How DocuShark Is Organized
DocuShark has a small set of building blocks. Once these click, everything else in the app — and in these guides — falls into place. This page is the map; each section links to the guide that goes deep.
The one-minute model
- A document is the thing you open and work in. It has a name and lives in your library.
- Every document is made of pages. A page is either a prose page (writing) or a canvas page (an infinite diagram surface).
- Prose and canvas are two views of the same document, not two different apps. A layout mode decides how much of each you see.
- Documents are grouped into collections (like folders) and described with tags (like labels).
- A document is either local (on your device) or lives in a workspace (synced and shareable).
That's the whole model. The rest of this page unpacks each piece.
Documents and your library
A document is your unit of work — a design doc, an architecture diagram, a research note, a runbook. When you open DocuShark you land on the Documents home: your library of every document, with recent ones surfaced as preview cards. Create a new one with the New button; click Documents in the top-left to return to the library any time.
A single document can hold a lot: multiple pages of writing and diagrams, embedded files, citations, and reusable fields. You rarely need "a folder of files" — you need one document that holds the whole idea.
Pages: prose and canvas
Inside a document, content is split across pages, shown as tabs. There are two kinds:
| Page type | What it's for | Powered by |
|---|---|---|
| Prose page | Rich writing — headings, lists, tables, math, code, callouts, citations | A full text editor |
| Canvas page | Diagrams — shapes, smart connectors, embedded files | An infinite canvas |
Each page is independent: shapes on one canvas page don't appear on another, and each prose page has its own text. Add, rename, reorder, and colour-code pages from the tab bar — see Multi-Page Documents.
TIP
Think of pages as the sections of one deliverable — "Overview", "Data Model", "API Flow" — rather than separate files. Order them from overview to detail.
Prose + canvas, side by side
The heart of DocuShark: writing and diagramming live in the same document. You don't paste a screenshot of a diagram into your doc — the diagram is in the doc, on its own canvas, always current.
How much of each you see is set by the layout mode (Relaxed, Designer, Technician, Power) and, in Relaxed, the Write · Split · Diagram focus. Writing a spec? Stay in Write. Explaining a diagram? Split them side by side. Deep in a diagram? Switch to Diagram. Nothing moves in the document — only your view of it. See Layout Modes.
Files that live with the document
Beyond prose and shapes, you can drop files — PDFs, spreadsheets, images, datasets — straight onto a canvas, pinned wherever you want them. They travel with the document and export with it. See Embedded Files.
Organizing many documents: collections and tags
As your library grows, two tools keep it navigable, and they answer different questions:
- Collections answer "where does this document live?" — each document sits in at most one collection, like a folder.
- Tags answer "what is this document about?" — a document can carry many tags, and search can target them with
#.
See Collections & Tags for the full workflow.
Local vs. workspace documents
This is the one distinction worth learning early, because it decides where a document lives and who can reach it:
| Local document | Workspace document | |
|---|---|---|
| Lives | On your device | In a workspace (synced) |
| Works offline | Always | Cached for offline, syncs on reconnect |
| Sharing / live collaboration | No — it's yours alone | Yes — invite others to edit live |
| Best for | Private notes, offline work | Cloud docs, cross-device sync |
A workspace is a shared space you connect a document to; it adds cloud storage, sync across your devices, real-time collaboration, and integrations. You can promote a local document into a workspace when you're ready to share it. See Collaboration and Sharing & Workspace Access.
Terminology
Throughout these guides, "workspace" means the shared, synced space your documents connect to. You'll never need to think about the server behind it.
Where to go next
- Interface Tour — see these pieces on the actual screen.
- Quick Start — build your first document.
- Tutorials — end-to-end walkthroughs that put the whole model to work.