How to work with Collections

This article will show you how to organize your own, private Catalog of products into Collections. Located inside My Catalog, Collections provides a flexible way to manage groups of products.

Once you have built out your 'My Catalog' of products by saving products that you love from the Products library and by importing your own product data into Catalog Pro, a nice next step to working with your own product data on Canoa is by organizing groupings of products into Collections.

Collections are like file folders in your main product library. They are a great organization tool that you can easily reference back to when designing mood boards, laying out floor plans for clients, and gathering multiple product options for a project.

Collections are located within My Catalog in their own tab.

Why use Collections?

Collections provide users with the ability to quickly and flexibly create and manage groupings of products into themes of their choosing. Users can then search, sort, and filter within their Collection and easily share Collections with other accounts they are a part of.

You can then take Collections a set further and create 'Kits' from products grouped within that Collection.

Collections easily show a list of manufacturers or brands, global search tags, and the number of products within that grouping. The most effective way to use Collections in a Canvas right now is by utilizing the tag feature to quickly drop in that collection of products into a Canvas.

How to create a Collection:

1. Open up My Catalog from the left-side navigation bar.

2. Select the Collections tab just below the search bar.

3. Click the Create Collection button in the upper right-hand corner.

4. You'll then be prompted to fill in the details of your new Collection:

   1. Give it a name.

   2. Add in a description of the Collection.

   3. Upload a hero image for easy visual reference.

5. Click Save.

From the Collections tab in My Catalog, click Create Collection to start.

How to edit the Settings and add Tags to a Collection:

Now that you have created a new Collection, let's add in some details and tags that will be super helpful when searching for this Collection in Canvas and other parts of the Canoa app. Remember, tags are universal within Canoa. So any tag you add in a Collection will be searchable in the Search Bars throughout the app - like in Canvas! Tags are a fast workflow to find your Collection while designing within a Canvas.

1. From inside the Collections tab, click on the three-dots located on the Collection.

2. Click Edit Settings.

3. Here you can add a curator (who created the Collection), the name of your team or company, and add in the Tags that will make your Collection searchable.

4. Click Save.

Add Tags via the three-dots menu on the Collection.

Option 1 - How to add products to a Collection:

1. Open the Products tab within My Catalog.

2. Hover over the products you want to add to your new Collection. A checkbox will appear in the upper-left corner of the product card.

3. Check all the products you want to add.

4. Once you have selected the products you want to add, go to the Add to Project button and click the dropdown menu.

5. Click on Add to Collection.

6. Select the Collection you want to add them to.

7. Click Add.

Select the products to add to your Collection by checking their checkboxes.

Now, select the Collection to add the products to.

Option 2 - How to add products to a Collection:

You can also add products by clicking Add+ button inside the Collection. This will prompt you to search through Canoa's entire public Products database that includes over 26,000 skus from over 100 brands.

1. Open the newly created Collection.

2. Click on the Add+ button in the upper-left corner.

3. Search through the Products library by using the search bar located in this popup window (seen below).

4. Check off the products you want to add.

5. Click Add.

This window is accessbily by clicking Add+ within the Collection.

How to use Collections:

Now that you've created a Collection, added products to it, and added the Tags and details into the settings, it's time to put it in action.

Click into the Collection, and click on About Collection. A dropdown of all your details will now appear for easy reference. Share it out with your team or clients!

While inside a Canvas, you are now ready to add your favorite products from the Collections you organized. Collections are found by clicking the + button in the bottom right corner of the Canvas. Then click Filters. And then expand the Collections category. Select the collection you want to reference, and drag and drop the products or the entire collection into the Canvas!

How to easily pull your Collections in Canvas