Cannot navigate the canvas

Symptoms

If one or more of these match what you are seeing, you are on the right page.

• •Dragging on the canvas creates or moves shapes instead of panning
• •The scroll wheel zooms when you wanted to scroll, or the reverse
• •The composition has scrolled somewhere off screen and cannot be found
• •Trackpad gestures do nothing

Causes and fixes

Ordered from most to least likely. Work down the list — each cause is paired with what to do about it.

1. 1

   A drawing or selection tool is active, so dragging performs that tool’s action.

   Hold Space while any tool is active for a temporary Hand tool, or press H to switch to the Hand tool outright. Holding Ctrl and dragging in the canvas area also pans.

2. 2

   The mouse wheel behaviour preference does not match your expectation.

   In Edit → Preferences, Mouse Wheel Behavior on Canvas is either Zoom (the default, scroll to zoom) or Scroll (scroll to pan vertically, Shift+scroll to pan horizontally). Set whichever matches your habits.

3. 3

   Trackpad gesture support is off.

   Two-finger pinch to zoom and two-finger pan require Trackpad Gesture Support, which is on by default in Preferences. Re-enable it if it has been turned off.

4. 4

   The viewport has been panned away from the canvas.

   Press Ctrl+0 to fit the canvas to the window, or Ctrl+Shift+F to zoom to the current selection. Either will bring you back to your content.

Related pages