Overview
Create, manage, and organize boards. Customize privacy settings and user interactions. Whether you're new to Canny or looking to optimize your board setup, you'll find detailed instructions and best practices here.
Benefits
Improved organization of feedback through customized post creation forms and custom categories
Enhanced user engagement through tailored privacy settings and interaction options
Streamlined feedback enrichment through AI-powered features like Smart Replies
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Accessing Board Settings
NOTE: Owner-level admin permissions in Canny are required to edit board settings.
To access the settings for a specific board in Canny, you have two options:
Hover over the board in the Feedback tab in Canny and click on the gear wheel icon that appears. This will take you directly to the settings for that board:
Go to the main menu, click on "Settings," then select "Boards." From there, choose the board you want to manage.
Creating a New Board
Once you are in the board settings, you can easily create a new board. Just click the “Create board” button at the top of the Boards tab in your Canny settings, and follow the prompts:
This is helpful if you want to organize feature requests or feedback by specific categories or topics.
Popular board examples include:
Feature requests
Improvement suggestions
Integration requests
Bug reporting
Language requests
Customizing the order in which boards are displayed
If you have multiple boards in Canny, you may want to change the order in which they appear. Fortunately, reordering boards is a simple drag-and-drop process:
Changing Board Name, Description, and URL
Name
The Name will appear on the board list in the public view:
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Description
This is where you can give your users more context on what the board will be for. This field does support markdown formatting as well, so feel free to add a link:
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URL
This is the customized URL for that specific board:
Updating the URL will not void existing links to post. Canny will automatically redirect posts if the URL is updated.
Public View Toggles
Canny offers several toggles to tailor how your end-users can interact with the Canny boards where they have access (these toggles also apply to custom access boards where users have access).
Allow new posts from end users
You can choose not to show the "create post" form if you prefer to disallow end-users from creating new posts.
Users can still vote and comment on boards with this toggle disabled. Boards will look like this:
Anonymize users
This will hide the names of voters. If the toggle is NOT enabled, this list is displayed:
Use user aliases in posts, comments, votes, and comment likes
This will make it an anonymous board. All users will be listed with automatically generated aliases:
Anonymous boards will be tagged as such in the main board view:
Show total number of votes on posts
This will toggle whether to show vote totals on a post:
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Show dates on posts and comments
Choose whether to display when the post or comment were created:
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Allow end-users to see each others' comments
Also referred to as "Private Comments"
If this toggle is OFF, then end-users will only be able to see comments from fellow Canny admins, but they will not be able to see any comments by end-users.
The "create post" form
The Create Post Form section in board settings allows you to customize the fields that users need to fill out when submitting an idea or feedback.
Privacy Options
Canny offers different access options for your boards. You can choose between private, public or custom access settings.
Private boards: All boards are private by default and are only visible to admins
Public boards: Anyone with access to the board's URL can participate, and you can choose whether to index it in search engines or show it on your main home page.
Custom access boards: You can limit the visibility of the board by specifying email domain restrictions, user segments, or individual email invitations.
Tags and Categories
Tags and categories help organize feedback in Canny in different ways. Tags are internal tools for team organization, while categories are user-facing options that help people classify their feature requests appropriately.
Widget Embedding
Canny offers a customizable widget for embedding feedback boards directly on your website, allowing you to gather user feedback without leaving your site. You can embed the widget to fit in to your website's design.
Smart Replies
Smart Replies is Canny's AI-powered feature that automatically generates responses to user-submitted posts. It helps clarify feedback, understand user goals, and gather additional context. You can set these automated replies to come from either an admin or a bot profile.
Importing and Exporting Data
Canny lets you import feedback data from CSV files when migrating from other tools. You can also export your board's posts as CSV files for analysis or backup.
Deleting a Board
When you need to delete a board in Canny, you can do so through the settings. Be aware that deleting a board is IRREVERSIBLE, so you'll need to type the board's exact name to confirm deletion:
