Use an Idea Board

An Idea Board is a freeform canvas in Personal or the selected team. Use it when the position and relationship between small pieces of information matter more than a document order.

In Idea Boards, choose New board and the new board will open. Rename it from its title. Changes to positions and item content are saved to that board as you make them. To delete an Idea Board and everything on it, open it and choose More and then Delete Idea Board.

Add items

The tools are in the rail down the left of the canvas, or in the strip along the bottom of the screen on a phone:

• Note, To-do, Link, Image and Comment each add that kind of item. Image can add several images at once, one card each.
• Column adds a column. Drag items onto it to stack them in order.
• Line draws an arrow from one item to another. See Draw a line.

Select a tool to add its item in the part of the canvas you can see, beside the items already in view without covering them. Drag a tool onto the canvas to add the item where you drop it. With a mouse, double-click empty canvas to write a note there, or right-click it and choose a New item. A new note that you leave without writing anything in it is removed.

With a keyboard, press N for a note, T for a to-do list, K for a link, I for an image, C for a comment, O for a column or L for a line. Press ? on the board to see every shortcut.

Move around the canvas

The canvas has no edges. To move it:

• drag empty canvas;
• on a touch screen, drag with two fingers, which also works over items;
• scroll with a trackpad or mouse wheel. With a mouse wheel, hold Shift to move sideways;
• hold Space and drag from anywhere, including over an item;
• press the arrow keys. Hold Shift to move further.

Zoom and find your items

Use the controls at the bottom right of the canvas:

• − and + zoom out and in by set steps, between 10% and 200%. Each press lands on a round figure, and stepping always stops at 100% on the way.
• The percentage shows the current zoom. Select it to go back to 100%.
• Fit shows every item, lined up with the top left of the window, at up to 100%.
• Top left keeps the zoom and moves the items to the top left of the window, bringing back any that have drifted off the left or top edge.

To zoom around a point, pinch on a trackpad or touch screen, or hold Ctrl while you scroll. With the keyboard, press + or −, Shift 1 to fit, Home for the top left, or Shift 0 for 100%.

A board opens the way Fit shows it, at 50% or more. A board too big to fit at that zoom opens on its top-left items instead. Zoom does not change the board for anyone else, and it resets each time you open the board.

Select, move and line up items

Click or tap an item to select it. Shift-click adds an item to the selection or takes it out. Hold Shift and drag across empty canvas to select every item the box touches, or press Cmd+A or Ctrl+A to select everything.

Drag an item to move it. Dragging an item that is in the selection moves the whole selection. On a touch screen, two fingers move the canvas even over items. While you drag, an item snaps into line with the edges and middles of the items in the window, and a red line shows what it lines up with. Hold Alt (Option on a Mac) while you drag to place it freely. To change an item's width, select it and drag the handle on its right edge. Its height follows what is in it.

Tidy up lines items up with each other and with the dots on the canvas. Items whose left edges nearly match are given the same left edge, items whose top edges nearly match are given the same top edge, and an item that would then overlap another moves down until it is clear. With items selected, only those move. A locked item does not move.

Undo, or Cmd+Z or Ctrl+Z, reverses the last move, tidy, resize or deletion. It does not reverse typing, and it covers only changes made since you opened the board.

Lock an item in place

Select one or more items and choose Lock in the rail, or right-click an item and choose Lock position. On a touch screen, press and hold an item to open the same menu. A locked item shows a lock and cannot be dragged, resized or moved by Tidy up; you can still edit and delete it, and dragging it moves the canvas. With locked items selected, Lock reads Unlock. An item in a column moves with its column and cannot be locked on its own.

Draw a line

Select Line, then drag from one item to another, or select one item and then the other. An end on empty canvas stays at that point on the canvas; to start a line at an empty point, drag from there. To stop without drawing, choose Cancel in the message at the top of the canvas, select Line again, press Esc, tap empty canvas before choosing the first item, or tap the first item again. Drag either end of a line to attach it to another item.

Paste from other apps

Press Cmd+V or Ctrl+V on the canvas, not in an item you are editing, to paste from another app:

• a picture, such as a screenshot, becomes an image item. It is uploaded to your image library;
• a web address becomes a link item;
• any other text becomes a note.

Pasted items go where the pointer is, or in the part of the canvas you can see. Items you copy from a board paste back as items. Copying also puts their text on your clipboard, so you can paste it into another app.

Move to another team

If an Idea Board belongs in another team, or in Personal, choose More and then Move to another team at the top of the canvas on the website, or Move to another team in the action menu in the mobile app, and choose where it goes. Its items, lines and images move with it, and its address stays the same. Members of the destination can open it; members of the team it left lose access unless they are also in the destination.

You can move an Idea Board when you can change it and can add work in the destination. The destination's plan must have room for another Idea Board and for the number of items in this one.

In the mobile app

The native mobile app can list the boards you can open, show a bounded summary of their items, let an editor rename, move or delete a board, create and edit a note, to-do, link or column item, change its bounded position and width, and delete an individual canvas item after confirmation. An editor can also move a note, to-do or link into a column, or out of it, with Column on the item. Open the board on the website to drag items, share the board or change advanced item types such as images, comments and connectors.

Ask the assistant

You can ask the assistant to find Idea Boards by title, search the items on selected boards, and calculate exact item counts. Counts can be grouped by board or item type. Empty boards appear with zero items in a board breakdown.

Follow-up questions can reuse the board selection from an earlier assistant result. The follow-up reads the current items unless you ask for the earlier saved result. Access is checked again whenever current items are read.

Items, limits and problems

An image item can use an image you have access to; a link item keeps a web address with its visible label. Do not use a public board link as a secure file store unless the page explicitly says outside access is enabled.

Free and Pro plans have different board and item limits. Removing unused items frees item capacity; deleting a board deletes the items on it.

If changes made in two open tabs overwrite one another, keep the newer tab and reload before continuing. For a board that does not load its saved items, Contact support.