Skip to main content
Version: 2.13.1

Capture: Canvas Capture

Canvas capture lets a Capture choice write into a selected Canvas card or into a specific card in a specific .canvas file.

When to use this​

Use Canvas capture when your workflow starts in a visual board, but you still want QuickAdd's capture formats, variables, and hotkeys.

Good fits:

  • Add a timestamped note to a selected brainstorming card.
  • Append a task to a project card.
  • Send repeated updates to one known Canvas card.

Capture to the selected card​

  1. Create a Capture choice.
  2. Enable Capture to active file.
  3. Open a Canvas file.
  4. Select exactly one supported card.
  5. Set Write position to Top of file (after frontmatter), Bottom of file, or After line… / Before line….
  6. Run the Capture choice.

Supported selected-card targets:

  • Text cards
  • File cards that point to Markdown files

QuickAdd aborts with a notice if no card is selected, multiple cards are selected, or the selected card is unsupported.

Capture to a specific card​

  1. Create a Capture choice.
  2. Turn off Capture to active file.
  3. Set Capture to to a .canvas file.
  4. Choose Target canvas node.
  5. Pick the card you want QuickAdd to write to.
  6. Set a supported write position.

This is the best option for repeatable workflows where every capture should go to the same Canvas card.

Write position support​

Canvas capture supports these write positions:

  • Top of file (shown as Top of file (after frontmatter) when Capture to active file is enabled)
  • Bottom of file
  • After line…
  • Before line…

Canvas capture does not support cursor-based write positions:

  • At cursor
  • New line above cursor
  • New line below cursor

If Capture to active file is enabled and the write position is still At cursor, QuickAdd aborts instead of writing to the wrong place.

When Link to captured file is set to Enabled (requires active file) and capture runs from a Canvas card without a focused Markdown editor, the capture still writes. QuickAdd skips link insertion because there is no active Markdown file to link from.

Troubleshooting​

SymptomLikely causeFix
Capture aborts before writingNo card or multiple cards are selectedSelect exactly one supported card
Capture aborts with cursor-position wordingThe write mode is cursor-basedUse top, bottom, after-line, or before-line placement
Nothing is written to a file cardThe file card points to a non-Markdown fileUse a Markdown file card or a text card
The target picker is not shownCapture target is not a .canvas fileSet Capture to to the Canvas file path