The Content tab is where you build your experience, and shaping it comes first: structuring the agenda into sections and activities. This article covers shaping. To author the content inside a specific activity — its slides, questions, poll options, and so on — select the activity to open it in the content canvas, and see Activities and interactions overview for the details of each type.
The agenda is the ordered list of sections, each holding the activities your group works through. When you build a Makeshapes session, the agenda is what plays out, in order, from start to finish.
How the agenda is built and structured
Building an agenda is a lot like designing a facilitated experience: map out a clear flow, then fill it with the moments that bring it to life. Every agenda is made of two parts:
Sections are the chapters of your experience. They set the pacing and flow of the session.
Activities are the moments inside each section — a video, a discussion, a quiz, a poll, and so on.
Good group learning has a rhythm to it: present something, give learners a chance to engage with it, then bring the group together to talk. Structuring the agenda into sections and activities lets you design for that rhythm, rather than a flat list of slides.
The editing surface
The Content tab has three areas:
Agenda: the outline of your sections and activities.
Content canvas: where you edit the activity you've selected.
Screen options: settings for the selected activity's screens.
The agenda: compact and Shape
The agenda has two views, and you switch between them with the expand toggle (its tooltip reads "Expand to shape experience" or "Compact to agenda"). The heading changes from "Agenda" to "Agenda · Shape", so you always know which view you're in.
The compact agenda is the narrow view — icons, titles, and an optional activity-ID badge. It's built for moving around.
Shape is the expanded view. It reveals the rationale behind each section and activity, drag handles for reordering, and the Activity actions menus. Expanding to Shape lets you see and edit the reasoning behind your experience, not just its contents.
Both views show the experience's estimated time — the total automatically computed from the activities in your agenda. To resize the agenda, drag the handle at its edge (the tooltip reads Click to collapse · Drag to resize). If you make it narrow enough, it snaps back to compact. If you widen it, it stays in Shape. In the compact view, a thin strip beside the activity list toggles the activity-ID badges (like 1.0) on and off. Your chosen width and view are remembered the next time you open the experience.
In Shape, the agenda also starts with a Shape experience card. This is your experience brief, with its key outcome, audience and learning objectives. See Defining your experience brief.
The content canvas
The content canvas is where you edit whichever activity you've selected. Select an activity and it opens here, ready to build out. For what each activity type does, see Activities and interactions overview.
The screen options
The screen options panel holds the settings for the selected activity's screens. To resize it, drag its edge. To collapse it, click its handle. You can also show or hide it with Show options or Hide options (the gear button). Its width and open or closed state are remembered across reloads.
Work with sections
To rename a section, click its title. For more options, click the section's Section actions menu (•••):
Rename section title
Add rationale or Edit rationale
Duplicate section
Delete section
In Shape, each section can carry a rationale — a free-text "why this section" note (the placeholder reads "Add section purpose and rationale"). Rationale is saved with your experience, so the reasoning travels with it.
Work with activities
Each activity row shows an optional ID badge (like 1.0), the activity's type icon, its type name, and its time.
Change an activity's type
In Shape, swap an activity for a different type by clicking its type icon to open a searchable type picker (your current type has a check mark), or by clicking Activity actions (•••) and then Change activity. The activity keeps its place in the agenda — its slot, timer, and rationale stay put — but its content is replaced with a fresh template for the new type. Each activity type has its own template, so anything you'd already built in that activity is removed when you switch. It's best to settle on the type before you build out the content.
The activity menu
In Shape, each activity's Activity actions menu (•••) has:
Change activity
Add rationale or Edit rationale
Duplicate activity
Delete activity
Like sections, activities can carry a free-text rationale in Shape (placeholder "Add activity purpose and rationale"), saved with the experience.
Reorder activities
Drag handles appear in Shape. Use them to reorder activities within a section, or to move an activity from one section to another.
Add activities to a section
An Add content button follows the selected section's activities. It opens a short popover headed "Suggestions after [previous activity]" with a few recommended activity types, each with a one-line description, plus a View all activities… link.
View all activities… opens the full activity picker, titled "Choose an activity to add." It has a search box ("Search activities…") that filters by name, description, or tag, a tag filter, and a scrollable list of every activity type with its icon, name, and description. It also includes an Add break option, which always starts a new section.
For a rundown of every activity type and when to reach for it, see Activities and interactions overview.
Add a section
The Add section button, after the last section in the agenda, opens the Add new section window, where you name the section and stock it with activities in one step.
Name your section. Learners see section names in the agenda. The name needs at least two characters and can't start with a number.
Choose what goes in it. Two tabs let you fill the section:
Activities — a grid of every activity type. Click a tile to add it. You can add the same activity more than once; a numbered badge shows each one's position, and clicking a badge removes the most recent. A tag filter narrows the grid.
Combos — prebuilt bundles of activities you can drop in as a starting point, then tweak. See Combos: prebuilt section bundles.
Or make it a break. The Break tile turns the whole section into a break and names it "Time for a break!" (you can rename it). Picking any activity switches back out of break mode.
Review and reorder. Everything you've added shows as a row of chips. Drag a chip to reorder it, remove chips one at a time, or click Clear all.
Add the section. The Add button stays disabled until the section has a valid name and at least one activity (or is a break). Cancel closes the window without adding anything.
Build together
Experiences are often built and reviewed by more than one person. In Shape, each rationale note shows the avatar of whoever last edited it, so it's clear who shaped what as your experience comes together.
Inline editing
Section titles, section rationale, and activity rationale all use the same inline editor:
Enter saves a single-line edit, like a title.
Cmd/Ctrl + Enter saves a multi-line edit, like a rationale note.
Esc cancels and reverts your change.
Clicking away saves.
What's remembered automatically
The Content tab remembers how you like to work:
The agenda's width, and whether it's compact or expanded to Shape.
Whether the screen options panel is open or collapsed, and its width.
The last activity you had selected.
Keyboard shortcuts
The Content tab has a full set of keyboard shortcuts for moving around and building. Press ? (Shift + /) at any time to open the Keyboard shortcuts dialog, or see Content tab keyboard shortcuts.