Find your way around the designer

The designer is where you build a workflow. Steps lay themselves out top to bottom from the trigger, and a condition's paths sit side by side. You never place a step by hand — you add it where it should run, or drag it to a new place.

Who can do this

Everyone in the workspace can open the designer. Admins and Editors can change the workflow; Viewers see the same canvas and settings, read-only, with no +, no Publish and no Test run.

The top bar

From left to right:

• The back arrow returns to the Workflows list.
• The workflow's name. Select it to rename. See Rename a workflow.
• The draft pill — Draft · autosaved just now, Draft · autosaved 4 min ago, Draft · autosaved at 14:20. It reads Draft · not saved in red if the last change could not be saved.
• The live pill, once the workflow has been published — Live v4 while switched on, Off · v4 while switched off.
• Undo and Redo.
• Versions — every published version, with Compare and Restore. See Compare two versions of a workflow.
• Test in: — Development or Production. See Choose the environment a test runs in.
• Test run — runs the draft now. See Testing a workflow before you publish it.
• Publish. See Publish a workflow.
• ⋯ — Variables, Add a sticky note, Run the live version now, Run history, Export as a file and Delete workflow. The two run items appear once the workflow has been published.

The canvas

• Each step is a card: a coloured tile, its name, and a line saying what it does — Schedule · Every weekday at 09:00, Google Sheets · Add a row. The trigger is marked WHEN.
• Select a card to open its settings on the right. See Step settings, input and output.
• Select the ⋮ on a card for Rename, Duplicate, Skip this step when the workflow runs and Remove.
• Select + on a line, or at the end of a path, to add a step there. See Add a step.
• Drag the canvas to move around. Ctrl + scroll zooms.
• Bottom left: zoom out, the zoom level, zoom in, and Fit the workflow on screen. Beside them, a small map of the whole workflow and, on plans with a step limit, a count such as 12 / 20 steps.

What the badge on a step means

A step whose kind no longer exists shows grey with This kind of step no longer exists. Replace it with one that does. See Replace a step that no longer exists.

Keyboard shortcuts

Select ? Keyboard shortcuts at the bottom of the canvas to see them.

Good to know

• Every change saves straight away to the draft. There is no Save button. What is live changes only when you publish.
• Undo remembers your last 50 changes in this visit to the designer.
• On a phone the steps are shown in one column, a condition's paths one after another. Sticky notes and the shortcuts are not shown there.
• The workflow you are building is the draft. Test runs use it; schedules, webhooks and forms use the live version.

If something goes wrong

Related

• Add a step
• Step settings, input and output
• Rename, duplicate, skip or remove a step
• Add a sticky note