Mood — Complete Guide

Mood is your moodboarding and client-presentation studio, built into Workroom. Design boards on an infinite canvas, drop in real products, present to clients with live approvals, and turn an approved board straight into an estimate or invoice.

The idea that makes Mood different: the board is the spec. Products you place aren't just pictures — they're live line items with cost, price, lead time, and availability. A beautiful board is also a working document.

What Mood is for

• Concept & presentation boards to show clients.

• Finish schedules & spec sheets that double as the source of your estimate.

• Product sourcing — from your catalog or anything you find on the web.

• Client sign-off — share a link, let clients comment and approve item by item.

The board library

The first screen is your library:

• Create a board with the New button, then open it to design.

• Search across board names and page names.

• Filter with All / Assigned / Unassigned pills.

• Duplicate a board (copies as "… (Copy)").

• Trash view holds deleted boards — restore or permanently delete.

• Each card shows a thumbnail that updates as you work.

Organizing with folders & projects

• Folders: create colored folders and drag boards into them (by client, by phase). Rename, recolor, delete anytime.

• Assign to a project: links the board to a project. This scopes the product library to that project's products and lets a generated estimate/invoice attach to the right client automatically. Leave a board unassigned to see your whole catalog.

The editor at a glance

• Canvas — an infinite, pannable space holding all pages as frames.

• Pages — each board can have multiple pages (slides), laid out as labeled, numbered frames.

• Left panel — Elements, Text, Uploads, Background tabs.

• Top toolbar — page size, Scale, Spec, export, share, undo/redo.

• Right inspector — appears when something's selected; edit its properties there.

Everything autosaves — no Save button.

Moving around the canvas

• Zoom: scroll wheel or trackpad pinch, anchored at your cursor.

• Pan (trackpad): two-finger scroll.

• Pan (mouse): drag an empty area — or hold the middle mouse button (scroll wheel) and drag from anywhere, even over objects. The middle-button grab won't select or move whatever's under your cursor, so it's the fastest way around a busy board.

• Move an element to another page: drag it and drop it onto a different page's frame. It joins that page and jumps to the front, keeping its on-screen spot — no need to select the target page first.

Pages

• Add, rename, reorder, delete pages from the page rail. Page order controls PDF export order and the client slideshow.

• Drag a page by its label to reposition it; duplicate a page to reuse its layout; set a background color per page.

When you generate an estimate/invoice from a board, each page becomes a section, named after the page. Name pages meaningfully ("Living Room", "Primary Bath") and your document is organized for free.

Adding content

From the left panel:

• Text — heading/subheading/body presets, a font library, and ready-made text combinations. Style in the inspector.

• Shapes — rectangles, ellipses, lines, polygons, stars, arrows, and more.

• Swatches — solid color chips for palettes.

• Images — upload from your computer or add from a URL. Uploads join your Uploads library for reuse.

• Products, paint colors & textures, and tables — see below.

Selecting & arranging: click to select, Shift-click to add, drag an empty area to marquee-select. Resize with corner handles (Shift keeps proportions), rotate with the top handle (Shift snaps 15°). Align/distribute, group/ungroup (⌘/Ctrl-G), duplicate (⌘/Ctrl-D), and layer order are all available. Lock an element to protect it (it stays selectable so you can unlock it).

Working with images

Select an image to access, in the inspector: crop & mask (rectangle/rounded/circle/arch), filters (brightness, contrast, saturation, grayscale, sepia, blur), flip, lock, layer order, drop shadow, perspective (corner-pin the four corners for a mockup look), and remove background (with one-click Restore).

Paint colors & textures

• Paint picker: search real colors from Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Farrow & Ball, Dunn-Edwards, Dulux, and Valspar — thousands of colors, searchable, with the paint code as the swatch label. Filter by color family. Apply to any swatch or shape.

• Favorites sync to your account across devices.

• Paint textures: recolorable brush marks — Blob, Blob + drips, Smear, and Roller stroke — that take whatever paint color you choose and render identically on the board, in the client view, and in exports. Use them to show a color as applied paint rather than a flat chip.

