when i say "Open the following text in canvas:" what does that mean to you, explain canvas

I took a class that used this phrase at the top of a prompt and I hadn't seen it before.

</background>

ChatGPT said:

When you say “Open the following text in canvas:” you’re giving me a directive to place the text you provide into a Canvas document—a persistent, editable workspace that sits beside our chat window.

Here’s what that means in practice:

✅ What “Canvas” Means

Canvas is a side-by-side space where I can create or edit long-form content for you. It behaves like a dedicated document editor inside ChatGPT.

Think of it as:

A living document I can revise over time
A space for structured writing (templates, scripts, strategies, documentation)
A place where you and I iterate without cluttering the main chat
An environment where the content persists across turns, so we can build on it

✅ What I Do When You Say “Open the following text in canvas:”

Create a new Canvas documentI take the exact text you provide and place it inside a new structured document.
Format it cleanlyI preserve your sections, headers, bullets, spacing, and structure.
Prepare it for editingOnce the canvas is created, you can say:
Keep the chat cleanInstead of dumping large blocks of content in the chat, the document lives neatly on the right.

✅ What Canvas Is NOT

It is not a file you download
It is not cloud storage
It is not connected to your local files or OneDrive
It is not searchable by file_search (that’s only for documents you upload)

Canvas = a working document inside ChatGPT.

⭐ Why Use Canvas?

For someone with your workflow—documentation, templates, training materials, scripts, and AI setup instructions—canvas gives you:

A clean workspace to build long documents
A single source of truth for multi-step drafting
The ability to evolve big assets without losing versions
Clear separation between your thinking and your deliverables

If you ever want a different version in canvas, a duplicate, or a cleaned-up version, just say:

“Create a new canvas with…”or“Update the current canvas with…”

I’ll handle the rest.

You said:

is it restricted to a project or a chat or all of the account? what are the boundries of canvas?

ChatGPT said:

Great question — and important to understand clearly so you can use Canvas strategically.

✅ Canvas Boundaries Explained

Canvas is not global to your whole account.It is not shared across all chats, and it does not persist across different projects.

Here’s exactly how it works:

🟦 1. Canvas is Bound to a Single Chat Thread

Each canvas lives inside the specific conversation where it was created.

If you start a new chat → you get a clean slate, no canvas
If you return to the same chat → the canvas is still there exactly as you left it
Canvas documents do not follow you between separate chats

Think of it like a notebook attached to a single conversation.

🟩 2. Canvas is NOT Bound to a “Project”

Even though your workspace has a “Project” view, canvas itself does not span across multiple project conversations.

Each chat inside a project can have its own canvas, but they are not shared between chats.

🟧 3. Canvas is NOT Account-Wide

You don’t get: