Canvas is a tool designed to make collaboration easier for everyone. Read on to learn more about the user experience for keyboard-only and assistive-technology users.
Tip: Slack offers keyboard shortcuts for many common actions that you may need to take. To view all keyboard shortcuts, press ⌘+/ (Mac) or Ctrl+/ (Windows/Linux).
Keyboard navigation
Like the rest of Slack, you can navigate between sections by pressing F6, or with Cmd + Ctrl + Left/Right arrow keys. Use these keys to move focus between the canvas area, the editing toolbars and the canvas actions toolbar.
The following keyboard navigation features used throughout the rest of Slack are also supported when working in canvases:
Mac
Windows/Linux
Formatting keyboard shortcuts
All of Slack’s keyboard navigation features are supported in canvas. For a complete list, visit keyboard shortcuts.
Operate links, mentions and attachments
Move your cursor inside any link, mention or attachment in a canvas, then press Cmd + Enter
Navigate embedded objects
Move your text cursor into embedded objects, then press Cmd + Enter
Use section-level actions
Control + M*
Leave a comment or read existing comments
Cmd + Opt + T
* Full Keyboard Access must be enabled
Formatting keyboard shortcuts
All of Slack’s keyboard navigation features are supported in canvas. For a complete list, visit keyboard shortcuts.
Operate links, mentions and attachments
Move your cursor inside any link, mention or attachment in a canvas, then press Ctrl + Enter
Navigate embedded objects
Move your text cursor into embedded objects, then press Ctrl + Enter
Use section-level actions
Shift + F10
Leave a comment or read existing comments
Ctrl + Alt + T
Screen-reader support
Desktop
Mobile
Canvases work best with VoiceOver on Mac and NVDA on Windows. For the best experience, try the following tips:
Turn on Reader view Use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Option + R (Mac), Ctrl + R (Safari only) or Ctrl + Alt + R (Windows).
Add image descriptions Like all images uploaded to Slack, you can add an image description that can be read by a screen reader.
Find and read comments Navigate to the More actions menu and choose View all comments. This will let you navigate all comments in the canvas using the Up or Down arrow keys. Tab to Open in canvas to move focus back to the content in the canvas area.
While navigating through the canvas, sections that contain comments will be announced. Use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Option + T (Mac) or Ctrl+ Alt + T (Windows) to open the comment thread.
Open canvases in conversations All your conversations in Slack include a built-in canvas. To find a channel or direct message’s (DM) canvas, navigate to the primary view toolbar of the conversation and find the Open channel canvas button.
You can read Slack canvases with a screen reader on your mobile device, but there may be some bumps in the experience. If you’re editing a canvas on mobile, we strongly recommend using a Bluetooth keyboard. This is an area that we are actively working to improve.
Note: If you have feedback on either the keyboard navigation or screen-reader experience, feel free to contact us.
