Add a web link to the canvas

Paste a link on the canvas

When you paste a web address on the canvas, Pactto adds it as a clickable link in a text item. You need Can edit access (or be the room owner).

Steps

1. Copy the web address (URL) from your browser.
2. Click the canvas.
3. Press Cmd+V (Mac) or Ctrl+V (Windows). You can also drag a link from another window onto the canvas.
4. The link appears right away as text.

Open the link

With the select tool, click the linked text. It opens in a new tab. Dragging the item by its text moves it without opening the link.

Use the link menu

A pasted link has a small chevron (Link options) right after its last character. Click it to open a menu:

• Edit link: change the address. Press Enter to apply; clear the field and press Enter to remove the link; press Escape to cancel. If the text was the old address, it changes to the new one.
• Copy link: copy the address. Pactto shows "Link copied."
• Show as card: turn the link into a preview card, in the same spot.

Edit link and Show as card are for the room owner and people with Can edit access. Everyone in the room, including Can view, can use Copy link. On a phone, the menu only has Copy link.

The chevron appears only when the text item is a single link and nothing else. Text that mixes a link with other words, or has more than one link, does not get it.

Show a link as a preview card

1. Click the chevron after the link and choose Show as card.
2. The text is replaced by a card that shows the site's image, title, description and domain. While Pactto reads the site, the card shows a placeholder.
3. Click the card (without dragging) to open the site in a new tab. Drag the card to move it.

The card has a title bar above it with the site's title and the same chevron. Its menu has Edit link, Copy link and Show as link, which turns the card back into the original text. Edit link on a card reloads the preview for the new address. One Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows) undoes the change between text and card.

If the site cannot be read, the card shows the domain as the title and the address below it, without an image. Comments and arrows attached to the link move with it when you switch between text and card.

Edit the link or its text

You can also select the item and use Link in its formatting bar to change or remove the address. See Add or edit a link in text or a sticky note.

If something goes wrong

• "Only editors can add content to this room.": you have Can review or Can view access. Ask the room owner for Can edit access.
• An address with an unsafe or unknown scheme is pasted as plain text, without a link.
• "Couldn't copy the link.": your browser blocked the clipboard. Try again, or open the link and copy the address from your browser.
• "Enter a valid link.": the address you typed in Edit link on a card is not a web address starting with http:// or https://.
• "This link can't change right now.": the link could not switch between text and card, for example while someone has it locked. Try again later.

Good to know

• YouTube, Figma, and other websites are added as links. They do not play or display inside the canvas.
• A link card is not a file: it does not appear in the Assets panel, cannot be opened in focus mode, and is not a slide when you present a board.
• When you zoom out, an unselected card's title bar shrinks to an icon.
• Websites that were added to a room as live web pages before this change still display. People on a smartphone see a message asking them to use a tablet or computer to view them.
• To write shared notes on the canvas, use a Pactto doc.