Zoho Creator : Paint your records using Canvas Builder!

Zoho Creator : Paint your records using Canvas Builder!


Dear Creators,

We're thrilled to bring you an incredible new feature - the Canvas Builder, the solution that directly addresses the "user experience factor"! This cutting-edge tool is live now, and we are delighted to share how this feature will revolutionize the way you design detailed views for your records within Zoho Creator.

There is no longer a one-size-fits-all approach for every organization, and Canvas provides the precise flexibility we require, with its wide range of customization options. It offers a a simple drag-and-drop editor and pre-designed templates for every industry and department.

Great design drives usage and offers an immersive experience!

Designing made easy

You can now create stunning templates effortlessly. Canvas builder offers you three flexible options that makes re-ordering and visualizing your data easy, thereby drawing attention to essential information quickly and efficiently.

Gallery Templates

We have curated a collection of ten professionally designed templates for you to choose from and design your requirements. Simply select the one that fits best your needs , and with our live data preview, you can visualize how your template will appear in real-time and customize it exactly the way you have envisioned.


  

Create from Scratch

Unleash your creativity! Similar to working on a real canvas, you can intuitively drag and drop elements anywhere on the builder to start crafting your design. The builder is divided into three sections - Data, Elements, and Style - allowing you to customize every aspect of your template with ease and creativity.



Import Templates:

Canvas also allows you to download the custom template you've created in JSON format from the Canvas Builder. Importing these templates directly into your detail view saves you time and effort, making it a breeze to have your layout ready in no time.



A Plethora of Features

The Canvas Builder is packed with a plethora of features to ensure a seamless design experience. By organizing your data components the way you want and applying attractive designs, you are not only making your layouts presentable, but also extremely functional by offering your users exactly what they are looking for, the moment they land on record's detail view.

Drag and Drop Fields: Effortlessly add form fields, system fields, custom actions, blueprints and other add-ons to your canvas by simply dragging and dropping them, thereby streamlining the process of designing your dream layout.   

Primitive Elements: Explore an extensive set of primitive elements available in the Elements section. You can easily incorporate these elements into your design by dragging and dropping them wherever you desire.

Style Customization: The Style section empowers you to format all elements and fields according to your preferences and brand identity, ensuring a consistent and appealing visual appearance.

Use-case

Let's explore the Canvas feature with a real-time use case to provide a clearer understanding of its practical applications. 

Assume that Sam, a real estate entrepreneur wants to use the Canvas Builder in Zoho Creator to create personalized and visually appealing layouts for his property listings.

Accessing the Canvas Builder

  1. Sam logs in to his Zoho Creator account.
  2. He navigates to the "Reports" section from the main dashboard.

Initiating Canvas Layout Creation

  1. Within the "Reports" section, Sam identifies the "Detail View" option.
  2. Sam finds the "Create Custom Layout" button under the "Detail View" section.
  3. When he clicks the button, the Canvas Builder opens up.


 

Selecting Design Preferences

In the Canvas Builder, Sam is presented with two options: pre-designed gallery templates and designing from scratch. He decides to select a template from gallery templates to create a unique layout for his property listings.


Previewing with Live Data

In the "Gallery Templates" section, each template will load with Zoho Creator's live data. This enables Sam to preview each template and visualize how his property listings will appear in the live view using actual property information.



Customizing the Layout

Sam can intuitively drag and drop essential fields, including property details, location, and pricing, from the "Data" section onto the Canvas builder.
He explores and incorporates various primitive elements such as Tabs, Lines, Sections, Buttons, and Icons, aligning them as needed to create an appealing layout.



Styling to Match Brand Identity

Within the "Style" section of the Canvas Builder, Sam customizes fonts, colors, alignments, and spacing to ensure brand consistency and professional presentation. He can also apply his application's theme color or variations of the same inside the builder.



Width Adjustment

Sam sets the width of elements in the layout as "fluid" for some elements/components, allowing them to expand automatically and fill available space.
For other elements/components, he chooses "fixed" so that they will retain their default width.



Organizing Data with Tabs

To enhance the user experience, Sam effectively organizes property data by dragging related blocks into tabs within the layout.
Related blocks are nothing but Lookup and Subform data which are associated in the parent form.
This logical arrangement ensures that potential property buyers can easily access relevant information.


 

Creating Custom Actions:

In the Canvas Builder, Sam has the option to create custom actions that enhance the functionality of his property listings.
He creates a custom action to allow users to directly inquire about a property through the layout.



Fine-tuning Field Properties

Sam utilizes the "Properties" tab for each field to fine-tune specific properties according to his real estate business requirements.
He customizes the display format for the property pricing field to show currency symbols and decimal places.
For example,  he can customize the prefix, suffix, first name & last name properties for the name field i.e., he can hide/show the sub fields as required.


Applying Conditional Formatting

Sam applies conditional formatting to highlight essential data within the layout, such as displaying urgent listings with eye-catching colors.
This feature ensures that potential buyers can easily identify critical information and make informed decisions.



Importing and Exporting Templates

The Canvas Builder offers Sam the option to download pre-built templates in JSON format using the "Export" button. He exports his custom layout as a template for future-use or to share it with his colleagues to re-create the exact layout in other apps.



Ensuring Responsive Web Support

Canvas templates are initially supported for web use only, to ensure a seamless user experience on desktop browsers.

Thus, Canvas is truly a game changer in that it's all set to catapult your Creator user experience to new horizons. And the icing on the cake — you don't need to write a single line of code — and that, in other words, is the pinnacle of customization.

🔗 Access the Canvas Builder now and embark on a journey of crafting beautifully designed layouts with ease!

Release plan:

The canvas builder has been rolled out on August 1, 2023.

Help documentation: 

 
Thank you for being an integral part of the Zoho Creator community. Your feedback is invaluable as we continuously strive to improve and expand our offerings.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Regards,
The Zoho Creator Team

 



      • Sticky Posts

      • Introducing Zoho Creator's 2025 Release Projection 2

        Hello Creators! I'm Prakash, from the Creator product management team, and today I'm delighted to unveil our next set of features as part of Release Projection 2 for 2025. With thoughtful analysis and planning, we've curated powerful new capabilities

      • Zoho Creator - 2023 Release Projection 1

        Hello everyone! A very Happy New Year to you and your family. Hope you're all good and having a great time using Zoho Creator to make your lives easier and your businesses prosper. 2022 was an action-packed year for us at Creator, and we hope to continue

      • Zoho Creator User Group meetups in a city near you! - Oct - Nov, 2023

        Greetings from the Zoho Creator team! We're hosting a series of Zoho Creator meetups in various cities across the globe, and we'd love to meet you there! Our meetups are a great opportunity to network with industry peers, exchange ideas and best practices,

      • Zoho Creator - 2023 Release Projection 2

        Hello everyone! Time truly flies when you're having an incredible journey, and today we mark the completion of an eventful and action-packed six months. It feels like just yesterday when we embarked on this adventure together with the launch of our new

      • Upcoming Updates - August 2022

        Hi all, Greetings from the Zoho Creator team! Today we've got news for you on some exciting updates. And rest assured— there’s more to come! In this post, we'll be going over the upcoming features and improvements for this month as mentioned below. A

        • Recent Topics

        • Zoho Recruit Slow and Freezing on all screens

          We have had an issue with Zoho Recruit for weeks being extremely slow and at times freezing.  We have 100 mega internet, and I went into each computer and updated the virtual memory so there is more available.  Also restarted all computers daily.  Still having the issues.  Almost unable to work.

        • Credit Management: #2 Configuring Right Payment Terms for Credit Control

          Think about the last time you ordered something online and saw that little note at the checkout, "Pay on Delivery" or "Pay later". It's simple, but it actually sets the tone. As a business owner, you know exactly when payment is expected. Now, imagine

        • Dependent (Conditional) Fields in Zoho Bookings Forms

          Hello Zoho Bookings Team, Greetings, We would like to request the ability to create dependent (conditional) fields in Zoho Bookings registration forms. Current Limitation: There is currently no way to make one field’s available options depend on the value

        • Bug Report: Search fails to find existing notes after Evernote import

          Hello, I recently migrated from Evernote (~2600 notes across 23 notebooks), but the search functionality is currently broken. The Issue: I can manually browse to a specific note and see it exists. However, when I type the exact or partial title of that

        • Marketing Tip #13: Win repeat customers with post-purchase emails

          The relationship with your customer doesn’t end after the sale; that’s when it begins. A thoughtful post-purchase message shows customers you appreciate them, keeps your brand top of mind, and can even lead to another sale. You can thank them, ask for

        • Zoho Form

          I have problem with Zoho Form. One of form i don't received the PDF version. Others okay except this one. W904533

        • Introducing the Zoho Projects Learning Space

          Every product has its learning curve, and sometimes having a guided path makes the learning experience smoother. With that goal, we introduce a dedicated learning space for Zoho Projects, a platform where you can explore lessons, learn at your own pace,

        • Create & Update Zoho Vault Passwords via Zoho Flow

          Hi Zoho Flow / Zoho Vault Team, We’d like to request an enhancement to the Zoho Vault integration in Zoho Flow. Current Limitation: At the moment, Zoho Flow supports only the following selected Zoho Vault actions, such as: Fetch passwords, Share passwords

        • Is Zoho Communityspaces now part of Zoho One?

