Help Center Settings & Customization Language & input

Settings & Customization

Language & input mode

Two per-device settings that make visualOS feel native to your setup: the interface language, and how the canvas interprets a drag on empty space.

More in Settings & Customization
  1. Canvas appearance
  2. Language & input
  3. Settings reference

Language

Settings → Canvas settings → Language. Three options:

  • Automatic — follows your device/browser language (default).
  • English
  • Deutsch

The choice applies to this device only, so your Mac can run English while the family iPad speaks German. Your content is never touched — only the interface.

Input: what does dragging on empty canvas do?

The one gesture mouse users and touch users disagree about:

  • Mouse / trackpad mode: dragging on empty canvas draws a selection box (marquee) — pan with Space, scroll or middle-drag instead.
  • Touch mode: dragging on empty canvas pans the view — the natural map gesture; marquee comes from mouse input if present.
  • Automatic (default): visualOS decides per input device — mouse acts mouse-like, fingers act touch-like. Right for nearly everyone.

The manual override exists for setups that misreport themselves — most famously the Mac app (“Designed for iPad”), where macOS can report trackpad input as touch. If dragging pans when you expect a selection box: Settings → Input → Mouse/trackpad. A small toast confirms the change and explains the behavior.

Quick sanity check

Drag on empty canvas: box = mouse mode, moving view = touch mode. If it’s not what you want, you now know exactly which switch to flip.

Didn’t find what you need?

Tell us what’s missing — feature ideas and bug reports land directly on our roadmap. Or just open the canvas and poke around; you can’t break anything.