This page covers the everyday tools on the Whiteboard's toolbar, drawing, writing, shapes, and the basics of selecting, moving, and styling what you add.

What this page helps you do

Use the pen, highlighter, and eraser.
Add text, paragraphs, sticky notes, callouts.
Draw rectangles, ellipses, arrows, and connecting lines.
Select, move, resize, and style what you've added.

The toolbar

The toolbar lives along the side or bottom of the canvas. Common tools:

Select (arrow), pick up and move existing items.
Pan / Hand: drag the canvas around without moving items.
Pen / Draw: freehand drawing.
Highlighter: semi-transparent strokes for emphasis.
Eraser: remove strokes you've drawn.
Text: type a paragraph anywhere.
Sticky note: a coloured rectangle with text inside.
Shapes: rectangle, ellipse, triangle, polygon.
Arrow / Line / Connector: straight or curved lines, with arrow styles. Connectors snap to objects so when you move one end, the line follows.
Frame: a labeled rectangle that groups other items into a logical block (see Pages and frames).

Each tool has its own keyboard shortcut shown in the tooltip.

Drawing with the pen

Click the Pen tool, then click and drag on the canvas. Each stroke is a separate object you can select, move, or delete later.

In the side panel (when a stroke is selected) you can change:

Stroke colour: pick from a palette.
Stroke width: thin to thick.
Style: dashed, dotted, solid.

The Highlighter is identical to the Pen but with reduced opacity for emphasis without obscuring what's underneath.

Erasing

Two ways:

Eraser tool: drag across strokes to remove them. Works only on pen/highlighter strokes, not on text or shapes.
Select and delete: pick the Select tool, click the stroke, press Delete. Works on anything, including text and shapes.

Writing

Click the Text tool and click on the canvas. A text box appears; type.

You can:

Format with bold, italic, underline.
Change size and font from the side panel.
Pick a colour for the text.
Align left, center, right.

For short emphatic notes, prefer Sticky notes, they're easier to spot and have a built-in coloured background.

Sticky notes

Click the Sticky note tool and click on the canvas. A pre-coloured note appears; type. Resize as needed.

Sticky notes are great for:

Brainstorm sessions: one idea per note, move them around to cluster.
Voting / prioritization: different colours for different stakes.
Action items during a debrief, drag them into a "to-do" frame after the session.

Shapes

Click a shape tool and drag on the canvas to draw. Shapes have:

Fill colour (or no fill).
Stroke colour and width.
Corner radius (rectangles).
Text inside: double-click to type a label inside the shape.

Common uses for game design:

Rectangles for cards or board sections.
Circles / ellipses for tokens, scoring positions, or actors.
Arrows / connectors for game-flow diagrams.
Polygons for hex grids or special components.

Lines and arrows

The Arrow tool draws a connector with an arrowhead at the end. The Line tool draws a plain line.

Connectors snap to objects:

Pick the Arrow tool.
Hover over a shape, its edge highlights as a snap point.
Click and drag to another shape.
The arrow connects them. Move either shape later and the arrow follows.

Use connectors to draw decision trees, game-state transitions, or turn-flow diagrams.

Selecting and moving

The Select tool (arrow) is your default. Click an item to select it. Drag it to move. Drag a corner handle to resize.

Multiple selection:

Drag a box in empty space to lasso multiple items.
Shift-click items to add them to the selection.

With multiple items selected, you can:

Move them as a group.
Delete them all.
Group them into a single object you can pick up together.
Align them via the side panel (top, middle, bottom, etc.).

Undo / redo

Cmd/Ctrl + Z undoes. Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z redoes. The Whiteboard keeps a long history within a session, use it freely while iterating.

Tips & common questions

The canvas keeps zooming when I scroll. That's intentional; the Whiteboard is an infinite zoomable canvas. Use two-finger scroll on a trackpad to pan instead, or hold Spacebar and drag.

My pen strokes look pixelated when zoomed in. The pen draws vector strokes at a fixed thickness; zooming in reveals their underlying width. Export to PDF or PNG for a clean rendering at any size.

Can I draw a perfect square or circle? Hold Shift while dragging a shape to constrain to equal width and height.

Can I lock a shape so I don't move it accidentally? Yes, select the shape and pick Lock in the side panel. To unlock, select and pick Unlock.

Can I copy / paste between two whiteboards? Yes. Select items, copy (Cmd/Ctrl + C), open the other whiteboard, paste (Cmd/Ctrl + V).