Menus, the Home toolbar and the multibar

Glob Social puts controls beside the thing they affect. The rail holds canvas tools, the Home toolbar opens people and creative workspaces, and a node's menu acts on that node. The rounded multibar is where you search and read short notices.

For example, use the rail to draw a connection, a node's menu to change its colour, and Home to open People. These controls can stay in the same place while their available actions change with your selection and permissions.

The Home toolbar#

The round Home button near the bottom opens Home. Its accessible label is Open your home toolbar; after opening, it becomes Close your home toolbar. This opens a toolbar. To travel back to your own canvas, use the upper-left Glob logo instead.

Home contains:

Choose a dock's selected tab again to close it. Opening another dock replaces the previous one. Opening Chat or the Jukebox also clears the competing window. Closing the Home toolbar closes its open dock.

The toolbar can scroll sideways when the available space is narrow. On a phone its tabs can be icons with their names available to assistive software. Open Home from the button in the bottom controls.

The Open chat button opens Chat; Inbox is inside that window. Open the Jukebox opens the music player when music is available. For creative workspaces, use the Pixl and Glob Studio guides.

The canvas rail#

On a computer, the rail is the vertical pill on the left. Its ordinary canvas controls include:

• Select — drag nodes to move, for drawing a selection rectangle. Choose Stop selecting to return to navigation.
• Edge — drag between nodes to link, drag across a link to break it, for drawing or cutting ordinary connections. Repeated presses switch between blue links and orange bridges. Right-click the canvas to leave either edge mode.
• Show cluster polygons at every zoom, to outline branches at every scale. Each outline follows its members’ sizes and their physics range. Drag any member to carry the whole cluster; releasing it in clear space keeps its shape and position. Hide cluster polygons returns to their ordinary display.

Selecting a node extends the rail with actions for that node. Opening an editor can also reveal formatting tools. The rail changes to the creative editor's tools while you are drawing or making music.

On narrow screens, the rail runs along the bottom. Show Feed and Show canvas switch between the full-screen panel and your canvas. Other buttons can change with that surface: Find a node concerns the canvas, while Search this view concerns the list. Show note bodies keeps body previews visible without holding Shift; choose Hide note bodies to switch that off.

See Links and moving nodes for the edge tools and Panels for the right-side panel.

Open the right menu#

Right-click a node for its actions. On a touch screen or with a pen, hold on the node without dragging to open a ring of actions. A mouse held down on a node does not open that ring; use right-click.

A node's actions can include Open, Duplicate, Add Child, Appearance, Hashtags, Look up, Glue, Collapse Children and Save node. Save node keeps a bookmark in Listr; Save node to Listr in the selected node's toolbar offers the same save. What you see depends on the node's kind and what you may change. A picture or song has actions of its own; a read-only node offers fewer editing actions.

Open in Glob Time opens the node's timeline.

Node options… opens its detailed popup. Appearance → Color opens the colour picker. Draw new… and Choose a Pixl… choose a picture. Use Node options and Nodes and the canvas for their saving behaviour.

Right-click empty writable canvas to get Create node, Create task and, when available, Create Pixl. With two or more nodes selected, the menu concerns the selection instead. Read its count before choosing Delete N nodes.

A single node's Delete menu action removes it immediately. Delete or Backspace on a selection asks for confirmation. Check which action you are using before choosing it.

The touch action ring closes after a brief pause without use. Tap outside it or press Escape to dismiss it sooner. A disappearing ring does not mean that the node was removed.

Menus for text, links and list entries#

A list row, chat line or person's name can have its own menu. Focus an entry and press Shift + F10 or the Menu key where supported. In a menu, use Up and Down to move, Home and End to reach its ends, and Enter or Space to choose. Escape closes it and returns focus; Tab closes it and lets you move on.

A text field's menu offers Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste and Select all. The available actions depend on whether the field is editable and whether text is selected. If Paste is disabled, use Command + V on a Mac or Ctrl + V elsewhere. Your browser can refuse the menu's clipboard read while still allowing a keyboard paste.

Links offer Open link, Open link in new tab and Copy link address where applicable. An outside destination can show the Leaving Glob warning. Copying a link and following it are separate actions.

The multibar#

The rounded bar normally shows Search public nodes. Type at least two characters and wait for the results beneath it; choose a title or use Pin here. Press Enter with a query to open broader Search for Pixls, nodes, your notes and audio. Command+K on a Mac or Ctrl+K elsewhere opens the compact search outside text fields. Search and go explains the different result actions.

Short notices and hints temporarily replace the search box. A notice can explain a refused action, such as a pin that could not be placed. A shout can show another person's brief message. Dismiss closes a message when that button is offered; otherwise it leaves by itself.

Ordinary notices wait while you are using the search field. A shout can take its place even then. After the message ends, the bar returns to its previous view. Short messages do not replace the Inbox, where you read account updates.

When music is playing, the bar can show the track's controls. Its Search button brings the search field forward. Back to now playing returns to playback; leaving an empty search field also returns to the track. Open the Jukebox opens the full player.

Glob Studio uses its own top bar while it is open, so the canvas multibar steps aside. A signed-out visitor on a phone sees search at the bottom, with results above it. Reduced motion makes view changes immediate and stops the idle search prompts rotating.

Close a control without losing your place#

Escape normally dismisses the open menu or topmost popup before acting on the canvas. Use an explicit Save, Cancel or Discard when a form provides them; closing a popup is not a substitute for checking its saved state.

For a full key reference, see Keyboard shortcuts. If a control refuses an action, follow its message in Troubleshooting.