Lock and unlock pages or elements

Locking an element or page in your design prevents it from being moved, resized, or edited. This helps you avoid making unintentional changes while you edit other parts of your design.

Lock options:

Lock: Completely locks position, style, and content
Lock position only: Locks position and style, leaving only the content editable

What you can lock: You can apply locks to individual elements like text boxes, images, and graphics, or to entire pages. Locking a page affects all elements and the background on that page.

Locking elements or pages aren’t available in Canva Docs.

Lock and unlock elements

You can't unlock elements when the page is locked. Unlock the page first to make changes.

To lock an element:

Select the element you want to lock. You can also hold Shift on your keyboard and click on multiple elements to select them.
Select
Lock position and appearance.

To unlock an element:

Select the element on the canvas.
Look for the lock icon in the floating toolbar that appears above the element.
Select
Lock, then
Unlock to remove the lock.

Lock and unlock pages

To lock a page:

Select the page thumbnail you want to lock.
On the page thumbnail, select the
More icon.
Select
Lock page, and select
Lock.

To unlock a page:

Hover over the page thumbnail.
Select the
options menu.
If the page is locked, you'll see
Unlock page. Select it to unlock.
If you see
Lock page instead, the page is in a position-locked state. See Unlocking a position-locked page below.

Unlocking a position-locked page:

A page can be in a position-locked state where the Page options menu shows Lock page (not Unlock page). To fully unlock it:

Press Alt+Shift+L (Windows) or Option+Shift+L (Mac) to cycle through lock states until the page is unlocked, or
Open Page options and select Lock page to toggle, then select Unlock page when it appears.

If you still can’t edit the page after unlocking the page, select the

unlock or

unlock position icon from the floating toolbar and toggle until all elements are successfully unlocked.

Locking behavior for Canva Education

When a teacher (brand admin or brand designer) locks an element, students (members) can’t unlock it, even if they have edit access. This applies to designs that are:

Shared directly with students
Used in Live Learning Sessions
Shared as assignments via link, Canva, or an external LMS

Who locked it	Can you unlock it?
You (a student)	Yes
Another student or editor with edit access	Yes
A teacher	No, contact your teacher to request changes.

FAQs

I can't select an element, all I can see is a lock icon.

Select the lock icon and toggle the options until successfully unlocked.

Who can lock or unlock elements?

Anyone with edit access to the design can lock or unlock its elements. To change your design’s settings, see Changing or removing share permissions.

What is lock inheritance?

Unlocking a page unlocks the page itself, but doesn't unlock individual elements on the page. Each element must be unlocked separately.
When you copy or duplicate a page, the copy keeps all lock states from the original.

What type of lock should I use?

The right lock depends on what users should be able to edit.

For example, if a template only needs text and an image updated, apply a position lock to the text box and frame so the content stays editable. Then apply a full lock to everything else to prevent changes to the layout.

Using the right combination of locks when building Brand Templates helps you create strong, reusable designs with the right level of control.

To learn more, see Apply locks to Brand Templates.

Lock Type	What it does	When to use it	Example scenario
	Locks position, style, and content.	When nothing should change.	Protecting brand logos, background images, or decorative elements in a Brand Template.
	Locks position and style, but allows content editing.	When users need to update text or images, but shouldn't move or resize elements.	Event flyers where users update event details but can't change the layout, or social media templates where users swap photos in frames.
No lock	Elements can be moved, resized, styled, and edited.	When users have full creative control.	Open design areas or completely customisable templates.

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