---
title: "11.4 Workflow Designer: Canvas, Palette and Step Panel"
description: The Steps area has a palette on the left and the canvas on the right.
url: "https://peikly.com/docs/workflow-designer-canvas-palette-and-step-panel/"
updated: "2026-10-10"
category: Automation Workflows
tags:
  - Manual sync
---

# 11.4 Workflow Designer: Canvas, Palette and Step Panel

The **Steps** area has a palette on the left and the canvas on the right.

**Palette groups and tiles:**

- **Control:** **Delay**
- **Contacts:** **Add/Upsert Contact**, **Create Lead**, **Update Field**, **Add Tag**, **Remove Tag**, **Lead Score**, **Assign Contact**, **Unsubscribe**
- **Messaging:** **Send Email**, **Send WhatsApp**
- **Campaigns:** **Add to Campaign**, **Start Email Camp.**, **Start WA Camp.**, **Publish Pinterest Pin**, **Sync Pinterest Boards**, **Publish LinkedIn Post**, **Trigger Broadcast**
- **Conditions:** **Has Tag**, **Has Email**, **Has WhatsApp**, **Field Equals**, **Field Contains**, **Created Within**, **Email Opened**, **Link Clicked**, **Message Matches**

**Checks when you save:** errors (missing settings, loops, unconnected steps) block saving and name the step. Likely mistakes that still save, such as a contact step without **Add/Upsert Contact** before it on a WhatsApp trigger, appear in a **Check before saving** box: choose **Go back and fix** or **Save anyway**.

**Building the flow:**

1. Drag a tile onto the canvas. The canvas always has a **Start** node: the trigger.
2. Connect the **Start** node's output to your first step, then connect each step's output to the next step's input.
3. A condition has two outputs: **output 1 = TRUE**, **output 2 = FALSE**. Connect each to the step that should run in that case.
4. Click a step to open its settings panel:
   - **Step type** (Action, Delay or Condition) and **Activity**.
   - The activity's own fields (described in [11.10](/docs/activity-delay/)–[11.22](/docs/conditions-email-opened-and-link-clicked/)).
   - **On exception** ([11.6](/docs/on-exception-and-automatic-stop/)).
5. Click **Apply Changes** to keep the panel's settings, or **Delete Node** to remove the step. A red mark on a node means it still has a validation problem.

**Canvas buttons (top right):** full screen, fit to view, zoom out and zoom in. With Automation Advanced, a code button shows the generated JSON (read-only; for troubleshooting only).