What excalidraw/excalidraw shipped
Written by FoxPlug from public releases; not affiliated with Excalidraw. An automatic summary of the public release, pull request and commit data of github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw. Excalidraw did not write it and does not use or endorse FoxPlug. Every line links to the public change it describes.
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Week of September 21, 2026
What shipped
- Text tool now edits what you click on and shows a preview of what will be edited before clicking, with support for dragging out free text in shapes [8]. Pull request #12082
- File drop overlay added to the canvas; dragging a file shows whether it will replace content or, with Shift held, merge into the current scene [6]. Pull request #12177
- Canvas now pans to follow the text caret instead of shifting the entire UI, keeping the editor aligned with the canvas during text editing [7]. Pull request #12175
- setViewport now stops following a collaborator when navigating, matching the behavior of manual pan or zoom operations [1]. Pull request #12184
- Drag performance improved by caching ID sets across element updates instead of rebuilding them on every drag step [2]. Pull request #12183
- Resize and rotate performance improved for large multi-selections by caching ID sets to avoid O(n²) rebuilding on every pointer move [3]. Pull request #12180
- Library search improved with item names displayed in tooltips and better filtering [10]. Pull request #12173
- Styles panel made more compact with smaller button sizes and reduced spacing [13]. Pull request #12160
- YouTube embeds now support live streams and live stream recordings, which use different URL formats [4]. Pull request #12178
- Save-as shortcut (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+S) now works while editing text, matching the behavior of the regular save shortcut [5]. Pull request #11922
Why it matters
This week focused on improving core interactions: the text tool works more intuitively, file imports are more discoverable, and canvas panning keeps the UI stable during text editing. Performance improvements make resizing and dragging large selections faster. Multiple polish updates make the interface more compact and customizable.
Changelog entry
- Text tool now edits the text element under the cursor and shows what will be edited before clicking [8] Pull request #12082
- File drop overlay displays on canvas to indicate drop behavior; hold Shift while dropping to merge imported scene [6] Pull request #12177
- Canvas pans to keep text caret visible instead of letting browser scroll shift the UI [7] Pull request #12175
- setViewport stops collaborator follow mode when navigating [1] Pull request #12184
- Drag performance improved by caching ID sets across simultaneous element updates [2] Pull request #12183
- Resize and rotate performance improved for large selections through ID set caching [3] Pull request #12180
- YouTube embeds now support live stream URLs with /live/ prefix [4] Pull request #12178
- Save-as shortcut (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+S) now works while text is being edited [5] Pull request #11922
- Library items show names in tooltips and library search is improved [10] Pull request #12173
- Styles panel is more compact with reduced button sizes and spacing [13] Pull request #12160
- New Preferences option to hide toolbar hints [12] Pull request #12163
- Canvas tooltips are delayed and zen mode is polished [11] Pull request #12165
- Cursor hint cooldown reduced to 30 seconds [9] Pull request #12174
- Binding midpoint highlight color fixed for dark mode [14] Pull request #12156
- Removed obsolete CodeSandbox contribution workflow from documentation [0] Pull request #11908
This week: text tool edits what you click, file drop shows merge vs replace, canvas pans with text caret, and performance boosts for multi-element operations.
Updates this week focus on making core interactions more intuitive and performant. The text tool now edits what you click on before you commit, file drops show an overlay to clarify merge vs replace, and the canvas pans intelligently to follow the text caret. Under the hood, multi-element resize and drag operations are significantly faster thanks to ID set caching. The styles panel is more compact, and library search shows item names.