- Unintended Canvas Openings: Canvas opens automatically during conversations without explicit requests, disrupting the workflow. There is no way to keep the instance from opening it without explicitly stating such every single time you want to edit something even tiny in size (e.g. a couple paragraphs rather than a whole document). Suggested fix: Add a toggle in project settings and in regular conversation settings to control auto-opening behavior.
- Lack of Canvas Management Tools: Lack of options to delete or manage existing canvases leads to clutter and confusion. My instance tried doing the first bullet above without my direction to, but there were already two Canvases it’d previously also opened of its own volition. When it tried to spontaneously spawn a 3rd Canvas, the system defaulted to the first one it had opened and you can see in my attached screenshot what the result was - An error in which it failed to comment on a completely different Canvas called Cosmic Rebellion Summary when I was talking with it about a food/nutrition topic. Suggested fix: Add clear, intuitive options for managing canvases, including saving, deleting, and organizing them effectively.
- Unclear Usage Limits: Ambiguity regarding the number of canvases that can be created hinders planning for extensive projects. OpenAI’s “help file” on Canvas provides vague guidance: “Canvas is only available on GPT-4o. If you reach your GPT-4o limit, you will need to wait until your GPT-4o limit resets to continue using canvas.” This is concerning for users planning large-scale projects that may require hundreds of individual canvases. Suggested fix: Update documentation with precise details about canvas limits for different user tiers (e.g., non-pro, pro), including limits within and outside projects.
- Saving Canvas Files Within Projects: Within a Project, I have tried repeatedly to save Canvases actively being worked to the files or even to find a way to ensure the Canvas is being saved or has been saved so I can comfortably navigate away from it for any reason. There is no clear “save this file” so I cannot tell if the files will persist. I also do not have the very necessary option of being able to remove Canvases by “saving them out” into the Files section and then removing them so my project canvases and their related conversations don’t build up to an unwieldy long list on the left sidebar or down at the bottom of the project’s dashboard. Suggested fix: Add clear, intuitive options for saving, exporting, and organizing canvases (e.g., “save,” “save as,” “export to files,” “delete canvas,” and “move to archive”).
Please let me know if these are planned improvements or if further details would help clarify the report.