and do not appear in the exported PNG.
Info
The grid is a display aid only. It does not appear in the PNG exported when you click Save, and it does not affect annotation positioning or snapping behaviour.
Save your work
Click Save in the sidebar when you have finished arranging your annotations. The editor exports a full-resolution PNG with all annotations in their final positions and saves the annotation state for future editing.
Warning
Do not close the editor or navigate away before clicking Save. Unsaved annotations cannot be recovered.
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