# Whiteboards An infinite canvas for brainstorming, processes and workshops: sticky notes, shapes, connectors, pen, frames and tables – together and live. ## Tools | Tool | Key | What for | | --- | --- | --- | | Select | V | Select, move, scale and rotate elements; drag a rectangle to select several | | Hand | H | Move the canvas (also with space + drag or two fingers) | | Sticky note | N | Coloured notes with text | | Text | T | Free text | | Shape | R | Rectangle, rounded, ellipse, diamond, triangle, hexagon, star, arrow, cloud | | Connector | L | Straight, curved or elbowed; sticks to elements and follows them | | Pen | P | Draw freehand | | Frame | F | Group areas – and slides for presenting | | Table | G | A simple table on the canvas | | Comment | C | Pin a comment to a spot | | Stamp | E | A quick reaction (👍 ❤️ ⭐ ✅ ❓ 🔥 💡 🎉) on an element; once more takes it back | | Laser pointer | K | Point without changing anything: everyone sees a red trail that fades shortly | Also in the toolbar: **Insert image**, **Emoji or sticker**, **Link page** (a card linking to a Flowplan page) and **Templates**: retrospective, kanban, mind map, SWOT analysis, flowchart. ## Style elements Selected elements show a bar with colour, font size, bold, alignment, line width and style, **Bring forward**/**Send backward**, **Duplicate** (⌘ D) and **Delete** (Del). Sticky notes and text can also be **hidden** – like a spoiler in a document, revealed with a click. A double click edits an element's text. Copy and paste work within and between whiteboards. ## Mind maps Select a sticky note, shape or text and press Tab: a connected branch appears on the right, ready to be labelled. Tab on the new branch branches further, ⌥ Enter adds a sibling. The mind map arranges itself: branches sit to the right of their parent, evenly spaced and centred. **Arrange mind map** in an element's bar rearranges the whole tree. Typing on a selected sticky note starts writing right away. ## Align, stack and sort - When moving, edges and centres snap to other elements; orange **guides** show to which. ⌥ while dragging turns snapping off. - **Snap to grid** (grid button at the bottom) snaps elements without neighbours to the 24-point grid. - Select several elements → **Arrange**: align left, centre, right, top, middle or bottom, distribute evenly or stack as a row or column. - For workshops: **Group by colour**, **Group by person** (with headings), **Sort by votes** or **Arrange as grid**. ## Pen and shape recognition With a tablet pen (such as an Apple Pencil) the stroke width follows the pressure. Choose the colour in the pen menu; with **Recognise shapes**, drawn lines, rectangles, circles, triangles and diamonds turn into clean shapes (⌥ on release keeps the stroke). ## Images, icons and records - **Images and icons** (magnifier in the toolbar) searches freely licensed images on Openverse; chosen images are uploaded to the server, and the credit shows as a tooltip on the image. There is also the icon library in ten colours. - **Link page → Record from "…"** places a database record as a card. The card shows the title and up to three properties and stays up to date when the record changes; a double click opens it. ## Navigate - Zoom with ⌘ + scroll wheel, trackpad gestures or the buttons at the bottom right. - **Show everything** (⇧ 1) fits the view to all elements. - Undo ⌘ Z, redo ⇧ ⌘ Z. ## Work together - **Live cursors**: you see the others' pointers with names in real time, as in Miro. Someone working outside your viewport appears as a marker at the edge; a click on it jumps there. - Changes appear for everyone within seconds, also after a time without a connection. - A **timer** for workshop phases, visible to everyone. - **Voting**: set the votes per person and start; everyone puts dots on elements, and the **result** shows the ranking. **Anonymous voting** shows everyone only their own votes until the vote ends – so nobody influences the others. - **Follow me** (person icon at the bottom): everyone else sees your viewport and follows you as you pan and zoom. Whoever pans or zooms themselves stops following and can return with **Follow**. **End** lifts it for everyone. - **Comments** on spots of the canvas, with replies and mentions. ## Present As soon as there are frames, **Present** appears. The frames are shown one after another in reading order (top to bottom, left to right), filling the screen; arrow keys or the buttons page through, **End presentation** or Esc closes. ## Embed and export - With `/board` in a document, a whiteboard becomes part of a page; the button at the top right opens it large. - **Export as PNG** or **Export as SVG** saves the whiteboard as an image. - The text on the board is searchable and appears in exports.