Every annotation you place on the canvas occupies a position in the layer stack. Annotations higher in the stack appear in front of those below them. The Layers panel lets you see all annotations in their stacking order, select them by clicking their layer row, and rearrange them to control which annotations appear in front of or behind others.
Opening the Layers panel
The Layers panel is visible in the properties panel when the Select tab is active. It sits below the Canvas settings section. Switch to the Select tool by clicking the Select tab or pressing V.
The Layers panel listing all annotations top-first. Each row shows the annotation type icon, a label, and a drag handle.
The list is ordered top-first: the annotation at the top of the list appears in front of all others on the canvas. The annotation at the bottom of the list sits behind all others.
Selecting an annotation via the Layers panel
Click any row in the Layers panel to select that annotation on the canvas. The row highlights in the panel and the corresponding annotation shows its selection indicator on the canvas.
If the annotation belongs to a group, clicking its layer row selects the entire group. All layer rows belonging to the group highlight together, and all group members show their selection indicators on the canvas.
Tip
Use the Layers panel to select annotations that are hidden behind other annotations on the canvas and are difficult to click directly.
Changing the stacking order
There are two ways to change the stacking order of an annotation: using the stacking order controls at the top of the Layers panel, or by dragging a layer row to a new position.
Using the stacking order controls
Select one or more annotations, then use the four icons at the top of the Layers panel:
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| Bring to front | Moves the selected annotation to the top of the stack, in front of all others. |
| Bring forward | Moves the selected annotation one step up in the stack. |
| Send backward | Moves the selected annotation one step down in the stack. |
| Send to back | Moves the selected annotation to the bottom of the stack, behind all others. |
Dragging to reorder
Click and drag any layer row by its drag handle (the six-dot grip on the left of each row) to move it to a new position in the stack. Release to commit the new order.
Note
Every stacking order change is undoable. Press Ctrl/Cmd Z to undo a reorder if needed.
Stacking order and grouped annotations
Grouped annotations move together as a unit when reordered. Bringing a group member to front or sending it to back moves the entire group, not just that annotation.
All members of a group are highlighted together in the Layers panel when any one member is selected, making it easy to identify which annotations belong to the same group.
Info
To reorder individual members within a group independently, ungroup them first using Ctrl/Cmd Shift G, reorder as needed, then regroup with Ctrl/Cmd G.
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