The toolbar

The outer edge of the Balsamiq editor has a series of buttons and fields that allow you to wireframe with just the canvas.

We've split the toolbar into four main sections.

The top bar

The upper-left holds most of the editor menus.

• Balsamiq Menu - This menu has a lot of the editor's view options. You can close the editor from here.
• Project Menu - This menu has all of the options for the project.
• Wireframe Menu - This menu has all of the options for the currently selected wireframe.
• Edit Menu - This menu has all of the editing options for the currently selected wireframe.
• View Menu - This menu has all of the viewing options for the project.

The middle part of the Top Bar holds your project name. Double-click it to rename your project.

Finally, the upper-right portion of the Top Bar has a couple more useful tools.

• Search - Use search to find controls, icons and templates.
• Share Menu - This opens the sharing settings for this project.
• Avatar Menu - This is where you can open your User Settings, manage your subscription (only in Balsamiq Cloud), change Spaces (if you have more than one), create a new Space.

The left bar

The Left Bar has five buttons that help you to navigate and add wireframes to your project:

• Toggle Navigator - This allows you to display and hide the navigator. Great for clearing up screen real estate.
• New Wireframe - This adds a blank wireframe to your project.
• Previous/Next Wireframe - This switches the selected wireframe to the one above/below it in the Navigator (it will be greyed out if there are no wireframes above/below this one).
• Undo/redo - Allows you to undo/redo the last change.
• Trash - This button only appears when there are items in the trash. It opens the Trash Menu.
• Toggle Background Music - This allows you to play and stop the built-in background music.

The right bar

The top of the Right Bar is all about toggling pieces of the editor.

• Toggle UI Library - This button will toggle the UI Library.
• Toggle Property Inspector - This button will toggle the Property Inspector.
• Toggle Comments Panel - This button will toggle the Comments Panel.

The middle of the Right Bar allows you to control your view of the canvas.

• Zoom Out - Zooms the canvas out (making things appear smaller).
• Zoom In - Zooms the canvas in (making things appear larger).
• Zoom to Actual Size - Adjusts the canvas so that all the controls are their actual size.
• Zoom to Width - Adjusts the canvas to best fit the width of the wireframe in the current displayed canvas.
• Zoom to Fit - Adjusts the canvas to best fit all the wireframe's controls in the current displayed canvas.
• Full Screen Presentation Mode - Pressing this button will open Full Screen Presentation Mode.
• Help - Lets you search the Balsamiq documentation or reach out to our Support team.

The floating bar

The floating bar gives you quick access to commonly-used features and controls:

• Selection tool (V) - The default, which allows you to select controls on the canvas.
• Text (T) - Add a Text Paragraph control to the canvas.
• Rectangle Shape (R) - Add a Shape control to the canvas. The default is a Rectangle but you can change the shape in the property inspector.
• Image (I) - Add an Image control to the canvas. The default is a placeholder but you can add your own images in the property inspector.
• Arrow (A) - Add an Arrow control to the canvas. Remove the arrow heads in the property inspector to get a simple line.
• Comment (C) - Quickly add a comment with callout to the canvas at the cursor position.

The indicated shortcut keys allow you to quickly switch between the options: