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Working with Whiteboards
Working with Whiteboards

Use whiteboards to collaborate and communicate your ideas around the OKR process—from drafting and aligning OKRs to retrospectives.

Neli Ivanova avatar
Written by Neli Ivanova
Updated over a year ago

Overview

You can use Whiteboards to brainstorm ideas and facilitate workshops around your strategy, plans, and OKRs.

Here are some highlights of what you can do:

  • 🙅🏻‍♀️ No more copying OKRs from place to place

  • ⏬ Import existing OKRs to set the context for workshops

  • 💬 Collaborate on ideas in an unconstrained safe space

  • ⏫ Publish OKRs directly from a Whiteboard to any session

See also

Adding images to Whiteboards

Working with Whiteboards Shapes

Reactions and voting in Whiteboards

Using Pen tool on Whiteboards

Whiteboards Shortcuts

Create Objectives

Access Whiteboards

To access Whiteboards, perform the following:

  1. In the navigation pane, click Whiteboards.

  2. To access a Whiteboard you've created, click on All Whiteboards, then click on the desired tile under "My Whiteboards"

  3. To access a Whiteboard that someone shared with you, click on the desired tile under Shared with Me.

Create a Whiteboard

Kick-start the OKR process with Whiteboard templates

Perform the following:

  1. In the main navigation, click Whiteboards.

  2. In the toolbar, click Start with Template ✨ or + Create a Whiteboard.

Alternatively you can create a whiteboard:

  1. In the navigation pane, under OKRs, click All sessions.

  2. Click the session where you want to create an objective.

  3. In the toolbar, click Create OKR.

  4. In the menu, click Brainstorm and ideate.

Navigate a Whiteboard

To navigate the Whiteboard you can either scroll within the canvas or use the mini-map in the bottom-right corner.

  • To open the mini-map click on the “map” button”

  • Click and hold the slide area on the mini-map to navigate around the canvas or click on the area you want to go to

  • Use the “fit to screen” button to show the content of the canvas in full-screen mode

  • Zoom in and zoom out by using the menu, or CTRL & + or CTRL & - on your keyboard,

    you can also hold CTRL and scroll up and down with your mouse wheel.

  • Use the pointer or hand mode to move around the canvas

Activate the above by using the shortcuts listed here.

Edit the title of a Whiteboard

Perform the following:

  1. In the upper-left corner, click the title of the Whiteboard.

  2. Overwrite the title by entering the new title.

Add a Heading

Perform the following:

  1. To add a Heading, click on the Heading icon in the toolbar.

  2. Drag and drop where you want the Heading to be placed on the Whiteboard.

  3. Overwrite the Start typing... placeholder by entering the new Heading title.

  4. Use the toolbar to change the font, font size, and other formatting options like text and background color.

Add a Note

Perform the following:

  1. To add a Note, click on the Note icon in the toolbar.

  2. Drag and drop where you want the Note to be placed on the Whiteboard.

  3. Overwrite the Start typing... placeholder by entering text.

  4. Use the toolbar to change the font, font size, and other formatting options like text alignment and the color of the Note.

  5. Resize the Note if needed.

Convert a Heading or Note to an Objective

Perform the following:

  1. Click on the Heading or Note you want to convert to an OKR.

  2. Click on the Convert to objective icon in the toolbar.

Add an Objective

Perform the following:

  1. To add an Objective, hover over the Objective icon and click on Draft Objective.

  2. Overwrite the Type your Objective... placeholder by entering text to add an Objective title.

  3. Hit return or enter to save.

  4. Overwrite the + Add key result placeholder by entering text to add a Key Result title.

Import an Objective

  1. To import an existing Objective, hover over the Objective icon and click on Import Objective.

  2. Click on the Objective you want to import.

  3. You can change the order of KRs with drag & drop.

Edit an OKR

Perform the following:

  1. Edit the text of any OKR in line.

  2. Hit return or enter to save.

Alternatively:

  1. In the toolbar, click Edit.

  2. From the Edit screen, you can make intended changes to OKR's Objective title, Session, Owner, Privacy, Parent, Description, Tags, and Key Results.

  3. Click on a Key Result to edit the Owner, Description, Key result type, and Key result value(s).

Align an OKR

Prerequisite: To align an OKR, at least 2 OKRs must be on the Whiteboard. Also they should be either in one and the same Session, or their sessions should have the same parent-child relationship, as the one in the alignment.

Perform the following:

  1. Click on the OKR, so the arrow appears.

  2. Hover over the arrowhead until the hand selector appears.

  3. Drag and drop the arrowhead to the Objective or Key Result you want to align to.

Remove alignment or realign an OKR

Perform the following:

  1. Click on the circle with the minus symbol located in the middle of the alignment arrow.

  2. To realign, click on the OKR, so the arrow appears.

  3. Hover over the arrowhead until the hand selector appears.

  4. Drag and drop the arrowhead to the Objective or Key Result you want to align to.

Publish an OKR

Perform the following:

  1. Click Publish OKRs in the top-right corner.

  2. Make sure the checkbox to the right of your OKR is selected.

  3. Click Publish selected OKRs.

Lock/Unlock an OKR, Heading, Note, Objective, Image

One item - Click on the item and from the menu select the 'Lock' option. When locked an item can't be moved/edited. But it can be unlocked/cloned.

Multiple items - Multi-select a group of items. Select the lock option. To unlock - you can re-select the whole group and unlock or unlock the items individually one by one.

Clone or Copy a Heading, Note, or Objective, Image

To Clone perform the following:

  1. Click on the element you want to clone.

  2. Click on the Clone icon in the toolbar.

To Copy perform the following:

  1. Click on the element you want to copy.

  2. Click on the three dots in the toolbar and then Copy

  3. Or you can also copy by using the keyboard combination Ctrl+C (Windows) or Cmd+C (MacOS).

  4. Then place your mouse pointer at a desired location and perform the keyboard combination Ctrl+V (Windows) or Cmd+V (MacOS).

Delete or Cut a Heading, Note, or Objective, Image

Perform the following:

  1. Click on the element you want to delete.

  2. Click on the Delete icon in the toolbar.

  3. You can also use one of the keyboard shortcuts - Backspace (both Windows and MacOS), Delete (Windows) or Fn+Backspace (MacOS)

To Cut a Heading, use the keyboard combination Ctrl+X (Windows) or Cmd+X (MacOS).

Share Whiteboards

You can change who has access to your Whiteboards. By default, all Whiteboards that you create are private, and only you can access them.

To change the privacy and the permissions for a list, perform the following:

  1. In the navigation pane, click the Whiteboard whose privacy you want to change.

  2. In the upper-right corner of the page, expand the selector.

  3. In the dropdown box, select one of the following:
    ​Private. Only you can access, Restricted. Only invited people, Everyone can access, Everyone can edit.

  4. If you have selected to restrict the list, an input field appears where you can invite other users.
    The list will appear in their navigation pane, under Shared with Me.

Clone a Whiteboard

Perform the following:

  1. In the upper-left corner, expand the menu next to the Whiteboard title.

  2. Click Clone.

Delete a Whiteboard

Users can delete only the Whiteboards they have created.

Perform the following:

  1. In the upper-left corner, expand the menu next to the Whiteboard title.

  2. Click Delete.


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