Welcome to Mural, a world of collaboration. Mural transforms the way teams brainstorm and work together, helping make meetings fun to attend and easier to run. This guide will give you the basic Spark notes (concise) version of how to use Mural.

Note: Does your canvas look different than what you see in our screenshots? Switch to the new Mural experience by clicking the “twinkle toggle” in the top right of the page.

Note: Depending on the permissions enabled in your company workspace, your experience may differ slightly than what's shown in this article. If you get stuck at any point, reach out to our Customer Support team.


Contents


Getting started basics

Here are the basics of using Mural:

  1. Create a mural (blank canvas or from a pre-made template).

  2. Customize the mural to fit your needs.

  3. Share the mural to collaborate with others.


Dashboard basics

The dashboard is where you’ll land when you log into Mural. For the most part, when getting started, you’ll use the following parts of the dashboard:

Dashboard section

Description

New mural button (A)

Clicking this opens the Create mural modal where you can start a mural from a blank canvas or from a pre-existing template.

A mural tile (B)

The dashboard’s view of mural tiles gives you a sneak peek into what you’ve recently worked on. Here's how you can interact with the tile:

  • Click the tile to open that mural.

  • Click the three-dot icon to open a menu to share, move, archive, or delete your mural.

  • Click the avatar to open the profile page for the collaborator who last edited the mural.

Search field (C)

Enter search terms to find specific murals, templates, or rooms. Search results are cross-workspace by default, so the results are from all workspaces you're a part of.

Note: If confidential or private rooms are enabled in your workspace, you will only see those rooms in search results if you’ve been specifically invited to them.

Avatar and user options (D)

Click your avatar at any time to open the user options, such as profile settings and navigation preferences.

To learn more about the dashboard, check out our Introduction to the Mural dashboard article.


Canvas basics

Once you open and enter a mural, you’ll see the canvas. The canvas is the big blank section right smack in the middle of your screen. (Or, if you started a mural from a template, you’ll see the template on your canvas.)

Just like in painting, the canvas is where you’ll add your brilliance (or middle-of-the-night sticky notes with random ideas). Here are some of the most-used sections:

Canvas section

Description

Left sidebar menu (A)

You’ll mostly use this menu to add objects to your canvas. Objects are the building blocks of your mural and include sticky notes, headers and paragraphs, images, GIFs, icons, and more. Just click an object's corresponding icon in the left sidebar to see its options.

Title of the mural (B)

  • Add or change your mural’s title.

  • Click the dropdown to see other options for your mural, like adding it as a favorite or duplicating it.

  • You’ll also see the undo and redo buttons.

Facilitation Superpowers® features (C)

You’ll only see these options if you’re a facilitator. (If you created the mural, you’re automatically a facilitator). Facilitation Superpowers include voting sessions, laser pointer, private mode, and more.

Sharing options (D)

  • Click the red Share button to open the Share mural modal and invite others to collaborate on the canvas with you.

  • Click the person icon to the left of the Share button to open a list of collaborators who have access to your mural.

Avatar and user options (G)

Click your avatar at any time to open the user options, where you can access profile settings, navigation preferences, and more.

Collaborator avatars (F)

  • You can always see who is currently in your mural by checking this avatar bar. If a person's avatar shows up, then they currently have your mural open.

  • Click a person’s avatar to see different ways to interact with them.

  • Click the smiley face icon to engage with reactions (if these are enabled in your mural).

To learn more about a mural’s canvas, check out our Navigate your mural and canvas article.


Create and customize a mural

Alright, now that you know how to poke around your dashboard and a mural, let’s put your knowledge to the test. You can create a mural with a blank canvas or from a template. Either way, the steps are pretty much the same. Then, you can customize your mural’s canvas any way you want!

Note: There are other approaches to creating murals. But, we’re keeping it simple in this article! To learn more about the many ways you can create a mural, check out our Create a new mural article.

Create a mural

Remember the New mural button on the dashboard? You guessed it; that’s what you’ll click to create a new mural!

To create a new mural:

  1. Log into Mural to arrive at your dashboard.

  2. Click the New mural button.

  3. Select if you want a blank canvas or to start from a pre-made template.

    1. Search for or click through the template options on the left of the New mural modal to start your mural from a template.

    2. Select Infinite blank canvas or Resizable blank canvas if you want to start your mural with a blank canvas.

  4. Click Create mural.

You’ll land right inside of your new mural. Next up? The really fun part: customizing your canvas.

Customize the canvas

Now, you’ll give your mural a title and then customize the canvas it to your liking.

To customize your canvas:

  1. Click where it says Untitled mural in the top left of the screen and type a name for your mural.

  2. Click any of the icons from the left sidebar menu to open that object’s sub-menu.

  3. Drag and drop objects directly onto the canvas.

Mural saves your changes automatically.

Note: This article covers the basics of using Mural. To learn more about using objects, head to our Objects in Mural article.


Share and collaborate with others

Once you’ve created a mural and decorated the canvas with your mind map, sprint retrospective, vision board, or whatever flavor canvas you’ve cooked up, it’s time to invite others to your mural!

Remember the red Share button at the top of the mural’s canvas? That’s what you’ll use to invite teammates to collaborate with you on your mural.

To open the Share modal:

  1. Open your mural.

  2. Click the red Share button at the top right of your canvas. The Share modal opens.

You have a few options here, depending on the permissions you want your collaborator to have. Let’s look at the important parts of the Share modal:

Share modal section

Description

Members and Guests tab (A)

Click this tab to open the options for inviting members and guests to your mural. Members and guests are registered collaborators with Mural accounts tied to their email addresses.

Depending on the permissions in your company, you can invite members and guests using an invite link or by entering their email or name.

Visitors tab (B)

Click this tab to open the options for inviting visitors to your mural. You can only invite visitors using a visitor link.

Copy the visitor link and share it with one-time collaborators. You can also change visitor permissions from this tab.

Link (C)

Click this option to open the unique invite link for your mural. Click Copy link (section E in the screenshot above) to copy the invite URL to your dashboard.

Invite by email or name (D)

Click this option to open a field to type a name or email address and invite a member or guest.

You can select view-only or editing permissions for this member or guest.

Type email or name field (E)

Type the email address or name of the member or guest who's registered their email address with a Mural account. Press Enter (or Return) on your keyboard to add that person to your invite list.

Click Send invites to send the invitation for the members or guests to view or collaborate on your mural.

Permissions dropdown (F)

Click the dropdown arrow to select permissions for the collaborator(s) you're inviting.


Resources

Now that you’re familiar with the basics of Mural, here are some helpful support articles that do a deeper dive into using Mural.

If you’re still having trouble getting started, contact our Customer Support team and we'll be happy to help.

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