Tables & finish schedules

• Finish schedule table — a structured product schedule with columns like image, description, dimensions, spec #, lead time, and status; show/hide columns and adjust image sizing.

• Freeform table — a plain grid where you set rows, columns, and border thickness, resize cells, and type in any cell. Drag an image into a cell, or drag a paint chip into a cell to build a paint schedule (drops in the color's name and number).

Products & "the board is the spec"

Placing catalog products:

1. Open Uploads → Products.

2. If the board is assigned to a project, you'll see that project's products; otherwise your whole catalog. Search and filter by vendor, category, or location.

3. Click or drag a product onto the board. It carries its price, SKU, lead time, and image.

4. If a product has multiple images, you'll be asked which to place.

Product slots (for templates): flag any image frame as a product slot with a category. An empty slot shows a dashed placeholder; clicking a product fills it in place, keeping the frame's size and shape.

Because products are live references, the Spec panel can total them, check availability, and generate an estimate/invoice.

Marking any image as a product

You're not limited to the catalog. Find something on the web or upload a photo you're sourcing:

1. Select the image.

2. In the inspector, open Product details and turn on "This image is a product."

3. Fill in what you know: name, SKU, quantity, cost, markup % or margin %, lead time, vendor, and URL.

It now appears in the Spec panel alongside catalog products and flows into any estimate/invoice.

URLs are kept forever. When you add an image from a URL, Mood remembers that source URL permanently — it survives cropping, background removal, and image swaps. The URL field is pre-filled with it, and clearing the field brings the original back rather than losing it.

Pricing: cost + markup/margin (auto-calculated)

Mood computes the sale price for you — you don't type it:

• Enter a Cost, then either a Markup % or a Margin % (not both — entering one clears and disables the other).

• The Sale price is calculated automatically: markup → cost × (1 + markup%); margin → cost ÷ (1 − margin%). With neither, sale = cost.

• This works the same in the "This image is a product" panel (where Sale is shown read-only) and in the Spec panel (where the Total column reflects the computed price × quantity).

True scale & scale-conflict warnings

Collaged boards lie about size. Mood can tell the truth.

• Scale (toolbar): sizes the current page's product elements to their true relative scale from real-world dimensions, so a sofa and a side table are proportioned correctly.

• Scale-conflict warnings: when two products overlap and the one on top is, at true scale, wider than the surface beneath it, Mood flags it — the classic "a 42″ pendant won't work over a 36″ island." You get a warning the moment you run Scale, plus a persistent list in the Spec panel.

Make sure products have dimensions filled in (catalog products read them automatically). Items without dimensions are simply skipped.

The Spec / schedule panel

Click Spec to open the schedule. It lists every product on the board — catalog products and any image you marked as a product — grouped by page.

• Editable in place: name, SKU, quantity, cost, lead time, and markup %/margin %. The line Total and projected margin update live.

• Editing a catalog product's line here doesn't change your catalog — it just tailors this board's spec.

• Client-approved only toggle limits the list to approved items.

• Export CSV for a quick schedule.

• Create estimate / Create invoice seeds a new document — one section per page, with your edited names, quantities, costs, and markup/margin carried through. Sourced (non-catalog) items come across as manual line items with their board image.

The availability check

"This board is 94% available for a March install" — a sentence you can now produce.

1. In the Spec panel, pick a Target install date.

2. Mood computes, for every product, when it will realistically be ready, and compares it to your date.

3. You get a summary — "NN% available for a [Month] install — X on track, Y arrive after, Z unknown" — and each item's Lead cell is tinted green (on track), red (arrives after), or amber (no lead-time data).

Where the timing comes from, in priority order:

1. A concrete date from the product's procurement tab (estimated delivery / estimated shipping / backordered date) — so a 22-week backorder is caught even if you never opened procurement.

2. The product catalog's lead time.

3. The lead time you typed into "This image is a product."

The target install date is saved on the board, so it's there when you or a teammate reopen it.

Tip: items showing amber (unknown) have no lead time anywhere — add one (in the product or in "This image is a product") to bring them into the calculation.

