Manage canvas settings in Slack

Canvases are surfaces built into Slack where members can create and share fully formatted content. Channel and direct message (DM) canvases are available on all subscriptions, while standalone canvases are only available on paid subscriptions. Owners and admins can manage access to canvas version history, and turn off canvas update messages for channel and DM canvases.


Manage canvas version history

Anyone with permission to edit a canvas can access its revision history and restore a previous version. If you’d like to, you can disable canvas version history so that only the most recent version is available.

Free, Pro and Business+

Enterprise Grid

  1. From the  Home tab, click on your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Hover over Tools & settings, then select Workspace settings.
  3. Next to Canvases, click Expand.
  4. Tick or untick Show canvas version history and allow restoration.
  5. Click on Save.

Org owners and admins can manage canvas version history for everyone in your org.

  1. From the   Home tab, click on your organisation name in the sidebar.
  2. Hover over Tools & settings, then select Organisation settings.
  3. Click  Settings in the left sidebar, then select Organisation settings.
  4. Next to Canvases, click Edit.
  5. Tick or untick Show canvas version history and allow restoration.
  6. Click on Save.


Manage canvas sharing settings

By default, anyone with permission to edit a canvas can grant others access to view or edit it, but you can restrict this so that only the canvas owner can grant access to others. If you don’t restrict this, members of your workspace or Enterprise Grid organisation can choose whether they’d like to restrict sharing on canvases that they create.

Free, Pro and Business+

Enterprise Grid

  1. From the  Home tab, click on your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Hover over Tools & settings, then select Workspace settings.
  3. Next to Canvas sharing, click Expand.
  4. Tick or untick Limit sharing so only canvas owners can share their canvases with other people and channels.
  5. Click on Save.

Org owners and admins can manage canvas sharing for everyone in your organisation. It isn't possible to manage canvas sharing at the workspace level.

  1. From the   Home tab, click your organisation name in the sidebar.
  2. Hover over Tools & settings, then select Organisation settings.
  3. Click  Settings in the left sidebar, then select Organisation settings.
  4. Next to Canvas sharing, click Edit.
  5. Tick or untick Only allow canvas owners to share canvases with other people and channels.
  6. Click on Save.


Manage canvas update messages

When someone in your workspace or organisation updates a channel or DM canvas, or a canvas in a tab, we’ll send a message to the conversation to help keep other members informed of the changes. You can turn these update messages off, or allow members to manage canvas update messages in individual conversations.

Free, Pro and Business+

Enterprise Grid

  1. From the   Home tab, click your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Hover over Tools & settings, then select Workspace settings.
  3. Next to Canvas update messages, click Expand.
  4. Tick or untick Disable canvas update messages.
  5. Click on Save.

Org owners and admins can turn canvas update messages off for their organisation, or allow workspace owners and admins to manage update messages for their workspace(s).

Org level

  1. From the   Home tab, click your organisation name in the sidebar.
  2. Hover over Tools & settings, then select Organisation settings.
  3. Click  Settings in the left sidebar, then select Organisation settings.
  4. Next to Canvas update messages, click Edit.
  5. Tick or untick Disable canvas update messages.
  6. Select Org-wide channels or All channels to decide where update messages should be disabled.
  7. Click on Save.

Workspace level

If canvas update messages are turned on at the org level, you can manage them for individual workspaces. Disabling canvas update messages will turn them off only for the channels in that workspace.

  1. From the   Home tab, click your organisation name in the sidebar.
  2. Hover over Tools & settings, then select Organisation settings.
  3. Click  Settings in the left sidebar, then select Workspace settings.
  4. Select a workspace from the drop-down menu, then click Open.
  5. Next to Canvas update messages, click Expand.
  6. Tick or untick Disable canvas update messages.
  7. Click on Save.


Manage canvas printing

By default, members of your workspace or Enterprise Grid organisation can print canvases that they have access to, but you can disable this, if you like. 

Free, Pro and Business+

Enterprise Grid

  1. From the  Home tab, click on your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Hover over Tools & settings, then select Workspace settings.
  3. Next to Canvas printing, click Expand.
  4. Tick or untick Anyone with view or edit access to a canvas can print it.
  5. Click on Save.

Org owners and admins can manage canvas print settings for everyone in your org.

  1. From the   Home tab, click on your organisation name in the sidebar.
  2. Hover over Tools & settings, then select Organisation settings.
  3. Click  Settings in the left sidebar, then select Organisation settings.
  4. Next to Canvas printing, click Edit.
  5. Tick or untick Anyone with view or edit access to a canvas can print it.
  6. Click on Save.
Who can use this feature?