Whiteboard tools are designed to work together. A rough note can become a task, a few shapes can become a flow, and the finished plan can carry live links to the documents, people, goals, events, and areas behind the work. The result is a canvas that remains useful after the brainstorming session ends.
Choose Tools by What You Need to Add
The board groups related tools so you can keep the canvas in view without scanning a long list of individual actions. Select a group to return to its most recently used tool, or open the group to choose a different one.
Pointer sits outside these groups because it has a different purpose: it lets you draw collaborators' attention to a location without selecting or moving the object underneath it. Tooltips show the available keyboard shortcuts when you want to switch modes without interrupting the discussion.
Move Around Without Disturbing the Board
Use Pan, the temporary Space-key pan mode, scrolling, trackpad gestures, or the viewport controls to move through a larger plan. Zoom changes your view of the canvas, not the objects themselves. The zoom indicator helps you judge the current scale, while Center view returns you to a useful overview.
Selection is the bridge between viewing and editing. Click an object to select it and reveal the controls that apply to that object. Drag with Select for a rectangular selection, or use Lasso when the objects do not fit a neat box. Holding Shift while selecting adds objects to the current selection.
Once selected, supported objects share a familiar set of actions:
These shared behaviors also apply to tables, charts, images, and pinned cards, so enriching a board does not create a separate editing model for every object type.
Capture Ideas as Text, Notes, and Tasks
Choose the lightest text object that matches the idea. Text works well for headings, labels, and explanations. Post-its give workshop ideas a card-like shape and selectable note color. Todo lists keep action items on the canvas and let people mark individual entries complete.
A newly placed text-style object opens ready for editing. Select it again later to change the wording or use its contextual controls. Text supports font size, text color, bold, italic, and underline styling; Post-its add their own note-color choices. Todo completion is part of the saved board, not a temporary visual mark.
Use these objects with some restraint. A short label inside a diagram is easier to scan than a paragraph squeezed into a shape, while a longer explanation may belong in the board's linked article. Collaboration and Context explains how that article, comments, and object-level notes complement the canvas.
Build Diagrams That Stay Maintainable
The grouped Shapes control keeps basic geometry and maintained connections in one place.
Rectangles, ellipses, and diamonds provide the basic visual language for processes, maps, and decision flows. Their contextual controls cover fill, border color, and border thickness. Lines and arrows are useful when you need an independent visual relationship rather than a connection that follows another object.
Use a Connector when the relationship should survive later edits. Connector ends can attach to eligible shapes and cards, then continue to meet them as those targets move or resize. You can choose straight, elbow, or curved routing; use solid or dotted strokes; and add an arrow at either end. Detaching an end turns it back into an independently positioned endpoint.
Pen and Highlighter are better for the unstructured layer of the plan: circling a risk, sketching an alternative, or emphasizing a path during a review. Each has color and thickness choices, and Highlighter uses a translucent stroke so it can sit over other content. Eraser removes intersected freehand marks and supported board elements, so zoom in when working close to content you want to keep.
Put Structured Data on the Canvas
The Data group separates editable tables from the three CSV-backed chart types.
Tables and charts let a visual plan carry working data instead of relying on pasted screenshots. A table can be moved and resized like any other object, while its visible cells can be edited directly. You can also change its row and column counts or edit the complete table as CSV.
Pie and bar charts turn label-and-value CSV into a compact comparison. Line charts expect a date column followed by one or more named value series. Select a chart to edit its source data or apply a coordinated color scheme. Invalid CSV is rejected without replacing the last valid version of the object.
This is a visual planning surface, not a calculation engine. Formula-like text remains text and is never executed. Current data boundaries are:
These limits keep shared boards responsive and make malformed or oversized data easier to correct before it affects the plan.
Bring Real Workspace Context onto the Board
Objects can stay linked to workspace sources or add lightweight media and recognition to the board.
Pinned references are most useful when a visual arrangement needs to stay connected to the work it represents. Rather than copying a title or taking a screenshot, place a card for the source object:
Emoji and icons provide lighter visual signals. Emoji can be swapped for a different choice, while icons can be changed, recolored, and resized. They are helpful for categories and status cues, but nearby text should carry any meaning that must be unambiguous.
Awards are different from ordinary decoration. Choosing an Award and quantity gives that recognition, reduces the giver's available Award balance, and places a card with the artwork, quantity, and giver context on the board. The action therefore depends on an available balance and the relevant Award permission. Read Awards before using them as part of a workshop or review.
Understand the Current Editing Boundaries
Most visible objects can be selected, arranged, resized, duplicated, reordered, and deleted, but their contextual controls differ. A Post-it exposes note color; a chart exposes data and color schemes; a pinned profile exposes its source. If a control is absent, the selected object does not support that adjustment in the current board.
Whiteboards support front-to-back ordering, but there is no full layers panel for searching, naming, grouping, or locking layers. Use consistent placement, labels, and a manageable number of visual signals when the board needs to remain readable over time.
Data objects are intentionally bounded, and pinned objects depend on sources you can access. If a referenced item becomes unavailable to you, the card does not grant access around the source's normal space or area permissions. Images likewise select from space assets rather than uploading into a separate Whiteboard-only media library.
Common Questions
Why did a grouped tool reopen the tool I used last?
Whiteboard remembers the latest choice in each group so repeated work is quicker. Open the group's choices when you want a different subtool.
When should I use Pointer instead of Select?
Use Pointer to direct attention during live collaboration without changing the board. Use Select when you intend to move, resize, restyle, copy, reorder, or remove content.
Will a connector remain attached when I reorganize a diagram?
Yes, when its endpoint has been attached to an eligible object. The endpoint follows that object as it moves or resizes. A detached endpoint remains where you position it independently.
Can I calculate values in a Whiteboard table?
No. Tables display and edit text-based data, including CSV, but they do not execute formulas or macros.
Does placing an Award card only decorate the board?
No. Confirming the Award is a recognition action that uses the selected quantity from your available balance. The resulting card records that choice on the canvas.
Can every object use every style control?
No. Shared actions such as move, resize, duplicate, reorder, and delete are widely available, while style and source controls appear only when they make sense for the selected object.