New in Canvas: Customizable tables in related lists, sub-tab grouping, and actions for better navigation

New in Canvas: Customizable tables in related lists, sub-tab grouping, and actions for better navigation

Dear All,

The Canvas team has made using Canvas easier and more enjoyable with a few additional customization features that can help you design more effective detail view pages.

So, Canvas, as you all may know, is a platform with which you can customize various parts of your CRM to

  • Organize your data better.

  • Customize them for different profiles;

  • And of course, bring a whole new fresh design that is consistent with your brand. 

Here are a couple of exciting updates that can help you design more effective detail view pages using Canvas.

1. Customizable tables in related lists - which allows you to style your RL tables by adding images and a pop of color to them.
2. Introducing expandable sub-tabs. You can now group your tabs into sub tabs based on a theme, thus making navigation easier. 

Customizable tables in related lists

To start off, let's look at how you can customize your related lists table. Previously, you could only choose between static or list table templates as seen in the image below. 


While this was functional, we realized that businesses might prefer to customize their own tables. With the latest update—the Customizable Table option in the navigation toolbar—you can customize your related lists table. Options include field selection and styling. With this feature, you can add colors to rows and columns, in addition to resizing (by extending column markers), besides, adding, or removing rows and columns from your table. 


These functions are important because they'll make it easier for you to differentiate your rows and columns, expand the columns that contain more data, and add images as well.

Tab enhancements
Sub-tabs

Another improvement we've added to Canvas is the option to create a sub-tab. So imagine your record's view page has a Tab with numerous elements, namely attachments, open and closed activities, notes, campaigns, social, and more, in addition to some custom tabs. Having these tabs laid out makes it easier for you to navigate through your related lists. However, your interface may become cluttered if there are too many tabs.

Now, imagine you have these components categorized into multiple groups of the same theme. Like for instance, you combine open activities, closed activities, invited meetings, and upcoming actions under a group called Activities. Similarly, you create other groups that can either all be expanded simultaneously or one at a time - based on your preference. This will not only help declutter your components, but also put things into perspective. 

These groups that you create are called Sub Tabs, and you can perform one of the two actions on them.

Multi expand: This is the default option. When you want to open multiple sub-tabs simultaneously, you can do so by selecting the multi expand action tool. In other words, the submenus of one sub-tab will not collapse when you click on another.

Single expand: When you select this option, only its associated sub menus will expand or collapse. In instances where you've expanded one sub-tab and then clicked on another, the previous sub-tab menus will collapse before the following one expands.



So how are these Sub Tabs created?

When you add a Tab from your elements onto your Canvas view editor, you have the option of adding Custom Tabs, Sub Tabs or Related Lists.

Select Sub Tab.


Next, under your Sub Tab, you have a blue plus sign. When you click on that, you can add the Related Lists that fall under your Sub Tab theme. Like in the example we mentioned earlier, you can combine open activities, closed activities, invited meetings, and upcoming actions under a Sub Tab called Activities. 

Let us look at some other examples of components that can be grouped together as sub tabs.

Sub Tab (Group) Name
Components
Marketing
Campaigns, Visits, Social, Sales Inbox
Inventory
Invoices, Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Quotes, Vendors, Price Books, Products


Use Case - I 

Education Industry

Student Information 
Student Documents, Degree, Courses, Thesis Guides, Placements 


Use Case - II

Real Estate

Contact's Property Information 
Properties, Documents, Notes, Quotes, Invoices

That is all for this announcement. Let us know your feedback in the comments below. For more details on Canvas, check out our help document. 

    • Recent Topics

    • What's New - June 2025 | Zoho Backstage

      Plans change. People cancel. Tickets get handed off. It happens, and we understand. As an organizer, you need tools that offer flexibility for attendees while protecting your event’s integrity. That’s why we’ve built features to help you manage these

    • Include Article Sync Details in SalesIQ–Desk Integration Notification Email

      Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, Greetings, We are using the integration between Zoho SalesIQ and Zoho Desk to sync articles from the Zoho Desk Knowledge Base into SalesIQ. As part of this integration, we receive the following email notification: "Your scheduled

    • Naming a Visitor in SalesIQ Messes up First and Last Name

      When I go to Visitor History to manually associate a visitor with a known contact, I press the pencil symbol next to the system-generated ID number. I enter first and last name, then email. Looks good so far. However, when it syncs with CRM, first name

    • Partial Sync

      Hi, got an issue with syncing cards across windows app, web app and iphone app. If I create a card and add some text content then everything syncs across all platforms ok. If I create a card and add an attachment, be it pdf, jpg or movie then the card

    • Related activity records for custom modules

      For default modules in CRM, whenever I create a task for a contact, the task also appears in the record for the parent account. How do I replicate this with custom modules? My specific situation is that I have a custom module as a child module to Accounts.

    • Why Do My Portal Users Can't See Any Data in Reports

      In My zoho crm i have created a button automation which basically is it converts a quote into invoice and sales order , so initially when a person who is my app user submits a quotation form it goes into quote module and record is created and in each

    • Introducing Zoho Commerce 2.0 — It's more than just selling!

      Hello! We are proud to launch Zoho Commerce 2.0, a reimagination of how online businesses look, feel, and function. This launch is both timely and symbolic, as we reaffirm our commitment to empowering small and medium enterprises with powerful, yet simple-to-use

    • Introducing prompt builder in Zoho CRM

      We’ve introduced a new way to put Zia’s generative AI to work—right where your teams need it most. With the all new prompt builder for custom buttons, you can create your own AI instructions to generate tailored content, suggestions, or summaries across

    • Item Batch Creation/Updation

      I have a requirement to integrate a local system with Zoho Books. I need to create items in Zoho Books with batch tracking enabled, but I couldn't find a specific API for that in the Zoho Books API documentation. Is there a dedicated API endpoint to create

    • Education Zoho User Group (ZUG) virtual meetup featuring Zoho Sign

      Hi there! The educational sector often faces the hassle of handling extensive paperwork, which leads to increased operational costs. A digital signature solution like Zoho Sign can help you modernize your processes, go fully digital, and seamlessly collect

    • Troubleshooting Delays in Zoho CRM Automation Workflows for Lead Status Updates

      Dear Zoho Community, I am refining a sales pipeline in Zoho CRM, implemented in May 2025, to enhance efficiency for a small business managing client leads. While the CRM effectively tracks leads, I am encountering delays in automation workflows that update

    • 📣 [Webinar] Spikra shows how businesses leverage Zoho Bookings to increase revenue

      [Webinar] Spikra shows how businesses leverage Zoho Bookings to increase revenue Hi all, Service-based businesses need to be on top of their client experience game to stay ahead. Spikra, one of our Advanced Zoho Partners, has been helping businesses deliver

    • Kaizen #172 - Leveraging the 'crmAPIResponse' Object in Queries

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! We released the Queries feature sometime back and hope you have tried it out. A little gist about this feature before we move on to our post. Zoho CRM's Queries feature enables dynamic data retrieval

    • transforming 1D tables to 2D and the other way round

      Does Dataprep have tools to convert 1D tables to 2D tables and the other way round? The actions that are commonly called "pivot" and "melt". What I mean is transitioning between these two kinds of table: 2D id ____ name ____ surname ____ age 00 ____ Matt

    • How I Migrate data from one SharePoint Tenant to another

      I want to perform SharePoint tenant to tenant migration, but the problem is I don't know how to do so. I’ve heard about different SharePoint Migrator, but I’m not sure which one is the best for this type of migration. Any guidance would be really he

    • Rebrand your CRM with the all-new custom domain mapping setup

      UPDATES TO THIS FEATURE! 19th Jan, 2024 — Custom domain mapping has been made available for portal users in Zoho One and CRM Plus. 23rd June, 2023 — Custom domain mapping has been made available for all users, in all DCs. Hello everyone! We are elated

    • authentication

      We cannot connect via IMAP. We are receiving the following error: Error: You are yet to enable IMAP for your account. Please contact your administrator (Failure)

    • Bad User: Authenticated but not connected

      Zoho CRM cannot send/receive emails and it appears as if it may be an api configuration change either via Zoho or MS. Does anyone have information on how to fix this error message? I am admin on all my accounts. Zoho and MS are blaming each other.

    • Edit email address that appears on invoice

      Hi How do I change the email address that appears on invoices, it is showing the email address that i used to sign up to zoho with but I want to change it to another email address that we use for accounts. also is there a way to edit the position of a

    • Zoho Tasks - Add Sorting by Priority

      We are able to Group by and Filter by Priority but for some reason we can't Sort by Priority on the Task lists. Please allow for sorting by priority if the current view is not grouped by priority.

    • Zoho People > Candidate Form > error Editable Primary Lookup is needed to set add permission

      Hello All I have try to turn on the add feature in the candidate form It show the error Editable Primary Lookup is needed to set add permission What is missing from my side?

