How it works? - Shira Editor

Introduction

Last updated: August 27^th 2026

Everything the editor can do — building activities and milestones, organizing them into categories, shaping the timeline, and getting the result out as a file, an image, a slide or a link.

Try now

Go to shiraroadmap.com/demo and make your first roadmap. No account needed.

The editor at a glance

One screen: a floating toolbar at the top, the roadmap title beneath it, and the canvas — a row per category, a timeline header across the top, and your activities and milestones inside.

The toolbar

Every control lives in one strip. Hover any button for its name.

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• 1 Main menu — save, open, import, export, back to dashboard
• 2 Add activity — opens the create dialog
• 3 Add milestone — opens the create dialog
• 4 Undo — steps back through your edits
• 5 Redo — steps forward again
• 6 Arrange — expand or compact all activities
• 7 Zoom — 100%, 120%, 150%, 200%, 300%
• 8 Format — timescale, density, text overflow, visibility
• 9 Timeline settings — the canvas start and end dates
• 10 Share — publish a read-only link

Work with activities

An activity is a bar on the roadmap: a piece of work with a start date, an end date and a row to sit on.

Add an activity

There are two ways, and the quick one is worth learning first.

Click straight onto the canvas

Click any empty spot on a category row. Shira creates an activity called New activity right there, starting on the day you clicked and running for 30 days (7 days on the Day and Week timescales). No dialog — rename it and drag its edges to fit. If the spot you clicked already holds an activity, a fresh row is inserted below rather than dropping one bar on top of another. As you move the pointer across the canvas, a tooltip shows the date under it, so you can aim before you click.

Use the Add activity button

Click the Add activity button in the toolbar when you would rather type the details up front.

• Title and Start date are required.
• Duration — in days. Choose Custom to pick an exact end date instead.
• Category — optional. Leave it empty and the activity lands in the Uncategorized row.

Move it and change its dates

Hover an activity and it grows two square handles plus a ⋮ menu button.

• Drag the left handle to change the start date; drag the right handle to change the end date.
• Drag the bar itself to move the whole activity — earlier, later, onto another row, or into a different category.
• Hold ⌘ (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) while dragging to lock the dates, so the activity only changes row or category.
• Drop it below the last row of a category and Shira adds a new row for it.

Edit the details

Click an activity to open its panel on the right.

To confirm the changes, click on the "SAVE" button. It stays disabled until something actually changes.

Duplicate or delete

Open the ⋮ menu on the activity itself (hover, then click) — or the ⋮ at the top of the activity panel.

• Edit opens the panel.
• Duplicate drops a copy on a new row directly below the original.
• Delete asks for confirmation first.

Tidy up the rows

Use Arrange in the toolbar to re-stack every activity at once.

• Expand activities — every activity gets a row of its own.
• Compact activities — each category is packed into as few rows as possible, putting activities that do not overlap in time side by side on one row.

Work with milestones

A milestone is a single dated moment — a decision, a launch, a deadline — drawn as a diamond with a label. Each category gets its own milestone row above its activities.

Faster ways to add one

• Click the milestone row — the top row of a category that already has milestones — and one called New Milestone appears on that date immediately.
• Alt + click anywhere on any row does the same thing, wherever you are on the canvas.

Editing milestones

• Drag a diamond sideways to change its date.
• Click it to open its panel and edit the title, date or category.
• Its ⋮ menu offers Edit and Delete.

Categories and rows

Categories are the horizontal bands of the roadmap — one per workstream, team or theme. You never create them from a separate screen: a category exists because something is in it.

• To create one, type a new name in the Category field of any activity or milestone. The row appears.
• To rename one, hover the category name and click the pencil that appears. Every activity and milestone in it follows the new name.
• To reorder, drag a category row up or down by its name.
• Anything with no category collects in a row labelled Uncategorized.
• A category empties out — you moved or deleted its last item — and its row disappears with it.

The roadmap canvas

Rename the roadmap

Click the title above the canvas, type, and press Enter. The title is also the filename Shira uses when you download or export the roadmap.

Set the timeline

The canvas covers a fixed window of time. Open Timeline settings in the toolbar to move it.

The window must be at least 28 days long.

Zoom

The zoom control offers 100%, 120%, 150%, 200% and 300%. Above 100% the canvas scrolls sideways, which is the comfortable way to work on a long plan without shortening the timeline.

Format and timescale

The Format button opens a panel with everything that changes how the roadmap looks — without touching a single date.

Timescale

Choose how the timeline is divided: Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Half Year or Year.

Day and Week are only available when the timeline is short enough to read at that granularity — up to 45 days for Day and 100 days for Week. On longer roadmaps they are greyed out.

Display density

Comfortable, Compact or Condensed — taller or tighter rows. Condensed fits a long plan on one screen; comfortable gives labels room to breathe.

Text overflow

Clip cuts a label at the edge of its bar — hover it to read the full text. Overflow lets the label spill past the bar so it stays readable.

Visibility

Show categories hides or shows the left-hand name column — hiding it gives the grid the full width. Show Today milestone hides or shows the red line marking today.

Save, load and export

Everything in this section lives in the main menu — the arrow next to the Shira logo at the left end of the toolbar.

Share your roadmap

Send people a link instead of a file, and they always see your latest saved version.

Anyone with the link opens a clean, read-only page. They need no account, no licence and nothing installed, and they cannot change anything.

Mouse and keyboard reference