Brand kit, templates & page sizes

• Brand kit: pin your logo on every page and add a repeating footer, with corner/size/alignment controls. It renders on the board, in the client view, and in exports.

• Templates: start a page from a layout (Concept / Presentation / Finish). Applying one fills the current page if empty, or adds a new page — never wipes your work.

• Page sizes: presentation, paper, or social presets, or custom. Changing the size rescales your layout to fit.

Sharing & client approvals

1. Click Share, enable the link, copy it, send it.

2. Choose whether to allow comments and allow approvals.

3. Your client opens a clean presentation view (a slideshow) with no editing tools.

On the share link, clients click anywhere to leave a comment (creating a pin and thread, grouped by page) and approve or decline individual items.

Back in the editor: approvals are final for clients — once decided, they lock; you can reopen an item from the inspector if needed (which resets that product's status). Open the Comments drawer to read client comments by page, jump to a page, reply, and resolve. Manage all board share links from Link Management → Moodboards.

Version history

Mood keeps version snapshots (one per editing session). Open History to see the list with auto-generated change notes ("Added 2 images · edited 3 · +1 page"), and preview and revert to any version — reverting is itself undoable (⌘/Ctrl-Z), so it's safe to explore.

Exporting

From the export menu: PNG (current page), PDF (all pages, in order), and High resolution (print) for a print-quality raster. Your brand kit is included.

Real-time collaboration

Collaboration is opt-in. Click Collaborate for a live-editing link; when a teammate joins you'll see their cursor, presence avatar, and selection in real time. Solo editing stays on the fast single-player path — collaboration only engages when you invite someone.

Tips & best practices

• Name pages by room/area — they become estimate sections.

• Assign the board to its project so you see the right products and the document attaches to the client.

• Mark web-sourced images as products and fill in cost + markup/margin + lead time.

• Run Scale before presenting and clear any conflicts it flags.

• Set the install date early and watch the availability number as you swap items.

• Use product slots + templates to build a reusable layout once and refill per project.

• Approvals first, then Create estimate — turn on "Client-approved only".

• Lock finished background elements so you don't nudge them.

• Use the middle-mouse grab to fly around a dense board without disturbing anything.

Troubleshooting

No products show in the Products tab. If the board is assigned to a project, only that project's products appear — check the assignment or unassign. Products need an image to appear.

A product's images are blank / broken. Image links are signed and refresh periodically; if a board's been open a long time, reload to re-sign the images.

"Create estimate/invoice" says there are no products. If Client-approved only is on, approve items on the share link first, or untick it.

Scale does nothing / an item won't scale. Scaling needs real-world dimensions — add them to the product (e.g. 24 x 36). Items without dimensions are skipped.

Availability shows items as "unknown." Those items have no lead time anywhere — add one to include them.

The Sale price won't let me type in it. That's intended — Sale is auto-calculated from cost + markup% or margin%. Enter a cost and one of markup/margin and the price computes.

I can't enter both markup and margin. Correct — they're mutually exclusive. Entering one clears and disables the other; clear the active one to switch.

I dragged an item to another page but it's hidden behind it. Fixed — dropping now re-parents the item and brings it to the front. An older stuck item will snap forward if you nudge it.

The board opened and said it "cleaned up duplicates." Normal self-healing — Mood removed duplicate elements and saved the clean version. Nothing to do.

Middle-mouse drag shows a scroll circle. Inside the Mood canvas the middle button pans (autoscroll is suppressed there); if you see the circle you're likely outside the canvas.

FAQ

Do boards belong to me or the project? Your studio. Assigning a project just scopes products and helps documents attach to the client.

Can clients edit my board? No — the share link is read-only; they can only comment and approve (if allowed).

Can I turn a board into an estimate? Yes — Spec panel → Create estimate/invoice. Each page becomes a section.

Can I put products I found online into the spec? Yes — add the image, mark it "This image is a product," fill in details.

Will paint textures print in the right color? Yes — recolorable and consistent across board, client view, and exports.

How do I present without revealing cost/margin? The client view shows your board, not the Spec panel — cost and margin stay internal.

Is collaboration always on? No — opt-in via the Collaborate button.