    • 6 time-saving tips for working with tables in Zoho Writer

      Tables have always been the best way to represent data. They help you structure and categorize information systematically and present them in a simpler way. While tables in Zoho Writer are easy to implement, some tasks might not be that obvious.  Here are some time-saving tips to help you work better with tables in Zoho Writer:    1. Insert Multiple Rows / Columns in a Table Adding more rows and columns is the most common action performed while working with tables. Instead of using the Table tab,

    • Add Built-in "Partner Finder" / "Contractor Directory" Tab to Zoho Desk Help

      Hi Zoho Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request a new feature for the Zoho Desk Help Center: A built-in, configurable "Partner Finder" / "Contractor Directory" tab or section, similar in concept to your own Zoho Partner Finder at: 🔗

    • Can't get sender adress to work

      Hi, I am having some trouble getting the sender adress to work for responses on tickets. I would like to configure a sender adress that is different from the zohodesk emailadress that is normally used. These are the steps I have followed: 1. Add a new

    • Question Regarding Deleted Reports in Zoho Desk Analytics

      Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, I hope this message finds you well. We have a question regarding the Analytics module in Zoho Desk, specifically related to deleted reports/dashboards. We would like to understand the following: Is there a recycle bin, recovery

    • Add an option to start zobot when user clicks the Chat with Us button

      I would like to have an option to start the zobot when user clicks on "Chat with us" button when chat widget is maximized that way visitors could see first the homepage and decide which channel they would like to use to connect, or to see the quicke help

    • Zoho Books - Feature Request - Provide "Show PDF View" toggle on Invoice records

      I have noticed it is possible to activate or deactivate the PDF preview on some records but not all. This would be very helpful on Invoices when a custom template is being used and the PDF preview does not represent the output file. Not available on:

    • Incorrect Handling of XLSX data

      Trying to import an XLSX schedule of bills into Zoho Books I ran across the problem of date formatting. To replicate: Build a CSV file with bill dates in whatever format you like and import it - this should work if you match the "dd/MM/yyy" etc. format

    • Disable Smart Filters By Default

      The smart filters "feature" is causing confusion for Zoho Mail users. New emails should be delivered to the inbox unless they have specifically opted to redirect them somewhere else. People don't understand that new emails might be waiting in a random

    • Adding Columns to Reports

      Hi, Is it possible to choose fields to be added as columns in the reports? Thank you.

    • How do I automatically assign the project owner for all tasks in Zoho Projects?

      I have been researching for days on how to automatically assign all the tasks to the project owner on creation of the project in Zoho Projects. I have been having to go in and manually change all the task owner from 'unassigned' to the owner of the project

    • CRM Kiosk - Action for GetRecords

      I have a Kiosk screen with GetRecords and want to use the selected records in a custom function. My particular case is to set a lookup value on the selected records. Generally speaking though, I want to work with the selected records in a function. I

    • Extract Archived Projects using Zoho Projects API

      In my organization we archive the projects when they are already completed, charged, invoiced, so that only those that are still pending process remain active. I need to access all projects (active and archived) from an external system, but the API v3

    • Email for customer to provide payment information

      Is there a way for customers when you set up a subscription to get an email that prompts them to put in their billing information to start their subscription? Also, can you show the subscription in their portal?

    • Unable to display field label from a hidden Single Line Textbox in Description

      Hi folks, I'm unable to display my hidden field, e.g. ${zf:SingleLine4} , in my description. I'm pre-filling this hidden Single Line Text box via "Field Alias - Pre-fill URL" settings. I noticed that my decimal form fields work, e.g. ${zf:Decimal}, and

    • Lookup fields

      Is there any way to add Lookup fields to Zoho FSM -- I do not see the option but I see default lookup fields in different modules

    • Zoho Analytics - Bill Table

      Hi I am new to Zoho and mainly work in Books. Recently learned of Zoho Analytics and am exploring it to create reports that would be useful for me. For example, I want to create a bills cash forecast by week for cash flow planning. When I start to create

    • Creating a tax - amount table in Analytics

      Hi everyone, I would like to create a report in Zoho Anayltics that creates the tax and amounts in a table. I have been able to create a report that shows me all the tax accounts, but I can't get it combined with the amounts of the accounts. Is there

    • Is it possible to do custom domains on test accounts that use saml setups?

      In Zoho Billing, Is it possible to do custom domains on test accounts that use saml setups for the customer portal?

    • I’m facing an issue while trying to upload a PDF file to a custom file upload field within the Leads module via the Zoho CRM API.

      Hi Zoho Team, I’m facing an issue while trying to upload a PDF file to a custom file upload field within the Leads module via the Zoho CRM API. I am able to manually upload a PDF into this field through the UI. I am also able to upload files as attachments

    • Next Page