> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.asquareportal.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Getting Started: Your First Design

> Five minutes from open to a real, editable design — the exact path your hands will take.

# Getting Started: Your First Design

Five minutes from open to a real, editable design. This tour follows the exact path your hands will take — no concepts you don't need yet.

## 1. Pick a surface

At the bottom of the window is the AI toolbar with three tabs: **Ideate**, **Design**, and **Slides**. They're three different kinds of agents:

* **Design** — generate a fully editable design (a landing page, a poster, a dashboard) straight onto the canvas.
* **Slides** — describe a deck and get it laid out frame by frame.
* **Ideate** — turn an idea into a mind map or a written artifact (strategy, guide, brief).

Start with **Design** — it's the fastest way to see what Portals can do.

## 2. Say what you want

Click the input field and type something concrete. Not a vibe — a brief:

> "A landing page for a small surf school in Biarritz. Hero with the name, a class schedule, and a CTA to book."

Then send it. The canvas comes alive: a frame lands at the exact size for your design, and the model starts building — you'll see the elements stream in and group themselves on the layers panel as it works. That streaming isn't decoration; it's the build happening in real time, and you can interrupt or redirect it.

## 3. Meet your design

When it lands, everything is **editable** — this is the whole point:

* Click any element to select it. Drag to move it, drag a corner to resize it.
* Click the text and retype it — the box grows with your words.
* Find the element on the **left layers panel**, right-click it, and duplicate, group, or reorder it.
* Change colors, type, and effects in the **right properties panel**.

Change something big — a headline, a color — and watch the layout reflow instead of breaking. That's containers doing their job.

## 4. Make it yours

A few gestures worth knowing before you go:

* **Space + drag** anywhere on the canvas pans the view — and it works in the timeline too.
* **Cmd/Ctrl + scroll** zooms; the multi-select box that appears stays glued to your shapes while you zoom.
* Right-click a layer to **duplicate / rename / group / ungroup / reorder / delete** — and note the delete item is red, because it's the only one that means it.

## 5. Ship it

Export when you're ready — the design travels as real structured content, not a flattened image.

## Common issues

* **The model picked the wrong kind of output.** If you said "brand guidelines" and got a design instead of an artifact, the intent detector missed a keyword. Say the artifact type out loud — "artifact", "document", "guide" — or switch to Ideate and ask for a written artifact explicitly.
* **A generation failed mid-thought.** The thinking toggle (the brain icon beside the model selector) trades speed for depth. Long thinking runs occasionally truncate; flip thinking **off** for quick, reliable vector and SVG work, keep it **on** for the big design asks.
* **Nothing happens when you type.** Check that a model is actually selected in the model selector — a dead or missing model is the usual suspect, and the picker will show what's available.

## Next

The one concept that changes how you design: [Containers & auto-layout](/containers-and-auto-layout). And when you're curious about any tool, the [design tools](/design-tools) and [AI surfaces](/surfaces) pages cover every one.