          Is Zoho Communityspaces now part of Zoho One?

        • Streams/Shared email doesn't show up in windows trident app. It works fine on MAC. Is there any difference between 2 install ?

          I can see streams/share email boxs on my MAC version of trident app but i can't see them in windows version of trident app. Is there any difference between 2 install? I try to find setting but not able to see any setting to add stream/share email boxes.

        • Credit Note for Shipped and Fatoora pushed invoices

          We have shipped a Sales Order and created an Invoice. The Invoice is also pushed to Fatoora Now we need to create a credit note for the invoice When we try it, it says we need to create a Sales Return in the Zoho Books, we have already created a Sales

        • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

          Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards

        • MCP no longer works with Claude

          Anyone else notice Zoho MCP no longer works with Claude? I'm unable to turn this on in the claude chat. When I try to toggle it on, it just does nothing at all. I've tried in incognito, new browsers, etc. - nothing seems to work.

        • Custom Related List Inside Zoho Books

          Hello, We can create the Related list inside the zoho books by the deluge code, I am sharing the reference code Please have a look may be it will help you. //..........Get Org Details organizationID = organization.get("organization_id"); Recordid = cm_g_a_data.get("module_record_id");

        • Features, Feedback and Votes

          We’re launching the Feedback Forum for our customers. This is 'THE' place where you can add everything you’d like to see in Zoho Books. If you don't find the specific feature you need, simply add it so others can also vote for it. While we cannot promise

        • add zoho account

          How to add a zoho mail to previous zoho account? I have two

        • There Might Be A Glitch in Determining If A String Represents A URL

          I suspect there might be a glitch in determining if a string represents a URL or not. For example, I cannot embed the following URL. Perhaps the exclamation mark or parentheses are the culprit? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_Grinch_Stole_Chri

        • Customer Management: #4 Enhance Customer Journey

          When Neha started DefineOps, a growing IT support and consulting firm, most of her work was straightforward. A client would sign up for a free version, decide whether the service works for them, and then either continue or discontinue. Billing was simple,

        • Primary / Other Billing Contacts

          If you add an additional contact to a Zoho Billing Customer record, and then mark this new contact as the primary contact, will both the new primary and old primary still receive notifications? Can you stop notifications from going to the additional contacts

        • Pipeline.Company Name field shows up as numbers! [Bigin Developer Console > Component > URL]

          Hi there, I am setting up to invoke URL to send infromation zoho bigin > zoho forms with company name pre-fill in the form. however when I use : ${Pipelines.Company Name} field it shows up as a string of number instead of words. Help.

        • Marketing Tip #1: Optimize item titles for SEO

          Your item title is the first thing both Google and shoppers notice. Instead of a generic “Leather Bag,” go for something detailed like “Handcrafted Leather Laptop Bag – Durable & Stylish.” This helps your items rank better in search results and instantly

        • Territory Assignment Issues (Lead to Account + Contact)

          1. Lead → Account & Contact Territory Assignment on Conversion A Lead is automatically assigned one or more territories using a workflow and Lead Assignment Rules. This works as expected, and we are able to assign multiple territories to a Lead automatically.

        • Marketer's Space: Proven tips to improve open rates – Part II

          Hello Marketers! Welcome back to another post in Marketer's Space! We're continuing from where we left off a fortnight ago. We ended the previous post discussing the subject line, and we'll continue from there. Let's dive right in. Pre-header Pre-header

        • SQL Table slowed to a crawl

          Hi all - I seem to have noticed an update. Now whenever I am typing in the script field for the SQL tables there is a huge delay and it is all very slow. This has never been the case for me in over 5 years of using Analytics - I really hope it's fixed

        • Deluge Events/search API works in user environment but not in sandbox – why?

          I am creating an Extension for Zoho CRM using Zoho Sigma Platform I’m using the following Deluge code to search Events in Zoho CRM based on Start_DateTime: criteria = "(Start_DateTime:greater_than:2025-12-20T00:00:00+00:00)"; url = "crm/v8/Events/search?criteria="

        • Ensure Consistent Service Delivery with Comprehensive Job Sheets

          We are elated to announce that one of the most requested features is now live: Job Sheets. They are customizable, reusable forms that serve as a checklist for the services that technicians need to carry out and as a tool for data collection. While on

        • What are Zoho Meeting capabilities included in Zoho Workplace Standard?

          I am evaluating using Zoho Meeting for my organization, but it is not clear what Zoho Meeting capabilities are already included in Zoho Workplace Standard. - Are meeting recordings included in Workplace Standard? - Can we invite external meeting participants

        • Create static subforms in Zoho CRM: streamline data entry with pre-defined values

          Last modified on (9 July, 2025): This feature was available in early access and is currently being rolled out to customers in phases. Currently available for users in the the AU, CA, and SA DCs. It will be enabled for the remaining DCs in the next couple

        • How can I get the participant list of a reoccurring meeting afterwards?

          I'm trying to use the Meeting Participant Report from the API docs but when I call it on a reoccurring meeting it returns that there are no participants because it thinks I'm talking about the meeting in the future. Is there a way to use webhooks or some

        • Function #50: Send Mass emails to your customers

          Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series! We have reached a milestone of 50 Functions, which means that we have automated 50 different tasks in Zoho Books. Every Friday, we have shared a nifty function aimed at either automating a task or streamlining

        • Full Hebrew Language Support for Client-Side Zoho Assist Interface

          Dear Zoho Assist Team, We would like to request an enhancement to Zoho Assist's client-side interface to support full Hebrew language customization, including all popups, notifications, and session-related messages. Current Limitation The Join page allows

        • Add Hebrew & RTL Support to Feedback Widget

          Hello Zoho Desk Team, How are you? We are using Zoho Desk and would like to utilize the Feedback Widget. While Zoho Desk itself supports Hebrew and RTL, the Feedback Widget unfortunately does not. We kindly request that Hebrew and full RTL support be

        • Merge Tickets Directly from Contact Page in Zoho Desk

          Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, We are writing to request a new feature that would allow users to easily merge tickets directly from the contact page in Zoho Desk. Currently, the only option to merge tickets is from the Tickets list view page, which can

        • Different languages for users

          Hello, Do you plan to enable individual users to select their languages for interface? Currently language can be changed for everyone - it looks like a settings for a whole portal, which is not good when you are working internationally. Best regards,

        • Kaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List

          Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore how

        • 2025年 Zoho コミュニティ 活動の振り返り 🎉

          ユーザーの皆さん、こんにちは！コミュニティチームの中野です。 2025年も多くの学びと出会いがあったZoho コミュニティ。 本記事では今年の活動を振り返りながら、フォーラムの投稿・参加者の皆さん・イベントのハイライトをご紹介していきます。 目次 フォーラム：注目の投稿 フォーラム：多くの貢献をしてくださった方々 ユーザー交流会振り返り ワークアウト振り返り その他のトピックス 1. フォーラム：注目の投稿 本フォーラムでは様々な議論と知識の共有が行われました。 ユーザーの皆さんが日々の業務で直面する課題を投稿し、経験豊富なユーザーさん達が実践的な解決策を提供してくださいました。

        • Customer Management: #3 Giving Customers Control & Privilege

          Rio, the founder of RenoTech Solutions, a fast-growing digital service company, found itself juggling a dozen different services for its clients. They handled one-time setup fees, recurring monthly invoices, and custom milestone-based billing for projects.

        • Can I use a Standalone CRM Function as the Callback URL For Async Export Data API?

          I am creating an export job using this API https://www.zoho.com/analytics/api/v2/bulk-api/export-data-async/create-export/view-id.html There is a "callbackUrl" key in the CONFIG object. I tried copying the URL for a standalone function in CRM which can

        • Books Api: listing expenses created after certain dates

          Is there any parameter I can add to the List Expenses endpoint that will let me look up expenses by when they were created?

        • Add RTL (Right-to-Left) Text Direction Support Across All Zoho Learn Editing Interfaces

          Hi Zoho Learn Team, Hope you're doing well. We would like to request an important enhancement to Zoho Learn regarding support for right-to-left (RTL) languages such as Hebrew and Arabic. 🔹 Current Issue While the Knowledge Base Article editor provides

        • Next Page