How to use the online whiteboard

Quick start

1. Pick a tool from the toolbar on the left, or press its key. The pen is selected when you arrive.
2. Draw. Click and drag on the board. Everything saves automatically in your browser.
3. Change something. Press Ctrl+Z to undo, or choose the eraser (E) and touch a stroke to remove it.
4. Add instruments such as the ruler or protractor from the Instruments group.
5. Finish by exporting from the File menu or sending a Share link.

Colors, sizes and backgrounds

Open the Style panel (always visible on large screens, behind the Style button on phones). Pick one of 12 colors or use Custom for any other color, choose a size from S to XL, and tick Fill shapes to fill rectangles, ellipses and polygons. The Background menu offers blank, dot grid, grid, lined paper, graph paper and a dark theme. If an object is selected, color and size changes apply to it.

Move around the board

• Pan: hold Space and drag, use the hand tool (H), scroll the mouse wheel, or drag with two fingers on a touch screen.
• Zoom: hold Ctrl and scroll, pinch on a touch screen, or use the + and − buttons at the top. The percentage button resets to 100%.

Draw straight lines

1. Turn on the ruler or a set square in the Instruments group.
2. Drag it into place and rotate it with the blue dot.
3. Choose the pen or line tool and start drawing close to an edge of the instrument. Your stroke snaps to the edge and comes out perfectly straight.

Without an instrument, hold Shift while using the line or arrow tool to snap to 15° steps.

Measure an angle

1. Draw the two arms of the angle with the line tool.
2. Turn on the protractor. Drag it so the small dot at the middle of its flat edge sits exactly on the corner of the angle.
3. Rotate it with the blue dot until the flat edge lies along one arm.
4. Read the number where the other arm crosses the scale. There are two scales running in opposite directions; use the one that starts at 0° on your arm.

Draw circles and arcs

1. Turn on the compass. Drag the needle or either leg to place the needle point where the center of the circle should be.
2. Drag the black hinge at the top to set the radius. The label next to the dashed line shows it in pixels, centimetres and inches.
3. Drag the pencil end around the needle. It draws an arc as you go; sweep all the way around for a full circle.
4. To move the pencil without drawing, hold Alt while you drag it.

The arcs use the pen's current color and size, and each one is a normal stroke you can undo, erase or move.

Bisect a line segment (compass construction)

This classic construction finds the exact middle of a segment AB and a line perpendicular to it.

1. Draw a segment AB with the line tool.
2. Place the compass needle on A and set a radius clearly larger than half of AB. Draw an arc above and another below the segment.
3. Move the needle to B without changing the radius and draw two more arcs that cross the first pair.
4. Join the two crossing points with the line tool. That line is the perpendicular bisector: it meets AB at its midpoint at 90°.

Measure a distance

Press D (or choose the Measure tool) and drag between two points. A dashed line shows the length in pixels, centimetres and inches. It stays until you pick another tool or press Esc, and it is not saved with the board.

Work with several boards

The bar above the canvas shows Board 1 of 1. Use the arrows to move between boards, the + button to add one after the current board, and the bin to delete the current one (undo brings it back). Type a number to jump to a board.

Annotate a PDF

1. Open File → Import PDF to boards… and choose a file. The first 20 pages become boards.
2. Draw, highlight and add notes on each page with any tool.
3. Use File → PDF (all boards) to save the annotated pages as one PDF.

The first time you import a PDF, your browser downloads the PDF reader it needs, so you need a connection once. The file itself never leaves your device.

Select, move and arrange

• Choose the select tool (V) and click an object, or drag a box around several. Shift+click adds or removes one.
• Drag to move. Drag a corner handle to resize a single object.
• Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V copy and paste, Ctrl+D duplicates, and the arrow keys nudge (hold Shift for bigger steps).
• ] brings the selection to the front and [ sends it to the back.
• Double-click text or a sticky note to edit it.

Present to a class

• Click Present for a full-screen view. The left and right arrow keys change boards; Esc leaves.
• Choose the laser pointer (K) to point without leaving marks.
• Open the timer from the Class group and pick 1, 5, 10 or 15 minutes.
• Insert a coordinate plane, number line or table from the templates button.

Save, export and share

• Autosave: your boards stay in this browser, on this device. Clearing browser data removes them, so save a file for anything important.
• File menu: export PNG, SVG or PDF, copy the board as an image, save a .json board file, or open one.
• Share link: copies a link that contains your boards. Anyone who opens it gets their own copy. Boards with images or PDF pages make long links; send a board file for those.
• Restore previous boards: appears in the File menu after you open a link or file over existing boards.

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